I begin my second year as a College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Graduate Assistant at Greenhouse Studios energized by a summer filled with writing, reading, and research. I devoted my time to studying digitized issues of the Black Argentine Press. In addition to developing a methodology that grounds the analytical framework of my dissertation, I spent hours and days creating and revising the organizational structure to my periodical database, attempting to devise a system that would allow for a flexible yet efficient process for annotation and cataloging. I experimented with Zotero, Notion, Transkribus, Tropy, and Scrivener, ultimately deciding to rely on the tried-and-true combination of Adobe and Microsoft software to read, annotate, and track my primary source base. My summer opened the space and time to discover how to work with and communicate across different platforms. In figuring out how to synthesize a workflow that depended on the constructive interaction between digital tools and human needs, I was able to integrate possibility and open-endedness into the design of my own research.  

One of the critical elements of successful project and research management—as I have learned at Greenhouse—is experimentation. My recent research experience reflected the lessons gained from working at Greenhouse over this past summer. I continued my work with NetWorkLab, supporting the implementation of a two-day virtual Unconference, two tutorial meetings on Miro and hybrid and collaborative project management, and two works-in-progress sessions. Additionally, I bolstered and revised the organizational systems needed to anchor the expansion of the Digital Public History: Communities and Collaborations series.  While working on the latter, I realized that there were some foundational documents related to the series that had “disappeared” once I moved them to Basecamp. I had uploaded them, double checked to make sure that they were present, and yet, somehow, had disappeared months later. 

I was able to recover the documents and re-upload them, but that moment of panic invited questions about loss and recovery. What sustains you when navigating a transition to a new system? What sustainable practices need to be in place before unexpected migrations or shifts occur?  Even as I think about the next chapter for NetWorkLab—which will formally end in October—I wonder about the meanings of transitions, endings, and new beginnings. As this new academic year commences, I feel inspired and empowered to explore these questions at Greenhouse and in my research.