Digital field scholarship and the liberal arts: results from a 2012–13 sandbox

Abstract

We summarize a recent multi-institutional collaboration in digital field scholarship involving four liberal arts colleges: Davidson College, Lewis & Clark College, Muhlenberg College, and Reed College. Digital field scholarship (DFS) can be defined as scholarship in the arts and sciences for which field-based research and concepts are significant, and digital tools support data collection, analysis, and communication; DFS thus gathers together and extends a wide range of existing scholarship, offering new possibilities for appreciating the connections that define liberal education. Our collaboration occurred as a sandbox, a collective online experiment using a modified WordPress platform (including mapping and other advanced capabilities) built and supported by Lewis & Clark College, with sponsorship provided by the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education. Institutions selected course-based DFS projects for fall 2012 and/or spring 2013. Projects ranged from documentary photojournalism to home energy efficiency assessment. One