The Ohio State Humanities Institute's Obsidian Data Visualization is aimed at imagining connections between faculty, staff, and students affiliated with one of our five centers. Below is additional information to the purpose, operation, and design of this website database. To learn more about the purpose of the database, please see "Purpose of this Website." To learn more about how to find relevant and important information on this website, please see "Operational Information." To learn more about our Accessibility Information policy, please see "Accessibility Information." Lastly, if you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please reach out to our staff below. ## Purpose of this Website The Humanities Institute has created this interactive database to help you find colleagues with whom you can engage, collaborate, or simply have coffee. One of the tremendous advantages of working in the Arts and Humanities at Ohio State University is the number of exciting fellow researchers and practitioners to connect with. This is also one of the great challenges. With so many active scholars and artists spread across two dozen departments, attempting to find colleagues with interests and projects that overlap with yours can be very difficult. This connector tool offers two ways for you to identify potential connections. The Interactive Graph offers a visualization of connections that link us together. Clicking on “People” or “Research Interest” allows you to browse lists of each, and the search function gives you a place to start exploring. In the Arts and Humanities, research areas are often highly personal and specific, representing the constant innovation that drives our fields. In order to encourage connections, we have constructed meta-categories, and these are what appear in the graphic visualization. Clicking on a name in the graph or in the “People” list enables you to see that person’s page, and on that page you will find both the meta-categories as well as their more specialized interests. ## What's on this Website? Any affiliated faculty, staff, and students of the [[Center for Ethnic Studies (CES)]], [[Center for Folklore Studies (CFS)]], [[Center for the Study of Religion (CSR)]], [[Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (CMRS)]], and [[Melton Center for Jewish Studies]] is included in this database. In the summer of 2023, the team at the [[Humanities Institute (HI)]] sent out a survey to collect research interest information from all affiliated faculty, staff, and students which formed the basis of our visualization. Using these research interests, we compiled lists of "meta-categories" (a.k.a. Research Interests) to link people together based on some commonalities we found in their areas of expertise. These "meta-categories" may not fully describe the depth of individuals' research interests, but are meant to provide an opportunity to start a conversation about shared research potential. Each of the pages under "Affiliation" contain more information about: 1. The histories of each Center/Program affiliated with the Humanities Institute 2. The people involved in the specific Center/Program's operation or researching function Each of the pages under "People" contain more information about: 1. The name, title, and department of each person affiliated with a Center/Program 2. A link to their profile on the Center/Program website 3. Their areas of expertise and research interests 4. Their classification (Faculty, Staff, Students) Each of the pages under "Research Interest" contain more information about: 1. Who is associated with this particular Research Interest 2. What their more specific area of interest is Please note that Emeritus/Emerita and non-OSU affiliates are *not* included on this database. If you wish to learn more about our Emeritus/Emerita and non-OSU affiliates, please visit the websites linked on each centers' page. Additionally, if you did not receive a link to complete the survey of research interests but are included anywhere in the list of people affiliated with one of our centers, please let us know and we will send a link to you! ## Operational Information Please feel free to navigate our page using any of the links on the left (through the drop down menus listing "Affiliation," "People," and "Research Interests") or by using the Graph View on the right. Additional information on how to use the Search Function and use the Graph View are below. #### Search Function If you would like to look people up using a search engine, you may do so using the search bar above the "Affiliation" menu (this search bar says "Search page or heading..."). Here are some things you can search: * Search by groups of people: #Faculty, #GradStudent, or #Staff * Search for specific research interests (example: "Performance and Politics") * Search for specific people (example: "Barry Shank") * Search for specific centers: [[Center for Ethnic Studies (CES)]], [[Center for Folklore Studies (CFS)]], [[Center for the Study of Religion (CSR)]], [[Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (CMRS)]], and [[Melton Center for Jewish Studies]] #### Graph View If you look in the upper right corner of any page on this website, you will notice a square titled "Interactive Graph." This graph is a visualization that allows you to see how different centers, people, and research interests are connected to one another. If you would like to see the connections that *one specific page* has, please click on the small upper right facing arrow in the corner of the Interactive Graph box (if you hover over this arrow, you should see the option to "Expand"). If you would like to see all connections between centers, people, and research interests, please click on the small connected dots to the left of the small arrow in the corner of the Interactive Graph box (if you hover over these connected dots, you should see the option to go to "Global Graph"). ## Accessibility Information For assistance in accessing the resources available from the Interactive Graph and Data Visualization in an easily readable format, please contact the staff of the Humanities Institute via email at: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]). ## Interested in Joining? [Fill out this form to be added to our data visualization project](https://osu.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cI9DGEC8XYvMgTk). You do not have to be affiliated with any of our programs, but are welcome to join if you have interest in connecting with other scholars at OSU. ## Questions, Comments, Concerns Should you have any questions about the information on this site or how to access the various components, please let [[Nicole D. Stevens]], [[Megan Moriarty]], or any of the other staff of the [[Humanities Institute (HI)]] know. [Here is a link to additional information about Obsidian](https://obsidian.md/community), including a community forum page for asking questions about usability, functioning of the website, and any related Obsidian problems.