In October 2023, the ETCL was delighted to host Natalie Hutchinson and Mattia De Coene, two students from “HUMA 180: Examining Humanities Research (Dean’s Seminar)” for their course practicum. By its own description, “The course introduces outstanding first-year Humanities students to leading current research and researchers from across the Faculty,” (UVic Humanities Scholars Program) and the ETCL was not only motivated to share our research and resources with Natalie and Mattia, but learn from them and benefit from their contribution and perspectives as top UVic Humanities students.
Natalie Hutchinson (she/her) is an undergraduate student in the faculty of Humanities at the University of Victoria. When she is not studying, she volunteers with the UVIc UNICEF Club as their Social Media Coordinator, and she is also a member of the Conseil Jeunesse de la Colombie-Britannique. She loves to spend her time in nature when she can and has a windowsill full of plants.
Mattia De Coene (she/her) is also an undergraduate student at the University of Victoria majoring in English and Political Science with interests in both Social and Political Sciences, the Humanities and Literature, and most relevant to the lab, Digital Humanities!
Natalite and Mattia worked closely with Graham Jensen to provide invaluable feedback and review of the HSS Commons platform he and the lab have been developing with the support of our current SSHRC Partnership Grant.
They were first onboarded to the platform with curated documentation that situated the Commons in its academic and research contexts and the theoretical importance of Open Social Scholarship and Open Access. From there, each was asked to review the platform in tandem with our how-to guides and provide a brief UX (user experience) report. From their reports, our Commons team was able to implement a number of changes and improvements to the platform that all of its users will benefit from.
A special thanks to Humanities Associate Dean of Research, Alexandra D’Arcy, for facilitating this reciprocal partnership through her innovative course!