Blog of Dr. Timothy Powell, Senior Research Scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, Phone Conversation September 12, 2012
My phone conversation with Dr. Timothy Powell, Senior Research Scientist at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology was fascinating.
“First of all,” Dr. Powell said, “can I ask you a question? How did you hear about me?” After explaining to him about my professor, Dr. Leslie Brooks, and the interview was for an assignment for Digital History, he seemed to relax as our interview turned into a conversation.
Dr. Powell started off the conversation by asking about the program at Boise State. In some circles, he explained, the field is known as digital humanities vs. digital history. He reflected on the University of Pennsylvania where he has worked for six years. The university does not have such a program. Here he is, a digital humanist professor, but no students to teach digital humanities to. He does teach and with his position with the Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, he writes grants for digital humanities. He commended Boise State for having such a program as MAHR, Master of Applied Historical Research, because it is such a new and growing field. When he was in grad school, there was no such program.
“Let’s start off with you briefly telling me your preparation to become a digital historian.” I said.
Dr. Powell reflects back to his time at grad school, the University of Georgia. “It was the late 80s, early 90s. The emphasis at that time was multiculturalism.” The dissertation that he was working on during this time was on the differences of culture which became a book in 2000, Ruthless Democracy – Multicultural Interpretation of the Native American Renaissance. Since there were no digital humanitarian courses, he became what he calls a “hands on person” when it came to the field. During grad school, he worked on a digital humanities project through the Library Service Grant, “The Southeastern Indian Project”.
He then started working with the Native American communities, asking people in the Cherokee tribe what kind of things can be digitalize? Dr. Powell realized that with digital technology, information can be shared more effectively and easily such as digitalizing material for Native American communities.
“It was at that time,” Dr. Powell reflected, “my career changed directions – a scholar of public history.”
With his position at the University of Pennsylvania, Museum of Anthropology and Archeology, Dr. Powell is a busy man. As he previously stated, there is not a digital humanities program at the university, however, he does teach Native American Literature and Native American Religion as well as write grants. It is his work with the museum that keeps him the busiest. The museum is active with the Native American Patriot Act. They consult with Native American people and ask them questions regarding the artifacts that are in the museum’s possession. Then the museum digitalizes the artifacts then the public can have access to Native American culture.
Currently, Dr. Powell explains, he and the museum’s staff are working on a Native American project called “Digital Archives for Recordings for Endangered Language.” He goes on to explain this project in depth.
“There are three parts to the project. There are 3,000 hours of Native American languages. The first part of this project is to digitalize the Native American Language.”
To me, this part is very cool because I explain to him that my dad did the exact same thing with my grandmother. Before she died, my dad made audio recordings of my grandmother telling her stories and singing her songs in Shoshone Indian. Dr. Powell indicated that this was very nice and told me that obviously my dad was on the cusp himself with this endeavor to protect the Native American language.
The second part is working in partnership with four Native American tribes: Eastern Band of Cherokee in North Carolina; Ojibwe in Manitoulin Island, Canada; Penobscot Nation in Maine; and Tuscarora Nation in New York. He has had collaboration with the Cherokee and Ojibwe tribe for twelve years. Dr. Powell travels twice a year to work with these tribes. The information that he gathers can be multisensitive for the culture, therefore, the museum restricts production of the material by “creating protocols.”
“So how do you work with the tribes?” I ask.
The museum is in partnership with the tribes to work with those who are selected for the Native American Library Fellowship.
“Let me explain about this fellowship. It’s different from most fellowships because one would have to have PH.D, but with this fellowship, the tribes select those who they think are knowledgeable about the artifacts. Those who are chosen are paid to come to Philadelphia and they digitalize the material.” Dr. Powell explains that this is the third part of the project. Once those who are chosen get to the museum, he then starts working with them to digitalize the artifacts. Not only the artifacts, he goes on to explain, but the oral history.
“An example of this,” Dr. Powell said, “would be the Ojibwe Native Americans telling their stories. Here you get to the essence of Native Americans. This technology allows the students to hear the stories told by Native Americans.”
Dr. Powell hopes that Native American Literature is seen and read in new ways.