Cynthia Mancha

  

• Graduate Student
• University of Texas

I am a former student of Cold War history and international and area studies (my historical areas of interest), and am currently finishing the first year of my MSIS degree at UT in the archives track. In my profession I hope not only to preserve those materials that have enduring value, but also to make them accessible in new and innovative ways to enliven scholarship and study.

Over the last few years, I have gained some digital humanities experience, working in a Humanities Digital Workshop lab as an undergraduate at Washington University before I had ever heard the formal term. In my role, I searched for and cataloged audio and visual sources relating to WWII to enhance the course readings for a new history class in the developmental stage. Furthermore, I worked as a production intern for two production companies in St. Louis. One position was with the city’s PBS station, where I edited interviews of people sharing their WWII experiences, helping preserve their memories for future generations and provide a unique and often overlooked perspective on that era’s history. Another digital humanities related experience I had was serving as an intern for the Cold War History Research Center in Budapest. I visited various archives and gathered information regarding each of the former Soviet nations, and my work was recently integrated with that of my colleague and released as a timeline on the Center’s website. This semester I am also taking a digitization class, in which we have learned to digitize material on various media using a variety of platforms.

I hope to share what I know with others and to further solidify my digital humanities skills and knowledge by attending THATCamp LAC at St. Edwards University, and would greatly appreciate the unique opportunity to do so.