Arts and Humanities – Page 12 – UROP Spring Symposium 2021

Arts and Humanities

Transcription of Historical Archival Letters from UM’s Excavations in Egypt

One of the lesser-known gems of the University of Michigan is our extensive Papyrology Collection with approximately 18,000 texts and documents. A large portion of this collection was acquired by Professor Kelsey through his collaboration with Dr. David L. Askren in the early 1900s. This study allows researchers to better understand the acquisition of these papyri by transcribing the correspondence (in the form of letters, cablegrams, telegrams, etc.) between these two men into Google Docs in order for the information to be searchable on the internet. An analysis of this correspondence as they are being transcribed reveals the relationships between other notable men who played a significant role in the extensiveness of our collection today, such as Mr. Charles L. Freer, Maurice Nahman, and B. P. Grenfell. These transcriptions add to our understanding of how The University of Michigan’s Papyrology Collection came to be, broaden our knowledge of 20th-century travel and correspondence, and will contribute to further research about similar topics.

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Visioning Lost and Unproduced Films

Hollywood has a long history of lost films- features that were completed and released in theaters, but of which no surviving copies remain. These films only exist through advertisements, photographs, and articles, and have to be pieced together in order to understand their impact on the industry at the time. This study investigates one of the most famous lost films, The Big City (dir. Tod Browning, 1928), by combing through archival databases of hundreds of articles from historical Hollywood and African American newspapers in order to identify the dozens of unknown Black extras who appeared in the film. Matching names to faces and digging into Hollywood casting records and actors’ careers has revealed not only who many of the previously unidentified African American actors were, but that many of them went on to have successful careers, despite the film industry’s disregard for most non-white performers. Due to the inaccessibility of key archival resources due to the COVID-19 pandemic the research group focused their efforts on working with the few archival photographs that had already been digitized and made available in a high-resolution format. Team members gained proficiency in Adobe After Effects in order to create more dynamic, immersive, and engaging visualizations of the few surviving artifacts of The Big City. Existing scholarship in this area has a fairly standard visual idiom, but during our research we created new idioms and methods that have laid the groundwork for future lost films research and visualization.

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Visioning Lost and Unproduced Films

Hollywood has a long history of lost films- features that were completed and released in theaters, but of which no surviving copies remain. These films only exist through advertisements, photographs, and articles, and have to be pieced together in order to understand their impact on the industry at the time. This study investigates one of the most famous lost films, The Big City (dir. Tod Browning, 1928), by combing through archival databases of hundreds of articles from historical Hollywood and African American newspapers in order to identify the dozens of unknown Black extras who appeared in the film. Matching names to faces and digging into Hollywood casting records and actors’ careers has revealed not only who many of the previously unidentified African American actors were, but that many of them went on to have successful careers, despite the film industry’s disregard for most non-white performers. Due to the inaccessibility of key archival resources due to the COVID-19 pandemic the research group focused their efforts on working with the few archival photographs that had already been digitized and made available in a high-resolution format. Team members gained proficiency in Adobe After Effects in order to create more dynamic, immersive, and engaging visualizations of the few surviving artifacts of The Big City. Existing scholarship in this area has a fairly standard visual idiom, but during our research we created new idioms and methods that have laid the groundwork for future lost films research and visualization.

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R Commander Tutorial

The Speech Production Lab (SPL), housed in Michigan’s Department of Romance Languages & Literatures, utilizes various coding programs and software to complete many studies and projects. To utilize them most efficiently, the SPL began to ask how students learn to use programming languages best. Through various trials and group teaching methods, the SPL inferred that students learn best through independent learning at their own pace. Managing students’ varying schedules and a teaching team proved that group learning is not the most practical method for this software. This presentation will discuss a tutorial focused on independent learning to manage the RStudio software. Our goal was to help prospective coders with almost no computer science experience to become comfortable using RStudio. With this aim in mind, we have created a total of 150 slides in our tutorial. Each slide focuses on learning points such as acquiring basic coding skills, understanding the language, problem sets, and anything else necessary for learning to code in RStudio. After completing the entire tutorial, research assistants in the SPL will use RStudio for several tasks, including assigning variables, completing math problems, utilizing vectors, plotting data using SQL graphs, and creating data frames. Overall, they will have gained a universal understanding of coding basics. Though the tutorial is still in development, we expect the outcome to be a clear and concise document. We hope that fellow lab members can complete the tutorial in an estimated time of two weeks and become proficient in RStudio. We plan to introduce the tutorial to a small group of members first to collect feedback and redesign the lesson plans as advised. This tutorial’s more substantial outcomes will be transferable knowledge of research skills that anyone at Michigan can utilize as an open-source tool.

