How do we make things meaningful? How do we create meaning?
I engage in digital humanities work with historical data to explore these questions from the perspective of a public historian.
below you'll find various

upcoming

13-15 April 2021

Presenting on "Investigating Indentured Servitude" at the Global Digital Humanities Symposium

More info | Register

11-13 November 2021

Presenting on "Investigating Indentured Servitude" at The Americas Online: Thinking Digitally about Early America, organized by The McNeil Center for Early American Studies

More info soon!

blog archive

Elephant Island party waving goodbye to boat across Arctic sea

Goodbye to All That

Reflections on Graduate School
Cynthia Heider | 25 July, 2018

Arts, Culture, and Philanthropy: The Robbed and the Robbers

Did museum "innovation" peak in 1892?
Cynthia Heider | 8 May, 2018

Everybody's Got to Eat! Cooking Like It's 1918

#explore1918
Cynthia Heider | 18 February, 2018

A Call to Arms of Another Kind: 1918, a Banner Year for the Condom

#explore1918
Cynthia Heider | 13 February, 2018

Forgotten Works of 1918: Reassessing Edith Wharton's 'The Marne'

#explore1918
Cynthia Heider | 8 February, 2018

Florence Kelley and Foucault Walk Into an Archive

Thoughts on archives, advocacy, and power
Cynthia Heider | 21 December, 2017

The Role of Archivists: An Elevator Pitch

Cynthia Heider | 16 December, 2017

Goodbye, Gothamist

When the news disappears
Cynthia Heider | 6 December, 2017

No Archive is an Island (So Please Stock Some Tissues)

Emoting in the archive
Cynthia Heider | 2 December, 2017

The Mnemonic Landscape of Society Hill: Or, You Already Know That This Blog Entry is About "Urban Renewal"

A monument to "blighted" places & people
Cynthia Heider | 2 December, 2017

Deep Learning in the Closed Stacks: Possibilities for Archives Procedure Automation

Can machine-learning fix the gaps in our catalogs?
Cynthia Heider | 20 November, 2017

Popular Culture, Publicly-Owned

Public domain materials are a treasure trove
Cynthia Heider | 12 November, 2017

Local Historical Context: The Material Culture of Port Penn, Somewhere in Time

Tracing the remains of a maritime culture along the Delaware River and Bay
Cynthia Heider | 9 November, 2017