Assignments
Dividing Spaces, Dividing Races: Residential Segregation in Richmond,
Virginia (Web Project Proposal)
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| Rationale |
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Two factors make it important to create Dividing Spaces
in a digital environment. First is the ability to reach different
types of audiences. I can shape the presentation of narrative and
resources to account for different visitors' needs and backgrounds.
This approach allows me to "publish" my work to a variety
of people, and make the practice of history more accessible and
relevant to a broader spectrum of the population. The degree to
which I am successful at this "democratic" approach to
audience depends upon how much my site is "marketed" to
different audiences. More research is necessary to develop strategies
of getting my site visited by as many people as possible and used
in the variety of ways that I hope it can be used.
By shaping the material for different audiences, this website makes
it possible to create conversations among those audiences. Academics
who value the scholarly essay section of the site can see how the
narrative is rewritten for a non-academic audience and can better
understand how to access that audience. Teachers who value the educational
exercises and practices in this site can show students how historians
work. By showing them how to use maps, census data, newspapers,
and city ordinances, teachers can show students how historians create
scholarship. Integrating education and scholarship closely allows
us to bridge the gaps between the two, and see that the ultimate
goals of each – a better understanding of historical knowledge
– are closely related.
Second, the ability to make dynamic maps requires a digital environment.
Of course, I could have printed pages of maps that show changes
in data on maps, but only in a digital environment could I make
these maps interactive to the input of users. By being able to manipulate
the presentation of spatial data through the interactive maps, readers
become more involved in the "reading" of the story, can
formulate for themselves the same conclusions that I do from the
data, and ask new questions about the topic at hand.
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