Module Five: Digital Ethics

3 February 2022

This week we will focus on two main things:

  • What ethical concerns arise when we begin to work digitally? What does it mean to digitize a document that might have previously only been read in a reading room?
  • What ethical concerns do the new wave of born-digital documents bring? What obligations do we as historians have?
  • How does this differ or is it similar to our ethical obligations as oral historians, or as historians working with the records of the long-deceased?

Readings for the Week

  • TCPS 2: CORE - Tutorial. https://tcps2core.ca/welcome (If you haven’t done this, please do this. Make sure to keep the PDF certificate as if you ever do oral histories down the road, research etics boards often want to see the certificate)
  • Mary Larson, “Steering Clear of the Rocks: A Look at the Current State of Oral History Ethics in the Digital Age”, Oral History Review, Vol. 40, No. 1 (Winter/Spring 2013): 36-49. Available via Library Access.
  • Kimberly Christen, “Opening Archives: Respectful Repatriation,” The American Archivist, vol. 74, no. 1 (Spring/Summer 2011): 185-210. Available via Library Access.
  • Stine Lomborg, “Personal Internet Archives and Ethics,” Research Ethics, vol. 9, issue 1 (2013): 20-31. Available via Library Access.

Our Discussion for this Week

In advance of the class, consider the following prompts:

  • What are research ethics?
  • What approach have historians taken towards research ethics and access?
  • How is this being changed or challenged by the digital age?

Want to Meet with Me?

As always, you can book a 30-minute meeting with me via Calendly. Use this link here. If there are no times that are available, just send me an email and we can work something out.

This will create a Microsoft Teams appointment. The URL for the Teams link will be in the calendar invitation e-mailed to you.

Last modified November 7, 2021: major rework for w22 deliver (b77b9ed)