Excel Research Project

Dr. Young HIST 1378 Summer 2021

Digital Humanities (DH) Project

Due Date: Tuesday, July 6, at 11:59 p.m. Submit to the Turnitin.com link in the Topic Eight folder on the course Bb page.

Save Excel Spreadsheet using this title format: your last name_your first name_the state your participant represented_and the semester of the course (ex: Young_Nancy_TX_SU21)

Worth 400 points/40 percent of the course grade. Required length: accurate completion of four Excel spreadsheet rows.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this assignment is for you to “do history” by researching participants at the National Women’s Conference in 1977. Your work will not only contribute to your grade in this class but will also be integral to the development of a major national Digital Humanities (DH) project, Sharing Stories Sharing Stories from 1977: The National Women’s Conference as a Window into Recent American History. Your work on this project, if completed successfully, will be credited on the resulting website, which launches in November 2021, and you will be named as a contributing researcher. This is a line you can claim on your resume. This DH project incorporates public history, oral history, archival, curricular, and scholarship components. Eventually, the Sharing Stories digital project will provide visualizations of this research and will help spur public policy study and debate. Comparable projects that are farther along in development are the Houston Suffragists Project and Mapping Inequality. SKILLS: The purpose of this assignment is to help you practice the following skills fundamental to “doing history” that are essential to your success in this course, in the university, and in professional life beyond the university.

• You will begin by searching out primary source evidence that addresses the problem.

• You will gain experience in evaluating the accuracy of each document.

• Finally, you will discern the most important facts, historical actors, and events pertaining to the person you are researching.

KNOWLEDGE: By doing this assignment you will gain better understanding of what motivated two of the thousands of people who came together in Houston in November 1977 for the National Women’s Conference. This was the only federally funded conference to determine a national policy agenda in response to women’s concerns. Conference representation included racial, ethnic, ideological, and social class diversity to ensure that no important views be left out of the debate. You will have a podcast lecture about the NWC and also a primary document PDF reading about the 26 planks of action the conference passed and sent to the federal government in Topic Six. This will give you an intellectual grounding for your research, but you should start your research as early as possible. TASK: The directors of the Sharing Stories project, of which I am one, want to create a collective biographic portrait of the NWC participants and connected data visualizations of participants’ shared and distinct characteristics using maps. To accomplish this goal, we need to build a database that has information about the backgrounds and advocacy work of each NWC participant. We are collecting this data on Excel spreadsheets. You will be working on two participants only, learning all

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that you can about them from newspapers.com (see the separate document Newspapers.com How to Search Document for more details on process). Your task is to trace out the biographical and demographic facts for two delegates or alternates to the National Women’s Conference in 1977. Students should check their assigned people by looking in the Digital Humanities Project Materials folder at the document entitled DH Project Delegate Assignments. Once you find your people and start filling in the spreadsheet DO NOT delete any of the information that has already been found by previous researchers. Doing so will lower your grade. To make the assignment easy and fun, specific directions for completing each step are on pp. 3-10. CRITERIA FOR SUCCESS:

1. Complete Searches: Be sure that you search newspapers.com very thoroughly and that you document your search strategy.

2. Source links saved: Be sure to provide a url for each and every source you find online about the person you researching. Provide these urls in Sources tab. Provide also citations for every source you find in this same tab.

3. Accurate data entry: Data is entered correctly and carefully in the spreadsheet. 4. Late work: Late work will not be accepted under normal circumstances. Plan accordingly.

GRADE RUBRIC

Grades Research Data Entry Additional Rows

Sources Research Checklist

A’s Newspapers.com has been searched thoroughly.

All data entered proves accurate after checking.

Additional rows as needed have been created.

The source tab has been filled in with all database/online sources consulted.

Complete.

Grades Research Data Entry Additional Rows

Sources Research Checklist

B’s Newspapers.com has been searched reasonably well.

Almost all data entered proves accurate after checking.

Additional rows as needed have been created.

The source tab has been filled in with all database/online sources consulted.

Complete.

Grades Research Data Entry Additional Rows

Sources Research Checklist

C’s Newspapers.com has been searched adequately.

Most data entered proves accurate after checking.

Additional rows as needed have been created.

The source tab has been filled in with all database/online sources consulted.

Complete.

Grades Research Data Entry Additional Rows

Sources Research Checklist

D’s Newspapers.com has not been searched well.

Some data entered proves inaccurate after checking.

Additional rows as needed have not been created.

The source tab has been filled in with most database/online sources consulted.

Incomplete.

Grades Research Data Entry Additional Rows

Sources Research Checklist

F’s Newspapers.com searching is not apparent at all.

