About Dave

I’m a digital humanist and graduate of American Studies, working and living in Washington, DC. Today, my focus of study is the confluence of information technology and American culture. The Spring of 2007 I worked on the American Studies Crossroads Project at Georgetown University’s CNDLS. I’m currently working as a web developer at George Mason University’s Center for History and New Media, and the Digital Curator of the Crossroads Project. The majority of my time at CHNM has been spent developing Omeka, an open source collection publishing system for museums, archives, cultural institutions, and individuals to manage and publish items, collections, and exhibits on the web.

You’re a digital what?
A digital humanist. My friends sometimes joke that I’m a “digital tool.” I identify strongly with work in the Digital Humanities, meaning I seek to use technology to enhance and expand my research process. Going a step further, my interest is not only in my research, but collaborating in new ways to reimagine our disciplines and ourselves in light of advancing technology. The boundaries between being a web developer and a historian, or a digital archivist and anthropologist are all blurred and brought together by this interdisciplinary methodology.

Examples of this include developing open source educational Wordpress plugins on ScholarPress, experimenting with online surveys in social networks like my Oregon Trail Survey, and testing other tools like in my American Studies Tagline project. You can also catch me on the monthy digital humanities video podcast I co-host, THAT Podcast.