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Resistance and Caribbean Reality, as a topic, can be interpreted in many different ways. Even if it is narrowed down to subtopics, such as education, there are still a lot of perceptions and views to address. After completing assignments and beginning research for this project, I have come across numerous adversities and few strides.

I faced many downfalls while doing this project and still face them now. Finding sources that provide the desired information was probably the most difficult. There is a heavy amount of information to search through in order to obtain the most satisfying source, however with the help of technology and continuously advancing search tools, the only challenge to the task is choosing out of the options. Then just when I thought things would be simple after that, other challenge arises. With all the information I need and its relevancy to other topics like art, and the many different forms of resistance to analyze, staying on topic is tough. Considering the fact that this project will have an audience, it is important to ensure that I thoroughly analyze the information and bring the point across clearly. This can be difficult since I must come up with ways to make the project interactive and comprehensive.

On the bright side, my ideas are coming to life in ways I could not imagine. The project is becoming clearer every time I go further into my research. I get to make use of free digital tools that allow diversity in the display of the information. I also get a chance to improve my collaborative skills. I work with people I never worked with before so I learn to keep an open mind whenever ideas are shared and criticism is given. I believe it is all for the better.

I am thankful for the challenges because I know it will be worth it in the end. I look forward to seeing the outcome and completing this project with my team. I am also eager to get to the stage of really understanding Resistance and Caribbean Reality since it is an interesting topic that is important to the youth of Dominica and the Caribbean on a whole.

Throughout the sub-heading, Science and Religion, of the topic Resistance and Caribbean Reality; my team aims at including crowdsourcing, use knowledge and geographic mapping sites in our various subtopics. Some of the subtopics we will create exhibits about include Rastafarianism and Vaccines, Voodooism in the Caribbean, Development of the Healthcare System and the Segregation of Churches.

The group intends on interviewing influential people, or people impressively knowledgeable in their respective fields which include individuals like the head of the Roman Catholic Church in our country and matured, very experienced public sector past or present employees. Using these interviews, the local Repository, National Archives and reputable online sources like the Digital Library of the Caribbean etc., we aim at obtaining sufficient information to make our exhibits a reputable and well-executed plan.

With all great ideas come great challenges and some of the difficulties faced by the unit comprise of:

• Anonymity- Due to various reasons, some individuals who are knowledgeable about their respective disciplines demand not to be credited for their input in this project. This becomes an issue in this project when too many people request to remain anonymous in spite of their valuable information, which could ultimately lead to the questioning of the credibility of our various subtopics.
• Planning of Interviews- Due to the facts that we intend on interviewing influential, busy personnel and our busy student schedules, it becomes a tedious task to appropriately plan a meeting which remains in sync with the schedules of both parties. Since this will allow the interviewee and the interviewer to properly sit down and have an interview in which the person being interviewed will remember most of the vital information
• Dominica-wise Information- Since our topic centralizes on our island nation of Dominica and then expands to the wider Caribbean. It sometimes becomes extremely difficult to obtain the necessary information for our various sub-topics whether it may be due to the now outdated and vague record keeping methods, lack of any official records or simply the conservative nature of the Dominican society. As a result, conversations and other very impactful methods of documentation about these have a high chance of simply getting ‘lost in history’ and it makes it difficult for future researchers like my group to have a closer idea of what life was like in this country in that era.

However, although we face these several challenges, it is our greatest intention to figuratively take the bull by its horns and face the problem head on by working with what we have and making the best of what may sometimes seem like a sticky situation since you can’t have a rainbow without a little rain.

The Digital Humanities research topic “Resistance and Reality” which I will be doing will focus mainly on the Educational part of this topic. My research will be done by focusing on the education systems we had in the Caribbean but, mainly in Dominica before emancipation to this present day. Furthermore, I will be looking at how and why schools were developed before to now, reasons why people went to school here and why people left here to receive further education in international countries and lastly, I will be looking at the educational systems in Dominica compared to other countries. To gather my information on this topic, I have visited websites, the National Documentation Centre as well as the National Archives Unit. My research questions are there to guide me with this research.

1. What’s wrong with the education system in Dominica?
2. Why do students choose overseas or other Caribbean countries to further their studies and not Dominica?
3. Do they move to explore other countries or is something wrong with ours?
4. Can’t our economic system withstand students that come to our island for studies or cant our economic system withstand us in wanting to further our studies?
5. Is there something wrong with our colleges and universities in Dominica?

Throughout my research I’ve used these questions as my guidelines to what I want to accomplish through my analysis of articles, handouts, books, that I’ve been reading through. However, gathering the relevant information for my research topic is not easy. I’ve faced challenges such as not finding exactly what I want such as the education curriculum in Dominica and not finding a lot of information of Dominica when it comes to the past that’s why I had to open up my research to the rest of the Caribbean to get the answers necessary to do this research. So far, I have mainly used online information such as articles, and books to do this research.

