Case Studies

Working for 12 – 16 months with a focussed set of records, the microsites will furnish test-cases, examples, prototypes, visualization opportunities, and functional requirements that may be later generalized and taken up in broader archival software projects. Case studies provide effective studies of phenomena in context (Gagnon, 2010) grounded in historical knowledge. They can then be compared, contrasted and patterns identified and analyzed against larger socio-economic, environmental and cultural trends and data which can be integrated into analysis and microsites. Given that their own histories are referenced, Claxton, Diamond, Fatona and Knights will establish “self-reflexive positionality” in relation to the fonds (Gagnon, 2010) and seek, document, and visualize patterns across case studies. 

While each case study has a lead content researcher, co-investigators and collaborators will engage according to their expertise and institutional placement. Each case study will include research-creation approaches through curation and/or artmaking, reassessment of metadata and description with marginalized communities and youth and visualization sketching. Artists-in-the archives workshops facilitated by researchers and partners will welcome artists, students, historians and community members to the digital fonds where they can create new assemblages and art from copyright-released archival material relevant to each case study.