Hello, everyone. My name is Lydia Pensel. I just finished my second year as a doctoral student at Southern Illinois University. I will be taking my comprehensive exams this coming fall. My main subject area of study is British history, emphasizing the Victorian era. I am also the coordinator of our undergraduate podcasting project. Besides this, I am currently working in our college’s Center for Virtual Expression, which specializes in sharing and expanding educators’ and students’ understanding of Artificial Intelligence. With this, we emphasize that AI should be used in an ethical manner and how this can be done. We also give the instructors those tools to assist their students on how not to use AI rather than their own work.

Regarding my interests in digital humanities, I have several key areas, such as using Omeka and other forms of digital scholarship to share my research and knowledge with the greater public. Since a very early age, I have loved history and wanted to share it with everyone, particularly my students as an educator. I have really enjoyed the previous courses in this program, as they have created many questions within me about how I can expand my own research to fit within digital scholarship. Some of these questions are: how can I share my knowledge of the digital humanities with my coworkers and professors so that they might better understand its use? Also, how can I use these technologies and ideas to educate my students and future students better? Overall, I have always been highly interested in technology and finding a way to merge my passion for history with my love of technology.

Regarding my goals for this class, I want to see how I can integrate aspects of the digital humanities to teach my students better. Beyond this, as someone who deals heavily with expanding and educating others on AI, I am curious about how to make things more AI-proof, as AI is not always the best option. Overall, I am just very excited about how to better understand the use of the digital humanities in my teaching. As for what types of teaching I am interested in, I am generally interested in educating everyone. Right now, I mainly focus on university education, and that is why I am pursuing my current degree. Not to mention, collaboration with coworkers is also important. But, as last semester’s class shows, I am also interested in educating the general public to understand history and its importance better, and I wish to share my knowledge with the world.

I look forward to collaborating and learning with all of you this semester!