Portia D. Hopkins (Rice University) holds a doctorate in American Studies from the University of Maryland, College Park. As the CLIR/DLF Postdoctoral Research Associate in Data Curation for African American Studies at Rice University she will teach workshops, conduct outreach about data curation to African American activist groups in Houston, assess and inventory local data collections and develop best practices documents on curating data. She will also participate and consult in the data curation, digital humanities, and African American studies communities at Rice and across Houston.

Luling Huang (Carnegie Mellon University) received his Ph.D. in Media and Communication from Temple University, with a concentration in belief change and quantitative research methods. As Postdoctoral Fellow in Data Curation for Energy Social Science, he will work jointly with the Scott Energy Institute faculty and CMU Libraries staff to promote best practices of research data management and contribute to energy science research projects regarding data curation and visualization.

Petrouchka Moïse (Grinnell College) received her Doctorate of Design in Cultural Preservation from the Louisiana State University College of Art and Design. As a Postdoctoral Fellow in Data Curation for Haitian Visual Arts, she will work jointly with Grinnell College Libraries staff and the Waterloo Cultural Center. Dr. Moïse will play a central role in coordinating the work of the Haitian Art: A Digital Crossroads project (HADC). The HADC aims to make the Haitian art collection of the Waterloo Center for the Arts, the largest publicly held collection of Haitian art in the world, digitally accessible as a preparatory study for the creation of a digital hub for a network of online resources in Haitian and Caribbean studies. In addition to managing this project, she will collaborate with cultural and academic institutes within Haiti and the Diaspora to build awareness of this collection.

Jennifer Ross (University of Toronto) earned her Ph.D. in American Studies from William & Mary. As the Digital Humanities Postdoctoral Fellow at the Jackman Humanities Institute (JHI), she will coordinate with faculty and staff across the tri-campus system to facilitate scholarly inquiry and collaboration in digital humanities initiatives. Following this year’s JHI research theme, “Collectives,” Jennifer will also begin the second stage of her exploration of collective literary resistance to the racializing and criminalizing logics of counterterrorism. The digital portion of her research will map the convergence of disaster response and counterterror securitization during Hurricanes Katrina, Maria, and Dorian.

Synatra Smith (Philadelphia Museum of Art) received her Ph.D. in Global and Sociocultural Studies from Florida International University. She will develop a database of black Philadelphia-based artists that explores not only their work but also their reflections on the City, contextualized with a historical analysis of black community-building.

Francena Turner (Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities) received her Ph.D. in Education Policy, Organization, and Leadership with a concentration in History of Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. As Postdoctoral Associate for Data Curation in African American History and Culture for the University of Maryland Restorative Justice Project, she will work jointly with the African American History, Culture, and Digital Humanities (AADHum) and University of Maryland Libraries faculty to design an oral history project, conduct and preserve oral history interviews, and participate in planning, designing, and implementing the project’s data management and curation strategies. 

Laura Wilson (Fisk University) received her Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Mississippi. As Postdoctoral Fellow in Data Curation for African American Studies, she will be jointly employed by the John Hope and Aurelia E. Franklin Library, and the Department of History and Political Science. She will assist in the planning and development of a new database for the Julius Rosenwald Fund Collections; using material from this collection she will teach an undergraduate history course combining African American Studies with Data Science. As a researcher, she will use the Rosenwald archive to continue to pursue interests in African American modernity and material culture. 

Rebecca Pickens (University of Michigan) completed her Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior at Cornell University.  She will be working as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Energy Social Science at the University of Michigan Energy Institute (UMEI).  She will be collaborating with UMEI and library leadership on the development of data resources and a digital platform for energy social science research and energy analytics.  She will also be working on the development of data resources for clean energy supply projections and other topics in energy research.  

Rebecca Y. Bayeck (New York Public Library) received a dual Ph.D. in Learning Design and Technology as well as Comparative International Education from Pennsylvania State University. As Postdoctoral Fellow in Data Curation for African American and African Studies, she will work with staff and scholars-in-residence at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture to gather and curate data and resources for digital projects focusing on abolition, transatlantic slavery, the Green Books, early Black librarianship, and other topics. Her interdisciplinary research is at the interface of several fields, including educational technology, the learning sciences, literacy studies, and game studies. She explores literacies and learning in games, particularly board games, and analyzes the impact of factors, such as gender and culture, on interactions, collaboration, learning, and design on online learning environments.

Maia Call (U.S. Agency for International Development) received her Ph.D. in Geography from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As Postdoctoral Fellow in Data Curation for the Sciences and Social Sciences, she will work with USAID’s Data Services team to bring state-of-the-art digital management, data curation, research, and library science practices to USAID’s broad portfolio of digital services. She will also consult regularly with internal and external stakeholders in the development data community to provide guidance to USAID in shaping standard processes and procedures, articulating and developing public engagement and instructional training materials, and applying findings to USAID’s data curation efforts.

