Hannah Byland earned her Ph.D. in Cornell's Medieval Studies Program in 2017. She was selected as a fellow in Olin Library's Summer Graduate Fellowship in Digital Humanities in 2013. As part of that fellowship, Byland developed digital humanities expertise including tools and pedagogy. Byland produced a working course website for a Freshman Writing Seminar.

Project Title: Creating Digital Space in the Classroom

Project Statement:

I used this opportunity to create a digital essay project for my FWS's. The digital humanities are incredibly important for the field of medieval studies, as we have to rely on a sparse and far-flung body of texts and objects. Making use of digital manuscripts, art images, and texts creates a worldwide community of medievalists. It is equally important to bring digital spaces into the classroom. My project aims to give students the chance write an essay in a different medium that challenges the way they think of writing. Scalar, the platform I used, allows for incorporation of images, sound files, video files, and more, right in the text. Students can thus write an exciting and interactive essay that engages them and their readers in new ways.