eLabs & Community Events
Camp eLabs
August 3, 2026 8:00 am – August 6, 2026 5:00 pm EDT
Are you looking for a workshop environment to begin planning your digital edition or archive? Join eLaboratories from August 3–6, 2026 in Charlottesville, VA for our introductory workshop, followed by our conference Revolutions and Reflections.
Taught collaboratively by Katie Blizzard, Christopher Ohge, and Serenity Sutherland, this workshop will explore all aspects of conceptualizing, planning for, and creating digital projects that aim to make historical or literary source materials more accessible and discoverable. It provides a basic introduction to the editing practices available to preparing materials for digital publication and a survey of the many digital tools available to serve project goals. Framing these discussions, the workshop will consider how end-users will want to approach the particular digital project. Attendees also will learn how a project’s design—such as methodology, planned outcomes, and collaborations—can advance community perspectives and interests. By keeping these users and stakeholders in mind, practitioners are better able to develop effective editorial strategies that will result in a dynamic, thoughtful and usable digital archive or edition.
In this course, participants will engage in hands-on learning and group discussions related to project conceptualization, editorial policies and processes, and the selection and use of digital tools that can serve the needs of their users. Participants are encouraged to bring a few samples of the materials they are working with for use during the practical exercises, though samples will also be provided. The goal is for participants to return to their home institutions ready and able to build upon, enhance, and transform these initial ideas into robust digital projects.
This course is ideal for beginners with a project already in mind. We also welcome any individuals who are simply interested in expanding their skill set by learning about editorial practices.
Interested individuals are asked to apply for the workshop by completing this form by June 26. Candidates will be notified of their acceptance by July 10. Thanks to generous support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, travel and lodging for accepted registrants will be covered for workshop and conference dates.
About the Presenters
Katie Blizzard is the Managing Director of eLaboratories and a senior research editor at the Center for Digital Editing, where she supports the editorial practices of community and partner projects. She holds a master’s degree in public administration. Blizzard contributes to the Association for Documentary Editing (ADE) e-newsletter and served as secretary for the ADE from 2021 to 2023.
Christopher Ohge is Senior Lecturer in Digital Approaches to Literature at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. He has also served as a core faculty member for eLaboratories, working on the Fundamentals of Editing courses (formerly known as the Institute for Editing Historical Documents, or “Camp Edit”). Since 2018 he has also taught editing and book history courses on the London Rare Books School. He serves as the Associate Director of the Melville Electronic Library and an Associate Editor for Melville’s Marginalia Online. Before moving to London, he served as an associate editor at the Mark Twain Papers & Project at the University of California, Berkeley. He has held postdoctoral fellowships and taught at the University of Maine, Boston University, and the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. The author of the book Publishing Scholarly Editions: Archives, Computing, and Experience (Cambridge University Press, 2021), he has also published work in Textual Cultures, Scholarly Editing, Essays in Criticism, American Literary History, Leviathan: A Journal of Melville Studies, and in several edited collections.
Serenity Sutherland is Associate Professor of Communication Studies at SUNY Oswego where she teaches undergraduate and graduate students. She received her PhD in History from the University of Rochester. Her research expertise includes the history of gender in science and technology, the digital humanities, scholarly editing, and media studies. Her biography of chemist Ellen Swallow Richards (1842-1911), the first woman to attend MIT and teach there, will be published by University of Massachusetts Press in 2027. Other published works that combine her interests include the digital humanities project “Visualizing Women in Science at the American Philosophical Society” and a digital edition of the papers of chemist Ellen Swallow Richards. She has taught multiple courses for eLaboratories, and was the president of the Association for Documentary Editing from 2023-2024.