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R Commander Tutorial

Within the Speech Production Lab, members utilize coding software in order to research Spanish accents, linguistics and language acquisition. In order for members to fulfill this research, knowledge of complex, coding languages is required. Previous tutorials in the Speech Production Lab have demonstrated that group teaching may not function best for the whole group; and to manage varying schedules and learning styles, an individual, at-one’s-ease program is the most effective option to pursue. In a group of three students, I have developed a tutorial that breaks down the use of R Commander coding to terms which beginners in computer science may understand. These slides span 150 pages, each teaching or applying a new skill, with problem sets and their respective answers laced in between. After completing the entire program, researchers will be able to use RStudio to assign variables, complete math problems through code alone, utilize vectors, plot data using SQL graphs, create data frames, and have gained a universal understanding of all coding concept basics. Though we are still receiving feedback, we are expecting the results to be positive towards the clear, digestible document which the researchers may complete in an estimated two weeks for RStudio proficiency. We plan to have a small group participate in the tutorial first, receive feedback, and redesign the lesson plans if necessary before opening it to the entire lab. Larger effects of this study will be transferable knowledge of research coding that may be utilized not only for the Speech Production Lab, but other research and employment opportunities of current lab members.

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Studying speech sounds via instrumental acoustic analysis

The Buenos Aires Vowels project examines vowel production in the Buenos Aires, Argentinian variety of Spanish, and how vowels lower prior to the consonant /r/. At this stage, there is impressionistic evidence that Buenos Aires speakers of Spanish lower their vowels prior to /r/, but there are not any published reports on this phenomenon using spontaneous speech. By analyzing data from a corpus of 40 speakers of this variety (20 men and 20 women) using an acoustic analysis software called Praat, we are able to systematically explore the phenomenon of vowel lowering prior to /r/ in comparison to the phenomenon in the control group of students in Salamanca, Spain. The larger implications of this project are twofold: (i) linguistic — the phonetic variability attested in Buenos Aires Spanish is also attested in varieties of European Spanish, which demonstrates that apparent changes in different dialects are not “sporadic” or “isolated”; and (ii) social — by researching dialects such as Buenos Aires Spanish, we give a voice to the speakers of underexplored language varieties and to the social value of their linguistic innovations. Very often, linguistic innovations can be stereotyped and lead to negative associations. Through this research, we aim to avoid such harsh value judgments on linguistic innovations.

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Studying sounds via instrumental acoustic analysis

As the world’s second most popular mother tongue, the Spanish language is immensely diverse in its speakers, geographic breadth, and linguistic components. Under the vast umbrella of phonetics, there have been extensive studies on the open vowel usage of Andalusian Spanish speakers; however, there remain few comparable examinations of native speakers from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Using Salamanca Spanish speakers as a control group, the University of Michigan’s Speech Production Lab has recorded interviews of 40 native speakers from Buenos Aires for inspection in the linguistic analysis software Praat. Having examined the duration and pronunciation of the vowels “Ëœo’ and “Ëœe’ in various contexts, we anticipate a significant difference in the opening patterns of speakers from Buenos Aires versus those from Salamanca, with particular emphasis upon instances when “Ëœe’ precedes “Ëœr’. With these anticipated results, we aim to cultivate a better understanding of the phonetics of Buenos Aires Spanish as a unique subset of the Rioplatense dialect.

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Human Rights and Indigenous Rights in Africa

Throughout the world, indigenous peoples’ ways of life are being threatened due to surrounding governments and economic conquests. In 2007, the United Nations signed the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples which states that indigenous peoples have both individual and collective rights to their culture and identity along with other human rights such as education, healthcare, employment, language, etc. It also prohibits the discrimination of indigenous peoples and allows indigenous peoples to continue their traditional ways of life. Despite all of this, indigenous people’s rights that were outlined in this document are being violated. This project investigates the current violations against the rights of indigenous peoples in Africa and the implications on certain indigenous groups. By researching articles that describe these violations and creating case studies that summarize numerous violations across the continent, this project aims to create an interactive website that documents these violations in a way that is easy to access and understand. The purpose of this project is to present these violations to the United Nations in order to get justice for these indigenous populations.

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Lessons on Community Building from The Dream Storytelling Project

The Dream Storytelling Project is an oral history initiative with the purpose of educating the wider public about Detroit’s African American Muslim and African Muslim community-building and revitalization efforts. I served as a transcriber for several oral history interviews. In this capacity, I worked to make the content of each individual’s interview clear for the wider public. As I carried out my work, I learned about the mosque as a venue for community-building, acting as a gathering place for people to meet throughout the week. I also observed the importance of language and shared rhetoric, noticing the prevalence of Arabic terms and phrases. Additionally, I noted the importance of community building efforts via the devotion of individuals’ time and skillsets, applying them to the different needs of the population in order to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all. Once finalized, the transcripts are then shared via an interactive multimedia website and permanent public archive. This allows for The Storytelling Project to provide educational materials about African American Muslim and African Muslim history and leadership in Detroit, thereby building knowledge about under-represented and under-served populations.

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The Dream of Detroit’s Storytelling Project

Dream of Detroit’s Storytelling project is aimed at educating the public about African-American Muslim and African Muslim communities in Detroit through oral history interviews. I helped transcribe a set of these interviews to prepare them for the project’s multi-media website and permanent public archive. These interviews, carried out by a team of young people from within community, center around how members of these populations participate in community building, leadership, and the revitalization of Detroit. Through my work in the project, I deepened my understanding of how community members view the importance of Islamic education, neighborhood revitalization, and social justice. I learned about the diversity of individuals and experiences within these communities. I will benefit from this broadened perspective in both my personal and educational life. The transcriptions of these interviews and the project as a whole will increase understanding, appreciation, and respect for the history, diversity, and impact of African American Muslim and African Muslim communities in Detroit.

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