This post is part of the Meet the ETCL Team series, which introduces the wonderful people who work in the lab and who have worked with us in the past.
Jesse (they/them) is a genderqueer lesbian residing on the unceded territory of the Musqueam peoples at the University of British Columba, with their wife, Cora.
Jesse was first introduced to the ETCL as an Open Knowledge Practicum (OKP) fellow in 2019 during their classics degree 
and as a DHSI attendee. Jesse started as a research assistant at the Lab in March 2021 and is assisting with several projects, including Early Modern Digital Review (EMDR), Canadian Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) Commons, Interdisciplinary Digital Engagement in Arts & Humanities (IDEAH) 2.1, Digital Humanities Summer Institute (DHSI) 2021, and Open Knowledge Program (OKP) Spotlight. The lab has shown them the possibilities for technology as a force for good, and they are heartened to be a part of projects that work toward making that the case.
Jesse is currently a master of library and information science student at the UBC iSchool. They received their BA in Philosophy in 2012 and in Classics in 2019, both at UVic. Jesse is interested in using Digital Humanities tools to reach outside the academic institution and link knowledge and resources between institutions and the general public.
Jesse is an avid user of Google docs. They use it to share documents with their wife and classmates, and it has been coming in handy for projects at the lab. As a project outside of the lab, Jesse is exploring the potential of another digital tool called gather.town which they learned about from their ETCL colleagues Caroline Winter and Randa El Khatib, to create digital museum/workshop spaces.
In their free time, Jesse loves learning about the local flora. They like going into the woods with friends to share their knowledge about birds, flowers, and edible plants. At home, they have also been keeping some indoor plants, including tomatoes and hot peppers! Jesse also enjoys reading—especially books by their wife, Cora, who writes queer fantasy romance novels—and listening to librivox audiobooks. One of their favourite podcasts is Museopunks, a “podcast for the progressive museum.”