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On April 14th, ²ÝÁñ³ÉÈËÉçÇø graduate students presented on their research as part of the Digital Scholarship Graduate Fellows (DGSF) Showcase. This year, the Fellows included three students from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences: Hilde Nelson (History of Art), Illizt Castillo (Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology (CNEA)), & Yuzhu Wang (History of Art). Through the program, all of them worked over the academic year to build technology skills that would enhance their doctoral research. They did so under the supervision of Alice McGrath, Senior Digital Scholarship Specialist (LITS), and Jeff Hopkins, Educational Technology Specialist (LITS). "These fellows have done such amazing work throughout the year. We got to see their projects as they developed, and were always impressed. This event was great because a wider audience could now see these amazing works," Hopkins said. The fellows were similarly excited. "Beyond technical skills, the fellowship offered a valuable framework for thinking through challenges in digital research—something I’ll carry forward into future projects", Wang said.

The first fellow to present was Castillo, a PhD student in CNEA. Castillo's study focuses on the material aspects of Mediterranean antiquity, so she took the DGSF program as as chance to extend her work. Rather than focus solely on finding and analyzing ancient objects, she chose to explore ways to recreate them. Castillo took designs found on the back of mirrors held in Special Collections that were created by the Etruscan people, one of the pre-Roman groups in modern-day Italy, and reproduced them, first in software like Adobe Illustrator and then on devices found in ²ÝÁñ³ÉÈËÉçÇø's Makerspace like laser cutters. "I wanted to learn how to use different digital tools to approach the images depicted on the bronze mirrors in a new and imaginative way," she said. She also experimented with making 3D models of these mirrors using photogrammetry and 3D scanning. These practices helped her explore new ways of appreciating and sharing the craftsmanship of these ancient pieces."I am already working on a project for digitizing the engraved images on the Etruscan mirrors at the Special Collections, so I will be applying the learned skills in the near future," she said. 

Next up was Wang, a graduate student in the Department of History of Art. Wang has been studying Medieval Chinese religious and funerary art and used the fellowship to explore digital means of reconstructing relics. With help from McGrath, she learned to use , an open-source application for 3D design, modeling, and animation. "I was drawn to Blender because it offered new ways of engaging with the objects and spaces I study, especially in cases where physical access is limited or impossible." She used Blender to create a digital model of an 8th-century Chinese sarcophagus. "The process brought the object to life in a new way and also pushed me to think critically about how digital models can enhance scholarly interpretation and accessibility," she said. "The program helped me develop a mindset for digital work: instead of expecting quick fixes, I’ve learned to stay calm, test alternatives, and seek support when needed."

Finally, Nelson, a third-year graduate student in the History of Art department, presented on her work related to time-based visual media. Nelson was interested in how open-source annotation tools could be used to present and contextualize film and video. She learned how to format digital versions of these works to meet (IIIF) standards, which make multimedia resources easier to publish, share, and reuse in teaching and research. "IIIF not only offered numerous capabilities that support art historical, image-based research, but it also supported the annotation of audiovisual material, allowing for simultaneous viewing and interpretive interventions," she said. In addition to her graduate work, Nelson has been applying these skills in her work as a Digital Scholarship Graduate Assistant on faculty-led digital scholarship projects. Ultimately, she felt that, "The DSGF was incredibly useful for developing a broad range of skills and technological proficiencies that will serve my research well in the future."

At the end of the evening, McGrath praised the fellows' work. "I was extremely impressed by their research and by the nuance in their presentations -- they are engaging deeply and critically with methods of simulation, representation, and annotation: some of the many ways that digital technologies can enhance humanistic inquiry." McGrath and Hopkins will be running the program again next year. Application information can be found on the .