Project Detail

Back

Engaging Digital Tibet

Partner(s): Gray Tuttle - East Asian Language and Cultures

This project offers students the ability to work with Tibetan source materials and participate directly in Tibetan history scholarship in an online environment. CCNMTL developed this project in partnership with Gray Tuttle, an assistant professor of modern Tibetan studies in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, to allow students to examine the intersections of trade, craftsmanship, art, religion, and politics in Tibet.

The project consists of two pieces: a growing, curated, digital collection of Tibetan material objects that are integral to studying Tibetan culture, and CCNMTL's MediaThread application which supports deep exploration, close reading, personal organization, and individual or group analysis of web-based multimedia content. Students use MediaThread to annotate objects and parts of objects, share their work for collaboration or feedback, and synthesize their own analysis with archival material to eventually create "object biographies", essays detailing the life history of particular objects. These biographies tell the stories of past peoples and cultures in a uniquely grounded way: an object serves as a basis for developing a narrative about the time, place, and people who participated in the creation of culture. Student-created biographies are available to classmates, future students of Tibetan culture, and the public.

Access: Restricted
Status: Active

View Full Project