IN-PERSON Prague Research & Teaching Conference
Abstract
Today’s students are digital natives who have specific skill deficits when it comes to evaluating sources and understanding different methodologies and interpretive strategies. In essence, they lack critical thinking skills that scholars routinely use. To help students master these skills, Dr. Erika M. Bsumek created ClioVis, a digital timeline, mind mapping, and network visualization software. It has since been used by over 30K students. Those students have plotted over 700K historical events and made over 135K analytical connections between them, writing over 60 million words in the process. This panel showcases diverse perspectives from instructors and students on ClioVis and its pedagogical impact both in the classroom and beyond. Dr. Bsumek will present on creating a pedagogical platform that has been used by over 18 different disciplines at UT alone. Dr. Rachel Ozanne has been using ClioVis in the classroom for the past 3 years. She will describe how her ClioVis assignment assesses student understanding of historical narrative and analysis that incorporates the use of primary source data. It can be implemented in a large lecture course, helping to create community for students. Finally, Marcus Golding, a PhD candidate in Latin American History and ClioVis researcher, will discuss the tool’s use in academic research, including creating social network maps and visualizing historical data. He will also highlight its broader applications beyond the classroom, showcasing activities like YouTube tutorials, podcasts, social media projects, and collaborations with content creators.
Dr. Bsumek is the Ellen Clark Temple Chair in Women’s History at the University of Texas at Austin. She has written on and teaches Native American history, environmental history/studies, the history of the built environment, and the history of the U.S. West. The title of her latest book is The Foundations of Glen Canyon Dam: Infrastructures of Dispossession on the Colorado Plateau (2023). She is also the creator of a digital timeline and network mapping software platform called ClioVis, which enables students and researchers to create time-aligned network maps of their class/research projects.
Dr. Ozanne’s research focuses on religious experiences and community ethics in antebellum America, notably exploring the visionary leadership of Elias Hicks and Ellen G. White. She edited Norman Brown’s Biscuits, The Dole, and Nodding Donkeys and has contributed essays on religious history to various publications. Currently, she researches secular sainthood in U.S. history and emphasizes undergraduate teaching in the History Department.
Marcus Golding is a PhD candidate in Latin American History at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the Venezuelan petroleum industry and the role of foreign oil companies in corporate social responsibility. He is a researcher with ClioVis, exploring its use for dissertations and academic research, as well as its applications beyond the classroom. Marcus is also the co-founder of Red Historia Venezuela, a non-profit organization dedicated to digitizing at-risk historical archives and providing online access to them.
3:30 pm - 5:00 pm
Tuesday 10th June, 2025