Wrapping up our Humanities Without Walls work

Over the summer, researchers Ashley Velázquez, Michelle McMullin, and Bradley Dilger worked on a series of projects that grew out of Crow’s winning Humanities Without Walls (HWW) grant. As Crow is wrapping up our work with HWW, we have been able to reflect on the benefits and resources developed through our HWW Grad Lab Practicum.

Assisted by the HWW grant, Crow has been allowed a space to re-contextualize internal documents and processes in a format better suited to outward facing audiences. In addition, HWW closeout has allowed Crowbird researchers to pursue a series of projects and develop publication strategies for the distribution of accessible and approachable information.

These projects grew out of internal documents adjacent to the HWW grant, but are now being developed into standalone, outward-facing documentation other research teams can consult.

Best practices

Crow best practices table of contents.

Developing out of review and updates of internal documentation were a series of updated Crow best practices, an initiative led by Velázquez. The development of a set of Crow best practices dates back to 2016, but there was a need to update and streamline them based on the new directions of Crow research and collaboration. We’ve learned that regular reconsideration of our best practices offers many benefits. Much of the currently-existing best practice material was spread through various documents and locations, and streamlining them into a single document allows for an easily referenced and accessible guide for onboarding new Crow collaborators, additionally serving as a reference guide for ongoing collaboration. Review of our existing best practices, and reflection on our development processes, has also helped us realize that writing a Crow code of ethics will be useful as we build a community of Crow researchers and users.

Mentoring and Resources for Graduate Students

Arising from her experiences as an American Association of University Women (AAUW) fellow and the GLP’s focus on professional development and grant writing, Velázquez assembled resources in order to support Crow researchers in writing and applying for grants and fellowships. As of now, this document is still focused on supporting Crow fellowship writers—particularly GLP team members—though material from will be published to a general audience in the near future, helping future AAUW fellows benefit from Velázquez’s experiences.

White paper: Focus on the Practicum lab and a toolkit for building this model for other researchers

As a result of funding and research opportunities provided by HWW, Velázquez, McMullin, and Dilger are authoring a white paper focusing on iterative, collaborative work in the context of Crow’s sustainable, interdisciplinary research. This white paper will introduce elements of constructive distributed work and the model of the GLP to other researchers, sharing our approaches and continuing the conversation started with our 2019 Computers & Writing roundtable presentation.