Christian Casey (New York University) earned his Ph.D. in Egyptology at Brown University. As Postdoctoral Fellow in the Humanities and Digital Scholarship, he will work with library staff and faculty at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW) to develop tools and materials for the use of digital technology in humanities education and scholarship. Casey will also contribute to several ISAW projects, including the Ancient World Digital Library, the Digital Central Asian Archaeology collection, and the Ancient World Image Bank. During his fellowship, he will develop computational tools for the study of ancient languages and undertake research at the intersection of Egyptology, library science, and digital humanities.

Zachary Furste (Carnegie Mellon University) received a Ph.D. in Film and Visual Studies from Harvard University. As CLIR Postdoctoral Fellow in Software Curation for the Sciences and Social Sciences, he will collaborate with faculty, staff, and students to develop strategies for preserving and curating executable archival materials, such as research software, digital scholarship, and code-based artworks. He will also play a key role in developing software preservation and curation workflows, policies, and strategies in the University’s libraries. Previously, Furste held a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in Digital Humanities at the University of Southern California.

Aditya Ranganath (New York University) received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, San Diego. As Postdoctoral Fellow in Geospatial Data Curation and Preservation, he will work with the data services team at NYU Libraries to expand NYU’s infrastructure supporting geospatial research on campus and in the broader research community. He will contribute to programs in geospatial data collection, access (especially through open-source initiatives such as GeoBlacklight), and metadata creation and remediation.

Brian A. Robinson (University of North Carolina at Greensboro) earned his Ph.D. in American History from the University of South Carolina at Columbia. As Postdoctoral Fellow in Data Curation for African American and African Studies, he will work with the University Libraries’ Information Technology and Electronic Resources Department to develop web-based content for engaging with and training teachers to use the Digital Library on American Slavery (DLAS). Working with DLAS and other partners, he will focus on data manipulation and visualization, text mining, and GIS applications that enhance the historical record and increase the visibility and discoverability of DLAS.

Azure Stewart (New York University) received her Ph.D. in Education with a specialization in Teaching and Learning from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Reporting to the Head of Science and Engineering at NYU Libraries, she will work at the intersection of engineering education, librarianship, and research. She will develop a new co-curricular program to improve engineering students’ professional skills and collaborate on the development of workshops, seminars, and grant proposals that support this new program. Stewart will also develop an assessment that measures the effectiveness of the program.

Sean Tennant (Union College) received his Ph.D. in Art and Architectural History from the University of Virginia, with a concentration in Ancient Mediterranean Art and Archaeology. As Postdoctoral Fellow in Data Curation for the Sciences and Social Sciences, he will work with Union College Library staff and faculty to develop workflows for the creation, use, preservation, and retrieval of data from disciplines across the academic spectrum. He will also advise faculty and students on best and sustainable practices to ensure accessibility, discoverability, and reproducibility of their datasets.

Kimber Thomas (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) received her Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As CLIR Postdoctoral Fellow in Data Curation for African American Studies, she will collaborate with communities, archivists, librarians, and researchers to facilitate the preservation and potential use of data collected from the Community-Driven Archives Project, an initiative funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation that supports historically underrepresented history keepers in telling, sharing, and preserving their stories. A scholar of southern studies, her interdisciplinary research interests include material culture, rural black women’s history, and oral history, and involve exploring, examining, and preserving  through digital technologies the aesthetic and cultural worlds of African Americans in the American Deep South.

Kevin Winstead (University of Delaware) earned his Ph.D. in American Studies at the University of Maryland. As Postdoctoral Fellow in African American Data Curation, he will work with the Colored Conventions Project (CCP) to implement and supervise new, multi-institutional partnerships for gathering documents, organizing research data, and sharing metadata related to the nineteenth-century Colored Conventions. Working with the head of the digital archives committee, Winstead will coordinate CCP undergraduate and graduate student project work in data curation. He will also organize yearly workshops or panel discussions about data curation and its importance for Black communities for and in conjunction with local community archives and groups.

Zenobie S. Garrett (University of Oklahoma) received her Ph.D. in Anthropology from New York University. As Postdoctoral Fellow in Software and Research Objects Curation, she will conduct research in digital archiving and software curation for virtual reality and 3D imaging applications. She will work closely with staff from the university libraries as well as faculty and students to develop and incorporate best practices and standards of digital data curation and preservation in research, teaching, and learning. She will also promote collaborative projects using 3D and VR technology throughout the university and teach and train students, staff, and faculty on the significance of software integrity, transparency, and ethics. Her goal is to facilitate the development and use of innovative digital technologies in research and scholarship.