Great Basin College Virtual Humanities Center

FAIN: CZ-50342-14

Great Basin College (Elko, NV 89801-5032)
Christine Young-Gerber (Project Director: February 2013 to August 2013)
Michael J. McFarlane (Project Director: August 2013 to November 2013)
Cyd McMullen (Project Director: November 2013 to February 2016)
Scott Gavorsky (Project Director: February 2016 to present)
Evi Buell (Co Project Director: August 2017 to present)
Matthew McCarty (Co Project Director: May 2018 to present)

Acquisition of a lecture capture system through direct purchase, and endowment for a virtual humanities center by supporting faculty releases, course design, and software upgrades.

Great Basin College, located in rural Northeastern Nevada, requests support for the creation of an endowment that will sustain a Virtual Humanities Center. The overarching goal of this initiative is to broaden the education and skill-set of students, faculty, and community members while fostering a deep appreciation of our region’s complex cultural, historical, and human geography. The Center will include: 1) an interactive online portal - the “Humanities Crossroads” a place where many humanities resources converge; 2) a “Humanities Teaching Toolkit” for professional development, ongoing mentoring, and training opportunities of existing staff and faculty across all departments; and 3)an annual "Humanities in Action" series organized around an annual Theme, to provide the entire GBC community with opportunities to engage in civic conversation around significant issues of culture, place, and society.

Associated Products

Virtual Humanities Center at Great Basin College (Web Resource)
Title: Virtual Humanities Center at Great Basin College
Author: Great Basin College
Abstract: This website has been created by Great Basin College and features a Virtual Humanities Center with open access teaching and learning resources devoted to the Humanities.
Year: 2015
Primary URL: http://www.humanities.gbcnv.edu
Primary URL Description: Great Basin College NEH Virtual Humanities Center

Elkokoak: The Basques of Elko (Web Resource)
Title: Elkokoak: The Basques of Elko
Author: Elko Euzkaldunak Club
Author: Northeastern Nevada Museum
Author: Vince J. Juaristi
Author: Scott A. Gavorsky
Author: Gretchen Skivington
Author: Cassandra Stahlke
Abstract: In conjunction with the 2016 Smithsonian Folklife Festival "Innovation by Culture" tribute to Basque-Americans and the 2016 Elko National Basque Festival (celebrating 53 years!), the Virtual Humanities Center at Great Basin College is proud to present this growing collection of materials representing northeastern Nevada's rich Basque heritage.
Year: 2016
Primary URL: http://humanities.gbcnv.edu/elkokoak
Primary URL Description: The Elkokoak: The Basques of Elko digital exhibit contains a series of items related to the stories and heritage of the Basque communities of northern Nevada contained within the archives of the Virtual Humanities Center at Great Basin College. The exhibit includes streaming videos of oral histories, the "Intertwined" series of Basque-American encounters by Vince J. Juaristi, and the complete collection of Elko National Basque Festival programs from 1965 to 2016.

Humanities Toolkit (Web Resource)
Title: Humanities Toolkit
Author: Great Basin College Faculty
Author: Great Basin College Student Government Association
Abstract: Humanities-based education can provide students with a broad range of skills which are increasingly vital in the 21st-century world. The Humanities Toolkit is an interdisciplinary space for Great Basin College faculty and others to explore the use of the humanities content in their classrooms and to swap best practices or just plain good ideas that need further development.
Year: 2015
Primary URL: http://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/exhibits/show/humanities-toolkit
Primary URL Description: Presented here is a collection of faculty-submitted items that Great Basin College Faculty have found the most usable and which present the range of materials found within the Toolkit. The list to the right presents some broad categories of items: Student Peer Advice Study Skills Discussions Projects Finding and Using Evidence Rubrics Using VHC Materials WebCampus and Software

“Building Community Partnerships to Build Digital Humanities Projects: The Experience of Two Projects in Rural Nevada” (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: “Building Community Partnerships to Build Digital Humanities Projects: The Experience of Two Projects in Rural Nevada”
Author: Scott A. Gavorsky
Abstract: One of the promises of digital humanities is to connect diverse communities through digital projects, transcending traditional limitations of access and public participation. In August 2013, Great Basin College was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities Challenge Grant to develop a virtual humanities center to embrace the 86,000 square mile service area which we serve. A central goal of the project is to connect the various communities in the area, whose size and low population density preclude traditional humanities-oriented projects. In the first three years of the project, the Virtual Humanities Center (VHC) at Great Basin College has built projects with two separate communities within our region. The first is the Basque community in Elko desiring to preserve and promote their cultural legacy in the region. The second project comprises seventeen communities of Western Shoshone of northeastern Nevada, whose current interest is Shoshoni language preservation and revitalization using digital techniques to link the communities. These projects have required the VHC to work with numerous institutions, ranging from ethnic social clubs to local museums to academic archives in two states, to develop digital humanities projects. This paper will discuss the challenges involved in promoting and developing digital humanities among such a diverse range of partners, from explaining digital humanities to managing standards and legal obligations across various groups and institutions. A particular emphasis will be placed on community curation and the experiences of insuring that community interests and ownership of the projects were promoted and protected.
Date: 02/11/2017
Primary URL: https://digitalmatters.utah.edu/symposia/dhu2-a-digital-humanities-symposium/129-2/
Primary URL Description: Schedule of the DHU2 Conference

Great Basin Indian Archives @ VHC (Web Resource)
Title: Great Basin Indian Archives @ VHC
Author: Scott A. Gavorsky
Author: Norm Cavanaugh
Author: James Hedrick
Abstract: The "Great Basin Indian Archives @ VHC" is a collaborative digital exhibition of Western Shoshone oral histories and language resources to help promote revitalization of the Western Shoshone Language. The main partners are the Great Basin Indian Archives, Great Basin College, the Virtual Humanities Center at Great Basin College (VHC), the University of Utah's Shoshoni Language Program, and supported by generous funding from Barrick Gold. Starting in 2017, Great Basin College began hosting a Shoshone Community Language Initiative (SCLI) summer youth program, which will both draw on the resources currently collected and contribute new language and cultural resources going forward.
Year: 2017
Primary URL: http://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/exhibits/show/gbia
Primary URL Description: The "Great Basin Indian Archives @ VHC" is a collaborative digital exhibition of Western Shoshone oral histories and language resources to help promote revitalization of the Western Shoshone Language. The main partners are the Great Basin Indian Archives, Great Basin College, the Virtual Humanities Center at Great Basin College (VHC), the University of Utah's Shoshoni Language Program, and supported by Barrick Gold and in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Secondary URL: http://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/exhibits/show/gbia/oralhistory
Secondary URL Description: Since 2005, the Great Basin Indian Archives has been collecting the stories from Shoshone elders from across the communities of northeastern Nevada, as well as select events throughout the region. Currently, 65 oral histories have been collected. These are available through the Great Basin College Library and in community centers and schools through the region. In addition, the Virtual Humanities Center at Great Basin College (VHC) is working on digitizing the collection to make these items available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week anywhere. Supported in part by a major grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities and communiuty partners like Barrick, this project will increase the usability of the collection to members of Shoshone community.

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