Beyond the Kiosk: Digital Humanities and Museum Exhibitions

What are ways in which museums could incorporate some of the techniques, tools, and thinking that underpin digital humanities into exhibitions? I’d like to brainstorm with others how we might use such things as large datasets, mobile technologies, or geospatial visualizations in creative ways to create visitor experiences that are richer, more exciting, and more imaginative than simply presenting information (even interactive information) on a kiosk. Could we find new ways of telling well-known stories, or inspire visitors to make new connections between themselves, the past, and other people? Could we create historical stories that look like art? Could we extend the gallery experience outside the museum walls?

About Erin Bush

I'm a PhD student at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. I study late 19th/early 20th century American history with minors in digital research and teaching methods, gender & law in American society, and Gender Studies. My research area is American crime and the social responses to violence at the turn of the 20th century. I hope to explore issues of gender as conveyed in murder trials through testimony, jury instructions, sentencing, and newspaper coverage. My other academic interests include cultural constructs of insanity, diseases of women, and perceptions of criminal behavior. I am also interested in institutions of social control, confinement, incarceration, and capital punishment. I received a bachelor’s degree in American history and journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a master’s degree in American history from George Mason University. I am a photographer, a runner, a stress baker. I'm usually over-caffeinated. You can follow me on Twitter @HistoriErin.