Digital Humanities and Scholarly Editing
ResourceSupporting South Dakota academics and students who use digital tools to understand, explain, preserve, and access scholarship and archival resources in the humanities.
Contact Us
I.D. Weeks Library, Room 321C
414 E. Clark St.
Vermillion, SD 57069
Digital Humanities & Scholarly Editing
How do digital tools change the way we understand history, literature, and culture? How can we use technology to make knowledge more accessible, meaningful, and widely shared?
These are the questions that drive the interdisciplinary group of students, faculty, and researchers who work in the Digital Humanities and Scholarly Editing at USD. As part of this community, you’ll explore how interdisciplinary humanities research connects with digital tools to analyze, interpret, and present cultural materials in innovative ways.
While working on active archival and other digital projects, you’ll learn to ask thoughtful questions, work across disciplines, and communicate your ideas clearly using methods such as text analysis, mapping, data visualization, and digital publishing. Through this hands-on practical experience, you’ll build skills in research, writing, data management, and collaboration, preparing you for careers in libraries and archives, museums, publishing, editing, data analysis, project management, and more.
Learn More About Digital Humanities & Scholarly Editing
Student Opportunities
Our Current Projects
Civil War & Reconstruction Governors of Mississippi
Launched in 2020, the Civil War & Reconstruction Governors of Mississippi (CWRGM) is a digital project that provides free online access to over 20,000 historical documents. By digitizing and annotating letters and records, the project preserves diverse voices from the era while offering USD students hands-on experience in digital scholarly editing. Ultimately, CWRGM makes once-inaccessible archives searchable and interactive, transforming how the public and researchers alike engage with the past.
The Dakota Territory Papers Project
Modeled after the Civil War & Reconstruction Governors of Mississippi (CWRGM) project, the Dakota Territory Papers Project (DTPP) is a digital initiative at USD documenting the pivotal era of 1861–1889. By digitizing and annotating scattered archival records, the project will provide a free, searchable collection detailing how the Civil War, westward expansion, and federal policy led to North and South Dakota statehood. USD students drive the project’s development—transcribing and editing documents—to create a comprehensive scholarly edition that bridges the gap between regional history and public accessibility.
Brine & Blood
Brine & Blood is a strategy-based educational game that immerses middle and high school students in the complexities of emancipation and wartime Mississippi. Utilizing primary sources from the Library of Congress and CWRGM, the game challenges players to navigate historical scenarios involving resource scarcity and public unrest through the eyes of enslaved people, soldiers, and civilians. The project thrives on student involvement at USD, where students and alumni have refined the game’s balance through mathematical research and classroom testing to create a rigorous, engaging tool for historical learning.
Meet the PROFESSIONALS
Lindsey Peterson
Digital Humanities and Scholarly editing News Carousel
USD University Libraries Members Present at the 2025 Library Publishing Coalition Conference
The University of South Dakota’s Libraries Civil War & Reconstruction Governors of Mississippi (CWRGM) project members showcased their work at the 2025 Library Publishing Coalition Conference.
USD Libraries Celebrate One-Year Anniversary of Partnership with the Civil War & Reconstruction Governors of Mississippi Project
Funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), CWRGM is an ambitious undertaking that provides insights into the diverse experiences of Americans during one of the most transformative periods in the nation’s history.
University Libraries Secure $150,000 NEH Grant to Develop AI Subject-Tagging Software for Digital Archives
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) recently awarded the University of South Dakota University Libraries a two-year Digital Humanities Advancement Grant.
