The Freedman Center for Digital Scholarship advances research and learning by extending traditional methods of research through innovative technologies, such as digital mapping, data visualization, data mining, virtual reality, and machine learning.
By combining the knowledge and experience of digital scholarship specialists with high-end sandbox computers and research software, we create unique opportunities for creativity, experimentation, and innovation.
Digital scholarship is the application of digital tools and methods to explore data in new ways and advance the creation and communication of scholarship. Digital scholarship varies vastly across disciplines.
The term digital scholarship was chosen for the Freedman Center to capture the broad ways that technology enables research, teaching, and creative activity, and consequently the mission of the Center to support researchers and learners.
Current Funds
Consider contributing to one of the following active Freedman Center funds:
This fund enables the Center to maintain its levels of high-end technology and support innovation with new acquisitions.
With rising costs of components like graphics processing units (GPUs) and processors, growing this fund is crucial for us to continue to meet our mission of making technology and its use accessible to anyone regardless of major or project.
The Freedman Fellows program provides seed funding, technical expertise, and guidance on project development for CWRU faculty from all campus departments.
Fellows partner with digital scholarship and library specialists who support their projects at any point in the process, including advising on copyright and fair use, data ethics, research data management, and publication.
Additional funding allows us to provide more support to faculty projects, such as access to resources like the high-performance computing cluster (HPC), compensating student workers and community partners, software licenses, and training datasets.
The Freedman Scholars program is a student internship where Scholars develop technical and interpersonal skillsets by assisting patrons with everything from walk-in questions, debugging code, and identifying what software and approach best meet a researcher’s goals.
Additional funding supports hiring more students and ensuring we can keep their pay competitive and reflective of the skillsets necessary for assisting with digital scholarship research projects.
Opportunities for Growth
With your generosity and vision for the future, we could provide one or more of the following programs:
A fund to advance digital scholarship research in the Center and on campus that ensures all students have low-barrier access to technology that accelerates research and learning.
This fund could support the purchase of additional computers to allow us to provide remote access to researchers who cannot visit in person, and even assist in the development of a mobile computing lab to bring technology where researchers are working, collaborating, and acquiring loanable technology.
A fund dedicated to new technologies and applications for research and learning.
This could include testing new tools, such as AI-powered handwriting transcription platforms, credits to explore solutions for hosting web-based tools, licenses for scholarly publishing platforms, and professional development for staff to learn new techniques and pass them on to students and faculty on campus.
A fund to provide programming that brings together researchers, students, and the community to explore trends and developments in how technology shapes the way we learn and create.
An endowment to support a postdoctoral position in the Center, one focused on innovative technology and project support.
An opportunity to establish additional named funding for students and faculty exploring digital scholarship in collaboration with KSL specialists.