Much of the data entered proves inaccurate after checking.

Additional rows as needed have not been created.

The source tab is not filled in.

Incomplete or not done.

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STEP-BY-STEP DIRECTIONS ON HOW TO COMPLETE YOUR RESEARCH WHY TAKING CARE IN DOING YOUR RESEARCH MATTERS: The research you conduct on your assigned National Women’s Conference participants will add to the work other UH students have done in the past researching NWC delegates from other states. This large-scale data collection provides the key foundation for the Sharing Stories project, and the mapping visualizations and searchability of data on the site will only function if the data collected is accurate and presented as uniform. For this reason, the care you put into your research and the order in which you work is super important. Your work will be easier for you if you understand the logic of the spreadsheet, and the purpose for which the NWC delegates and alternates gathered in Houston. RESEARCH CATEGORIES TABS: The Excel spreadsheet you are given indicates the topics we are researching to build the Sharing Stories website. These are the general categories that you will research for your assigned participant:

• Basic Data

• Racial and Ethnic Identifiers

• Education and Career

• Electoral Politics

• Leadership in Organizations

• Organizational and Political

• Role at NWC

Specific directions for filling out each tab follow on pp. 4-10. FILLING IN THE FACTS YOU FIND ON YOUR PARTICIPANT: Only one point of information can be listed in each cell (or box) on the Excel spreadsheet. Putting more than one fact in a cell will make the data unsearchable once it is coded and converted for placement on the project website. As such if you find more than one answer, create an additional row underneath the row you are filling in, copy down the participant’s name and ID code in the appropriate columns, and add the second answer in the newly created column. HOW TO SEARCH THE REQUIRED SOURCES: Some of your searches may go very quickly because you might not find anything for some participants. Some participants had much more active public careers than others. A lot of research leads to dead ends, and good research requires patience and persistence. It is very likely you will not be able to fill in all columns in the spreadsheet for the people you are researching. Just do the best you can, and document the steps you take in your research. DO NOT FORGET to record your search process and findings as you go along in the Research Checklist tab. Newspapers.com

• Keyword search by name of person using every known variant of the person’s name (first name plus middle name plus last name, first name plus last name, etc.) in Newspapers.com.

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• See separate PDF with step by step how to search screenshots. This PDF is located in the Digital Humanities Project Materials folder.

• Use the quotation mark feature to search for the person’s name as you entered it.

• If you don’t find usable results, then you will want to add the following to the search of the person’s name to try to find usable results (run each variation separately): the state the person represented at the NWC, the 1977 hometown, National Women’s Conference, NWC, International Women’s Year, and IWY. Then limit results to the particular state you are researching.

• If results are enormous, then use the decades feature to go through the results by decade, starting in the decade your subject reached adulthood. If that is not known, then start in the 1970s.

• Sort the results oldest to newest as this will save you from looking at duplicate stories.

SPECIFIC DIRECTIONS FOR THE BASIC DATA TAB: The comments below are for specific columns where you might have a question. If you have questions about other columns, reach out to me. If you do not find an answer for a cell enter “unknown,” unless otherwise directed. ID: This prepopulated number is to ensure that all data once entered into the database is correctly associated with the correct person. Please do not alter this column in any way on any tab. Population and Median Income: This column should already be answered. Latitude: This column should already be answered. Longitude: This column should already be answered. Marriage: For the Marital Classification column, you will make your entry via a dropdown menu. Don’t guess. Remember, if you find more than one answer, add the latest fact in the dropdown menu and put information about earlier marriages in the Notes column. The full run of marital history will be discussed in the biographical essay. Religion: Fill the Religion column via a dropdown menu based on what you find in your research. Don’t guess. Gender: The Gender column is tricky because we live in a much more welcoming world regarding gender identity than was true in 1977, the year this conference took place. The language of gender that we speak and perhaps even take for granted today did not exist in 1977, and as a result we are using the language of 1977 to answer this column. If, however, you find in research that the individual you are investigating later in life ceased to identify on the male/female binary please indicate same in the Notes column. For this Gender column, answer according to the male/female dropdown menu. Sexuality: We face a similar challenge with the Sexual Orientation column. We are not interested in guessing and as such are only answering this column if the person publicly affirmed a sexual orientation. In practice this means most of the individuals for whom answers will be recorded in this