Furthermore, through my research I have learnt some facts about the education system in Dominica, America and China that I have never known before. I’ve also learnt that migration of education didn’t start in this day and age it started with the people before us because of the lack of resources before and the want to further educate oneself. The main feature I would like to include in my research will be a map which will illustrate a pattern of migration and one which will show the different educational institutions that we had before and those we have now. However, the only problem I face now is figuring out how I would like to display my maps.

To conclude, my research questions are guiding me through the journey of building this project. So far, I can say that I have been receiving a lot of information on the questions for my research and I can safely say 70% of my questions have been answered. However, I am still facing challenges on some questions that I want to be answered on Dominica and a challenge on how I want to see my maps being displayed.

The aspect of the Caribbean Resistance and Reality that is highlighted is this part of the project is Science and Religion. More often than not, the topics of science and religion are seen in constant contradiction. Undoubtedly, both setbacks and advancements have been experienced in the research and analysis phase of the project. Two challenges faced include the initial limited availability of information, the request of interviewees to remain anonymous and a major advancement includes the establishment of sub-topics under the main themes.

Initially, limited availability of information related to the topics could be found. The initial search for information began on the common search engines. A lot of information, especially related to Dominica, is usually inaccessible to students or not readily available. Thankfully, this problem was easily solved with the use of digital libraries such as JSTOR (Journal Storage) and DLOC (The Digital Library of the Caribbean) as well as visits to the Dominica National Archives and Documentation Centres. In addition to this, the Roseau Public Library has abundant resources for the efficient collection of research material for this project.

Furthermore, another challenge faced was the request of interviewees to remain anonymous. Gathering information from primary sources like individuals who are directly involved in the fields of medicine and religion is greatly credible and reliable. However, when the names of those persons are stripped from the content, some of that credibility is lost.

Lastly, a major advancement made since the initiation of the research project was the finalisation of the sub-topics that would be addressed. These sub-topics aid in honing in on more specific areas in which resistance can be seen. This finalisation can undoubtedly be seen as a significant milestone in the completion of the project as gives the team a sense of direction and will also enable them to focus their energies on these sub-topics as opposed to the broader topic.

 

The Annotated Bibliography assignment was scored according to the following rubric:

Appropriate citation method of each source: 1 point each (15 points total)

Relevance of source summary and description to the project: 5 points each (75 points)

Grammar, organization, syntax, presentation – 10 points

TOTAL possible score – 100 points

In the initial stages of this project, I was quite unsure and didn’t fully comprehend what was required of me do to. However, Dr. Esprit never failed to let us know that where ever there is doubt never be hesitant to ask questions. Therefore in a matter of time I began to understand and familiarize myself with the project and was prepared to work on it. The first challenge that I encountered was structuring an appropriate set of questions which would challenge the theme- Caribbean Resistance and Reality.

As I mentioned earlier, from the epitome of the project my understanding was quite gloomy therefore my first set of questions weren’t suitable and relevant to the topic. After revising the questions, I then encountered another difficulty; sources. We were encouraged to gather and assemble as much primary sources as we could instead of secondary sources; however they were both quite difficult to come by. Nonetheless, I was able to trump this obstacle of allocating sources, by deciding to visit many different institutions and platforms such as: The National Archives and Documentation Center, The Public Library, and The Digital Library of the Caribbean (dloc). I anticipate that these historical centers may be useful to me as I would like to know how the people resisted economic and political forces before, and contrast it to how they are resisting now.

In regards to primary sources, I have decided to set up interviews and questionnaires mainly as my means of acquiring primary source Information. I have planned to set up interviews with different individuals such as The Labour Commissioner, Dr. Matthew Leblanc, and Dr. John Collin McIntyre; Minister for Planning, Economic Development and Investment. The individuals were selected simply because of their affiliation and direct involvement with the country’s government and affairs- economically and politically. Lastly, I also intend on having one-on-one discussions with every-day public servants and members of society in an attempt to understand their ideology and practices, and how they resist modern political and economic times.

In conclusion, I would say that the project is on a good path as I’ve been able to eliminate a lot of the difficulties with the help of my highly co-operative group members, as well as the co-operation of other individuals in regards to acquiring the answers to my questions.

This project is the second large scale collaborative project that I have worked on. There are twice as many people working on this one than my first but the scale of material that will be produced are about the same. It’s always a challenge when it comes to a collaborative project, especially of this nature where there tends to be creativity involved in the process.

