This semester I learned a lot about the analysis and applications of Digital Humanities. Every class session debate and readings helped me to understand the concepts and different approaches to Digital Humanities.

For my last project, the final proposal assignment, I decided to expand the topic that I chose for the mapping praxis assignment that is “ Haunted Places in New York.”
First, I wanted to cover all the haunted places in New York State. However, I had to narrow my list a little bit, and I decided to only include the top five most popular haunted places in New York City based on TripAdvisor ratings and reviews.

I really like the topic of my proposal paper because I believe that haunted places in New York City represent an important field to analyze in order to promote paranormal tourism. Therefore, my final proposal project was to create a website that uses digital humanities tools to promote paranormal tourism in New York City. First, my project aims to create an interactive StoryMap showing the locations of the top five paranormal locations in New York City. Also, my project involves developing a section that describes the historical information of these places and its link to the paranormal phenomena observed in each one of them. In addition, my project includes a gallery of images of the featured places along with a link to their official websites with the purpose of satisfying the curiosity of readers. Finally, I decided to incorporate a section with audio narrative in the form of podcasts that explain the historical context of these locations.

The idea of doing this project was born after completing my mapping praxis assignment when I noticed the absence of a comprehensive paranormal tourism guide of places offering historic and enchanting experiences in New York State. In fact, the New York State’s official tourism site known as I Love NY does not have a special section that provides information about paranormal tourism or haunted places in New York. I really hope to expand my project and be able to add more haunted places to the list I created.

I feel really motivated to continue creating digital maps, analyzing texts, and incorporating visual tools in my academic research life. Thanks to the GC Digital Initiatives, I had the opportunity to attend to different workshops this semester. I learned about Python and Microsoft Excel analysis, and I was introduced to GIS. I feel grateful that I will be able to apply this valuable information that I learned in these workshops to any project or academic field.
Thank you so much Professor Gold, and everybody that was part of this class. It was a pleasure to be part of this wonderful group. Happy Holidays!

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