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column either identified as lesbians or perhaps bisexual. Heterosexuals were not then in the habit of publicly proclaiming their sexual orientation. Here it is very important not to guess based on factors like marital status. Only answer in the dropdown menu if information was publicly claimed. SPECIFIC DIRECTIONS FOR THE RACIAL AND ETHNIC IDENTIFIERS TAB: There are multiple columns capturing racial/ethnic identity. All are filled with dropdown menus. If the participant you are researching identified as biracial or multiethnic, please fill out all categories of racial/ethnic identity. Do not guess identity—go by identifiers specifically noted in your research. If you have questions, email your TA or me. Asian American/Pacific Islander: For this column the options are Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Pacific Islander, South Asian, N/A, and Unknown. If you find in your research that the person you are researching was in the Asian American/Pacific Islander category, then select the particular option that identifies your person. If you identify the person you are researching in a different racial/ethnic group (i.e., Black, Hispanic, etc.), then select N/A for not applicable for this column. If you cannot find the racial/ethnic identity for the person you are researching then select Unknown for this and all columns. If the people you are researching identified with multiple options for this column then create an additional row to capture the additional identities. Black: For this column the options are Yes, N/A, and Unknown. If you find in your research that the person you are researching was Black, then select yes. If you identify the person you are researching in a different racial/ethnic group (i.e., white, Hispanic, etc.), then select N/A for not applicable for this column. If you cannot find the racial/ethnic identity for the people you are researching then select Unknown for this and all columns. Hispanic: For this column the options are Chicana/Chicano, Cuban, Latina/Latino, Mexican, Mexican American, Other Hispanic, Puerto Rican, Spanish/Hispanic, N/A, and Unknown. If you find in your research that the person you are researching was in the Hispanic category, then select the particular option that identifies your person. If you identify the person you are researching in a different racial/ethnic group (i.e., Black, white, etc.), then select N/A for not applicable for this column. If you cannot find the racial/ethnic identity for the person you are researching then select Unknown for this and all columns. If the people you are researching identified with multiple options for this column then create an additional row to capture the additional identities. Native American/American Indian: For this column the options are Alaska Native, First Nations, Indigenous, Native American/American Indian, N/A, and Unknown. If you find in your research that the person you are researching was in the Native American/American Indian category, then select the particular option that identifies your person. If you identify the person you are researching in a different racial/ethnic group (i.e., Black, white, etc.), then select N/A for not applicable for this column. If you cannot find the racial/ethnic identity for the person you are researching then select Unknown for this and all columns. If the people you are researching were Native American and if you find particular tribal identities then please indicate that in the Notes column. white: For this column the options are Yes, N/A, and Unknown. If you find in your research that the person you are researching was white, then select yes. If you identify the person you are researching in a different racial/ethnic group (i.e., Black, Hispanic, etc.), then select N/A for not

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applicable for this column. If you cannot find the racial/ethnic identity for the people you are researching then select Unknown for this and all columns. SPECIFIC DIRECTIONS FOR THE EDUCATION AND CAREER TAB: The comments below are for specific columns where you might have a question. If you have questions about other columns, email me. Education: Highest level of education attained is filled in based on the qualitative research for the high school, college, and post baccalaureate education columns according to a dropdown menu. Don’t guess. Degrees Earned: The two categories of college degrees—undergraduate, graduate—are split into three columns each: one for the degree, one for the institution, and one for the year. This is because computer databases cannot execute successful searches when cells are littered with multiple datapoints. Pay attention to how these cells are filled in the example listing, and if the person you are researching earned multiple degrees of the same type, i.e., two undergraduate degrees, then create additional rows to fill in. Job/Profession: If the person you are researching had multiple jobs or professions, then create additional rows to capture all such work. The same is true for the column regarding the spouse’s profession. Income Level: Ignore this column. SPECIFIC DIRECTIONS FOR THE ELECTORAL POLITICS TAB: The comments below are for specific columns where you might have a question. If you have questions about other columns, email me. Jurisdiction of Political Offices Held: The purpose of this column is to quantify and cross- tabulate the data collected from the qualitative research for the Name of Political Offices Held column. In this way we will be able to map the political careers of the NWC participants that would otherwise not be possible. Use the dropdown menu to record the office-holding history of the person you are researching, by selecting among the following options: municipal, county, state, and national. Don’t guess. If person held office at more than one jurisdictional level create additional row/s immediately underneath and record every office-holding level.

