Launched in January 2017 in partnership with the University of Victoria Libraries and the Faculty of Humanities, the Open Knowledge Practicum (OKP) is part of our Open Knowledge Program. It brings researchers from UVic and the Greater Victoria community into the lab to develop their own research project with an open knowledge component. So far, more than 30 OKP fellows have developed open knowledge projects through this program. See below for a list of OKP fellows and their projects to date.
The lab supports fellows by providing access to various resources, library materials, and archives; offering consultation and guidance; and pairing fellows with specialists in the field, among other project-specific assistance. The practicum has spanned a wide array of topics, ranging from discipline-specific foci to local public history and research on the broader community.
All OKP fellows contribute their research outcomes to Wikipedia, either by editing or adding to existing information, or by creating entirely new articles. We consider Wikipedia to be a prime example of the type of scholarship and online culture that is developed and sustained by citizen scholars.
This 12-week, 3 hours/week practicum is open to UVic faculty, staff, and students, as well as community members. OKP sessions are aligned with academic terms. The fall term runs from September to December, the spring term from January to April, and the summer term from May to July. Some honorariums are available comprising tuition scholarships for the Digital Humanities Summer Institute (DHSI).
How to Apply: The call for applications is currently closed. Please contact us with any questions about the program.
Want to learn more about the Open Knowledge Program? Watch this video by Randa El Khatib, the ETCL’s Assistant Director, Open Knowledge Initiatives.
Fall 2020 / Spring / Summer 2021 (in progress)
Janni Aragon: Using Netlytic to Follow American Politics on Twitter
Hélène Cazes, Olga Ziminova, and Anthony Gavin: Images et Imaginaires du sexe féminin / Seeing and Imagining Female Sexual Anatomy, 16th–21st C.
Aditi Gupta: Globalization of Information Literacy
Cassie Hooker: Man’s Best Friend: Dog Breeds Around the World
Paula Johanson: Transcribing Amberstone (Part 2)
Bernie Klassen: Video History Project
James Nahachewsky: Future Reading (ongoing)
Ann Stahl and Holly Marsh: Improving African Futures Using Lessons from the Past (IAfF): Banda Thru Time digital exhibit (ongoing)
Spring / Summer 2020
Janni Aragon: Using Netlytic to Follow American Politics on Twitter
Hélène Cazes, Olga Ziminova, and Anthony Gavin: Images et Imaginaires du sexe féminin / Seeing and Imagining Female Sexual Anatomy, 16th–21st C.
Aditi Gupta: Globalization of Information Literacy
Cassie Hooker: Man’s Best Friend: Dog Breeds Around the World
Paula Johanson: Transcribing Amberstone (Part 2)
Bernie Klassen: Video History Project
James Nahachewsky: Future Reading (ongoing)
Ann Stahl and Holly Marsh: Improving African Futures Using Lessons from the Past (IAfF): Banda Thru Time digital exhibit (ongoing)
Fall 2019
Janni Aragon and Talya Jesperson: Using Netlytic to Follow Politics on Twitter (ongoing)
Lauren Elle DeGaine: The Gudrun Zapf von Hesse Website and contributions to the Gudrun Zapf von Hesse Wikipedia article.
Paula Johanson: Transcribing Amberstone (ongoing); contributions to Celu Amberstone and Indigenous Futurisms Wikipedia articles.
James Nahachewsky: Future Reading (ongoing)
Ann Stahl and Holly Marsh: Improving African Futures Using Lessons from the Past (IAfF): Banda Thru Time digital exhibit (ongoing)
Charlotte Schallié: Narrative Art and Visual Storytelling in Holocaust and Human Rights Education (ongoing)
Summer 2019
Elaine Laberge: Development of a Resources list for The Shoestring Initiative.
Pia Russell: Development of the British Columbia Historical Textbooks Collection.
Spring 2019
Caitlin Burritt: We Are Harmless, A Graphic Novel and the Wikipedia article The Wolves are Back?. Caitlin also made a video of her drawing practice (below).
Justin Conway: Perfecta: Perfection of the Female Body experimental site and contributions to the French Wikipédia articles Albrecht Dürer, Ambroise Paré, André Vésale, Charles Estienne, and Conrad Lycosthenes.
Lauren Elle DeGaine: Women at the Front, featuring images contributed to Wikimedia Commons.
Simin (CiCi) Li: Research for a conference presentation titled Xi Jinping and His New Zhijiang Army: A Perspective from Social Network Analysis and contributions to the Wikipedia article New Zhijiang Army.
Ying Liu: Glimpses into Chinese Immigration in Canada (ongoing) and the Wikipedia article The New Republic (newspaper).
Martha Mena: Development of an online networking platform for entrepreneurs and a Wikipedia article on Fernanda Murray (under review).
Charlotte Schallié: Narrative Art and Visual Storytelling in Holocaust and Human Rights Education (ongoing).
Ann Stahl and Elisa O’Malley: Improving African Futures Using Lessons from the Past (IAfF) (ongoing).
Fall 2018
Caitlin Burritt: Interactive website for We Are Harmless (ongoing).
Charline Granger: Database of press criticism on theater productions performed at the Théâtre de la Comédie-Française.
Jesse Kern: Rivers of Scythia and contributions to the Wikipedia articles for Ialomita (river), Molochna River, and Prut.
Bernie Klassen: Embodied Narratives:A Natural History of an Unnatural Object eBook, available in .epub and .pdf formats.
Ying Liu: The World Journal and the New Republic newspapers: A Digital Exhibition (ongoing).
Darren Reid: Interactive Online Map of South Africa.
David Douglas: Contributions to Perfecta: Perfection of the Female Body.
Spring 2018
Josie Greenhill: Beauty and the Book: Pre-Raphaelite Artistic Practice Contained.
Paula Johanson: Learning E-Conference Alternatives: Making Conference Posters and Twitter Colloquium on Context
Molly Trepanier: Medieval Mapping Project.
Harris Watt: Charles Arthur Campbell.
Fall 2017
Josie Greenhill: Beauty and the Book: Pre-Raphaelite Artistic Practice Contained (ongoing).
Caroline Winter: Mary Shelley’s Gothic Tales in The Keepsake and Wikipedia articles for Ferdinando Eboli, The Evil Eye, Transformation, The Dream, and The Invisible Girl, and contributions to The Mortal Immortal.
Sara Humphreys: The Cogewea Project.
Spring 2017
Trish Baer: My Norse Digital Image Repository (MyNDIR).
Alanna Blackall: Open Vaults.
Quinn Dupont: Alice & Bob: A History of the World’s Most Famous Cryptographic Couple.
Sanjana Ramesh: “No Going Back”: LGBT Rights in India.
Kate Siemens: Witnessing Internment.
Tim Sobie: War Poetry and the Politics of Patriotism and Propaganda.