organization – Cindy A. Nguyen

(This post was originally published on the Cultural Heritage Informatics Fieldschool blog here)

Last summer I had the chance to travel to the colonial archives in Aix-en-provence, France (Archives nationales d’outre mer or ANOM) to get a taste of ‘primary document archival research.’ Armed with a digital camera, a macbook, and a French dictionary, I bumbled around the archives, attempting to mirror the sense of confidence and purposefulness that other scholars seemed to have. After a month of 9-5’s at the archives (and evenings of pastis and concerts in Aix), what did I have to show for my dedicated data-collecting? Over 3,000 poorly labeled digital photos, an incomprehensible excel sheet of ‘important!’ records, and the overwhelming sense of gloom that I would never get through the endless number of primary documents needed to do my research.

Continue reading “Historical Texts as Data?”

Historian-Artist

Cindy Nguyen is a UC Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow in the departments of History and Literature at University of California, San Diego. She previously worked at Brown University. She earned her Ph.D. in History at University of California, Berkeley. She specializes in the history of Vietnam, Southeast Asia print culture, and digital humanities. Her book manuscript, "Bibliotactics: Social Life of Libraries and Colonial Control in Vietnam, 1865-1958" examines the cultural and political history of libraries and a state sponsored public in colonial to postcolonial Vietnam.

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