Political Offices Held: Include all elective and appointive positions, creating a separate row for each. For start year use the date the office was assumed and not the date the person was elected. For start and end years, type unknown if you cannot find the date. Jurisdiction of Political Offices Sought but Lost: The purpose of this column is to quantify and cross-tabulate the data collected from the qualitative research for the Name of Political Offices Sought but Lost column. In this way we will be able to map the political careers of the NWC participants that would otherwise not be possible. Use the dropdown menu to record the electoral defeats of the person you are researching, by selecting among the following options: municipal,

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county, state, and national. Don’t guess. If person unsuccessfully sought office at more than one jurisdictional level create additional row/s immediately underneath and record defeats at every level. Political Offices Lost: Include only electoral offices the person sought and lost and not any pending appointments that were never confirmed. If year of the race is unknown type unknown, otherwise type the year of the race. Political Party Membership: answer based on the dropdown menu: American Independent, Black Panther, CPUSA (abbreviation for Communist Party USA), Conservative Party of New York, DC Statehood, Democratic, Liberal Party of New York, Libertarian, Minnesota DFL (abbreviation for Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party), North Dakota DNL (abbreviation for North Dakota Democratic-Nonpartisan-League Party), Peace and Freedom, Raza Unida, Republican, Socialist Party USA, Socialist Workers, Unknown, Other. If person was a member of multiple political parties then create additional rows to capture each affiliation. If person was a member of a political party not listed here researchers are to select other in the dropdown menu and indicate the name of that party in the Notes column. Feminist Identity: For the Identified Self as a Feminist column only use data from newspaper sources from the late 1970s wherein the person was described as a feminist. Don’t guess based on other positions held. SPECIFIC DIRECTIONS FOR THE LEADERSHIP IN ORGANIZATIONS TAB: Use this tab to capture information such as presidency (or any other leadership position) in organizations ranging from the National Organization for Women the local Parent Teacher Organization. Also collect information pertaining to participants who helped found organizations. If the people you are researching were leaders in more than one organization then create additional columns for each leadership position. SPECIFIC DIRECTIONS FOR THE ORGANIZATIONAL AND POLITICAL TAB: We are interested in the range of organizations—professional, political, community, social, and issue advocacy—that people in the 1970s joined. The current assumption is that Americans were not engaged in lots of organizational or advocacy work in this time period, but our research suggests otherwise. Quantifying in this way will allow the Sharing Stories project to reveal the extent of organizational participation and will also demonstrate the very different ways women engaged with politics than did men. The columns are listed in alphabetical order. We do not recommend searching by organization. That will not work well and will take more time than it would be worth. If the people you are researching were terribly active in such organizations there will likely be newspaper stories documenting such, so please pay attention to these stories even if they are not about the NWC itself. Such articles— obituaries and profile pieces on influential community leaders will list this sort of information. If you find that your subject was a member of organizations not listed on this spreadsheet, please create additional column/s to capture those memberships, and please use highlight color to color the added columns. Also, when typing the name of the organization/s you added, please do not abbreviate. Add any new columns at the end of the listing of columns.

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If you have questions about other columns, email me.

SPECIFIC DIRECTIONS FOR THE ROLE AT NWC TAB: The comments below are for specific columns where you might have a question. If you have questions about other columns, email me.: Delegate at the NWC Column: Ignore this column. Alternate at the NWC Column: Ignore this column. Delegate at Large Column: Ignore this column. Ford National Commissioner Column: Ignore this column. Carter National Commissioner Column: Ignore this column. State Delegation Chair Column: See if you can find information for this column from your newspaper.com research. Official Observer Column: Ignore this column. Journalists Covering the NWC Column: Ignore this column. Notable Speaker Column: Ignore this column. Paid Staff Member Column: Ignore this column. Volunteer Column: Ignore this column. Exhibitor Column: Ignore this column. Torch Relay Runner Column: If you find information in your research that your subjects were also torch relay runners then change the answer for this column, otherwise leave alone. International Dignitary Column: Ignore this column. Unofficial Observer Column: Ignore this column. Other Role Column: Most likely, you will find in newspaper research that your subject played some sort of leadership role within their delegation or in their state. If you do, then type in the name of that role in this column. If you find nothing type in “unknown.” 26 Issue Plank Columns: The next 26 columns capture the 26 planks debated and passed at the NWC. If you find in your newspaper research that your subject was actively engaged with one or more of these issues, then please capture that information here in the dropdown menus for each.

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Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) Column: Ignore this column. SPECIFIC DIRECTIONS FOR THE QUESTIONS TAB: Use the Questions Tab to fill in anything that strikes you as interesting or important but not related to the spreadsheet columns. SPECIFIC DIRECTIONS FOR THE SOURCES TAB: Use the Sources Tab to paste all urls you find for sources located from newspapers.com. Immediately underneath each url please type out a citation for each source you find. This will be very beneficial information for the next two teams of researchers who will be conducting oral histories with living NWC participants and who will be writing short, 500-word biographies of all NWC participants for the Sharing Stories project.