Research
Publications:
Haak, C. A Digital Analysis of an Early Medieval Cultic and Ritual Change in Hampi: The Mula Virupaksha Temple in the Hemakuta Hill Sacred Space. Histories 2022, 2, 315-333.
I am currently working on transforming my dissertation into a book-length monograph, tentatively entitled "Corporeal Management of Devotees: Experiential and Material Changes of the Hemakuta Hill, 800-1400 CE." This project presents a digital spatial analysis of the architectural and spatial development of the Hampi area (Bellary District, Karnataka), as it occurred before imperial rulership. Through a novel digital methodology, I examine how local ritual and architectural traditions of the use of space were then adopted and influenced a formative imperial power's negotiation of a sacred landscape. The period of this research captures important changes to an early Saivite sacred space as it transforms from a peripheral pilgrimage space of ancestor worship and death rituals to an increasingly centralized and politicized space that negotiates new cults while still holding onto older traditions.
Past Spaces and Places of Oswego project: a multi-year, digital humanities project for the students of SUNY Oswego, taking my upper-level courses in the fall: History of Death and Local Cemeteries plus Independent Study courses. These courses provide you with a History and Digital Humanities credit. The first phase of this project includes courses for collecting spatial and analyzing physical data from local cemeteries in terms of demographic and tombstone data. The second phase of the project will be to digitize historic maps of Oswego and surrounding area. The third phase of the project will be for the publication of course findings and a synthesis of the demographic cemetery analysis with the spatial map analysis onto a website for the community to examine. Currently, we hope to be returning to year 2 of phase 1 in the Fall Semester of 2021. Please follow our progress through social media: @GhostsofOswego. Local outreach is also ongoing: History on Tap and local reading groups.
This project is developing the humanities side of the Digital Humanities Minor at SUNY Oswego and is providing our students with highly employable skills, such as mapping, data analysis, data visualization, and communication. Additionally, by focusing on the digital and novel exploration of historic Oswego, the project has been and will continue to be successful in creating links between the school, the students, and the community.
The first year of the project, as part of the History of Death and Local Cemeteries Course (previously History of Death course), is proud to have to successfully presented their research at a school and community conference: DeathQuest.
#DeathQuest2019 #GhostOsOswego
