This summer has been an absolute whirlwind. I’ve learned so much about digital mapping, Darius Milhaud, and my own researching style and abilities. So, I’ve compiled a list of things that I’ve learned this summer along with some tips and tricks to help future CURI researchers tackle future projects.
- Arc GIS is simultaneously one of the coolest and most frustrating things I’ve had to work with. (You’ll get the hang of it eventually, after several hours of repeatedly re-uploading the same file hoping naively that something will change.)
- Also, WordPress. Ditto.
- Making an early morning breakfast meeting with your entire research team is the only way to properly motivate yourself to wake up early.
- Cutting down a description of everything you’ve done to 250 words is ridiculously hard.
- I can now say that I am a human geographer and this is probably the fanciest title I’ve ever held.
- We created THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE DATABASE OF MILHAUD’S PERFORMANCES IN THE WORLD.
- (I’m pretty proud of that.)
- I learned how to make a BuzzFeed quiz (learning those valuable life skills am I right?)
- I have listened to and learned more about Darius Milhaud’s music than I thought was possible. And that’s pretty neat.
- Making memes with your research team is 10/10 the best possible study break.
- Analyzing primary sources in foreign languages and strange fonts (I’m looking at you Fractor) is difficult, but when you find the piece of information you’re looking for, it’s the most rewarding feeling.
- Regents is the only academic building that stays open past 9 in the summer.
- All of campus shuts down from 1:00 pm on Fridays until Monday morning.
- We’ve made more maps in one summer than I’ve seen in my entire life. Probably.
All in all, this summer I’ve cultivated a valuable skill set that includes map-making, website building, scholarly writing, and more. Now, I have a background in the Digital Humanities and musicological scholarship. What an amazing opportunity! Looking back on my experience, I feel so lucky to have gotten to spend my summer researching with a wonderful group of people. And though tomorrow is our Final Research Symposium, where we’ll be presenting our findings to all of our peers and the rest of the CURI personnel, I feel like the work we’ve done this summer is a starting point for continued research in the field. This may be my last blog post for a now, but I have a feeling this isn’t the last you’ll be hearing from me.
Thank you to the amazing research team, Anna, Juliette, and Elizabeth for making this summer such a smashing success, and thank you, Professor Epstein, for all of your help! That’s a wrap on CURI 2017.
