It’s hard to believe we’re all at the end of the course so soon. Our blog is nearly done, our last few interviews are rolling in and being uploaded, and I still feel like there is so much to do. I’m honestly not too sure after this is all said and done if I’ll be able to get out of the mindset of looking for stories to tell every time I hear something about our campus mentioned in the classroom or community, but perhaps that is a good thing. This has been a phenomenal experience, one which I can wholeheartedly say has helped me as a student in more ways than I would have initially thought. WordPress, Timeline JS, and Blue Jeans are all technologies I feel comfortable with now, not even mentioning the enjoyment and learning that these interviews have brought. I’m very happy with the strides Julia and I have made in these last few weeks. I felt we may have been floundering initially, but I believe we now have a site that I can show my peers with pride. I’m excited yet a bit nervous for the looming presentation day, but I’m still taking things one step at a time.
Monthly Archives: November 2016
An End In Site (Pun Intended)
The word of the week in the fast-paced world of digital humanities: progress. We’ve been trimming audio and scheduling new interviews. Julia seems to have a better handle on things than me, as she has both of her interviews pretty much in stone, whereas I am still being snubbed by candidates. However, I’m very optimistic I’ll be able to get one for this week with a long-standing administrator on campus, who should be able to fill me in on a lot of campus history. We’re also working on getting our site in a more presentable order, with more for a viewer to see, even in these building stages. I really want to dive into TimeLine JS this week, but am a little wary that we don’t have enough new material for it yet that hasn’t already been covered in the original timeline we made for the class. My goal is to have the site in good order by Tuesday, so we can get some feedback and continue to work towards improving it.
A Dramatic Twist
Today, Julia and I were finally able to conduct our first interview. We met with Darin Waters in his office at one and proceeded to try our hand at gathering oral histories. Almost immediately we encountered a problem, as the microphone we checked out from the library wasn’t working. Instead of delaying, we decided to make due with the microphone on Julia’s phone. I was worried at how the audio would turn out, but it was honestly much better than I expected. As for the interview itself, Dr. Waters was an incredibly good interviewee, and I’m very pleased we were finally able to schedule this. While a little hesitant at first, he quickly opened up and provided us with an incredible amount of knowledge about his life, the future of the campus, the Asheville community, and how the school interacts with it. Something that I’m still processing is his response to one of Julia’s question of “How much interaction did you have with UNCA growing up in Asheville?” to which he replied “Almost none whatsoever.” This was the aforementioned twist, as this completely rocked the narrative I had been mentally building of the history of our campus. I had always assumed UNCA to be similar to how the campus is now, with a heavy community involvement. To further that, many of the sources I read on the history of the campus seemed to confirm that, but it was very interesting to hear it from Dr. Waters’ perspective. It has really made me consider how I view the narrative process and made me understand the importance of having diverse sources and oral histories. Our meeting with Dr. Waters has really eased my mind about the subsequent interviews. As a final note, I’d encourage anyone with an interest in Appalachian history to look into the Isaiah Rice photo collection. It is a compilation of over a thousand pictures from Dr. Waters’ grandfather from his life in Asheville, and very much fits the scope of our class.