So far, this project has exposed me to a lot of digital research techniques that I plan on using later on in life. I had heard of Zotero, Neatline, Omeka and other resources alike in the Create Caribbean environment but being exposed to them as well as learning how to use them is a totally different thing. I recently started syncing my Zotero clippings so that way, I don’t really lose my sources. I haven’t started analyzing my research as yet but I feel like I should go through my sources so that there’s a subconscious presence of the information as I carry out my daily activities. I was fortunate to visit the Kalinago Barana Aute on a trip and I took photos of Kalinago artwork and crafts which will not only be useful to providing visual aid in this project, but will give me a greater sense of involvement and achievement when the project is completed. When it comes to collaboration, we plan on having weekly checkups to ensure that everyone is on the same page and pulling their weight on this project. I commend my group members on their efforts so far since we have not had any major issues when it comes to providing information for the collaborative submissions. However, I feel that we should begin analyzing our information as early as possible to ensure that we capitalize on the month that we have left to complete this project.

I’ve been faced with a lot of challenges for this project so far. Firstly, I’m an employee and a student and obligations at work tend to clash with my schoolwork at times. It gets a bit stressful and may delay productivity for me by as much as a day. I don’t let it get the best of me and I’m grateful that the director behind the project is a very understanding one as it makes the stress load lighter, Recently, I’ve been plagued with an absence of internet at my residency and that’s making it quite difficult to work on digital humanities project. I’ll get it sorted out soon enough. I believe that my team as well as the other teams are more than capable of completing this project on time.

 

 

In the beginning, the project was very confusing and it took me a while to really understand my role in this whole thing. Honestly, I am still a bit confused but as time progresses, things become clearer. The idea of the project was difficult to process but my group members took their time to explain different aspects to me. Now, I am eager to create an exceptional project.
I was skeptical about the actual gathering of the information because the topics were so broad but I chose a path that I am passionate about which makes the project a lot easier. My original intention was to gather primary information about the topics but there were no magazines or newspaper headlines available (although I am still looking). I decided to gather the information that I needed by conducting interviews. The scheduling of interviews was fairly difficult as the interviewees had really tight schedules. However, I was willing to make the sacrifices to miss one or two classes, just to get it done. The interviews were very interactive and really fun to do. My interviewees were not “camera shy” and displayed much enthusiasm when answering my questions. Gathering secondary sources was easy as most of the information I needed could be found on one website; and just for further reading, I looked into other websites which basically explained the same thing. I went as far as asking different artists and writers about the information that I gathered and they were able to provide more information. All in all, the gathering of information became much simpler over time; it just required a lot of reading.
The actual building of the website took me a few days to figure out. I had to ask more questions just to make sure that I was on the right track. After I got clarification, it was smooth sailing. I spent some time trying to come up with creative ways to capture my audience’s attention and now I can start building. From where I stand now, it is a really big step from where I was, and I still have a long way to go, but with excitement as my momentum and assistance from my colleagues, I am confident that I will build an extraordinary exhibit.

Date Submitted: 26^th/ 03/17

Recipient: Schuyler K Esprit, PhD
Writer: Noah Stoddard; Digital Humanities Student

Subject: Report for project, Economics and Politics

 

     For the digital humanities project, economics and politics under the topic, Resistance and Caribbean Reality; my team and I worked diligently through the time prescribed to us in an effort to create and outstanding and extraordinary digital project. It was our objective to not only create a project which spoke about resistance in a Dominican context, but to make our audience aware of some of the changes and forms resistances take in our society, and in the economical and political background of Dominica the people has long resisted  certain government administrations, legislations and policies.
As a group we encountered challenges and difficulties, which resulted in extreme setbacks and misunderstandings. However, in groups compromises must be made and individuals will differ with proposal that is inevitable, but along with these challenges we also experienced excellent progress in the structure and overall content of our project. We are currently working toward the deadline and the team and I are ongoing in our project’s development and will continue to do what necessary to see its exemplary completion.

Science and Religion is a very broad topic and each member in the group had a specific sub-topic that they choose to focus on.  After dissection of the topics it was still considered too vague hence, finding a specific topic to focus on where lots of information could be obtained especially in the case of Dominica was a difficult task.  To overcome this obstacle, I did a bit of research on Science in Dominica and picked out a topic I had a genuine interest which had generous amount of information.  Some of the information was difficult to understand but was this was overcomed by breaking up and understanding each point.  Being a college student to conduct reseach I would usually use online sources because they were quickier and take less time but during the research phase websites were not enough.  This project required both primary and secondary sources, Ive improved in being able to analyse multiple different sources of information.

In the beginning, it was difficult to get information on Dominica pertaining to my topic on research engines such as DILOC.  Finding time to work on the projects and to conduct interviews were difficult with procrastination being the thief of time.  When reading articles, it took a lot of time to read and some turned out to be irrelevant to the topic.  Getting people to be interviewed was also a task because some were busy or they were not comfortable taking part in the interview.  A few of the people interviewed were a bit cautious in the participation because did not want their voices to be put into the projects and did not want to say their names to known. Those who declined referred us to other people who would be willing to be interviewed and most of those who accepted were welcoming and informative.  The opinion of the people interviewed were diverse so we obtained many different points and many different points of view which opened my mind to a point of view I did not think of.