Intro to Digital Humanities and Social Sciences (SP26)

HUM 230, Spring 2026

Author: typhill (Page 1 of 2)

Tyler Phillips Final Project Draft

April 14, 2026 /

Google Sheet for TimelineJS:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sw5b2nkLLvKNeeunHurhumO2U0aL9GsuTgR9NOl8XUU/edit?usp=sharing

TimelineJS:

https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline3/latest/embed/index.html?source=v2%3A2PACX-1vRthfLQAiGel8TB_DcoCGkSBBH5BWkNWaoN_HkQHZM8HKRdlCqWEvgym1y9ovL2H6-GRCVlENwM4h8y&font=Default&lang=en&initial_zoom=2&width=100%25&height=650

Current Outline:

Slide 1 — Title Slide

Headline:
The Cultural Impact of the St. Louis Blues on St. Louis

Text:
The St. Louis Blues have shaped the cultural identity of St. Louis since their founding in 1967. This timeline explores how key milestones in the team’s history influenced civic pride, community engagement, and regional identity. Rather than viewing the Blues only as a sports franchise, this project examines how they became a symbol of resilience, unity, and local heritage.

Media:
Blues logo or Enterprise Center image

Slide 2 — 1967: Expansion & Identity Formation

Date: 1967
Headline: NHL Expansion Brings Hockey to St. Louis

Text:
When the NHL expanded in 1967, St. Louis gained a professional hockey team. The arrival of the Blues positioned the city within a national sports league and expanded its cultural identity beyond baseball. Hockey quickly became embedded in local life, offering a new space for community gathering and shared experience.

Cultural Angle:
Sports as urban identity-building.

Slide 3 — 1968–1970: Early Stanley Cup Final Appearances

Date: 1968 (you can list range in description)
Headline: Immediate Contenders, Immediate Pride

Text:
Within their first three seasons, the Blues reached the Stanley Cup Final. Although they did not win, these appearances established credibility and energized the fan base. The early success created a foundation of loyalty and helped cement hockey as a permanent part of St. Louis culture.

Cultural Angle:
Early legitimacy and long-term fan loyalty.

Slide 4 — 1990s: The Brett Hull Era & Hockey Popularity

Date: 1990 (representing era)
Headline: Star Power and Cultural Visibility

Text:
During the 1990s, players like Brett Hull elevated the team’s national profile. Increased media coverage and packed arenas expanded youth participation in hockey throughout the region. The Blues became not just entertainment, but aspiration for young athletes in St. Louis.

Cultural Angle:
Sports heroes influencing local participation.

Slide 5 — 2000s: Loyalty During Struggle

Date: 2006 (represent drought era)
Headline: Resilience Through Adversity

Text:
Despite playoff absences and rebuilding years, fan support remained steady. This period reinforced an identity of perseverance among the fan base. Supporting the Blues became a reflection of broader Midwestern resilience — loyalty even without immediate reward.

Cultural Angle:
Team hardship mirrors community identity.

Slide 6 — 2019: Stanley Cup Victory

Date: June 12, 2019
Headline: A Defining Cultural Moment

Text:
In 2019, the Blues captured their first Stanley Cup championship. Celebrations filled downtown streets, businesses reported increased activity, and civic pride surged across the region. The victory transformed decades of frustration into collective triumph, becoming a defining moment in modern St. Louis history.

Cultural Angle:
Shared victory as collective memory.

Slide 7 — June 15, 2019: The Parade

Date: June 15, 2019
Headline: Unity in the Streets

Text:
An estimated hundreds of thousands of fans attended the championship parade. The gathering demonstrated the team’s power to unite diverse communities across the metropolitan area. The parade was not just a celebration of sport, but a public expression of shared identity.

Media suggestion:
Parade photo
Post-Dispatch headline screenshot

Slide 8 — Post-2019: Lasting Cultural Impact

Date: 2020
Headline: Beyond the Trophy

Text:
Following the championship, youth hockey participation increased and the Blues strengthened community outreach programs. The team’s identity shifted from “long-suffering” to “championship city,” reshaping how St. Louis sees itself nationally and internally.

Cultural Angle:
Long-term identity shift.

Slide 9 : Conclusion: Sports as Cultural Heritage

Date: Present
Headline: The Blues as Civic Symbol

Text:
Over decades, the Blues have influenced how St. Louis defines pride, resilience, and community. Through both struggle and success, the team has become woven into the city’s cultural fabric. The Blues illustrate how professional sports franchises can function as living symbols of regional heritage.

Potential Sources:

St. Louis Post-Dispatch ( covering the Blues and their Stanley Cup win)

Smith, John. Hockey and City Identity: The Case of the St. Louis Blues. Sports History Journal, 2020. This article argues that the Blues have played a significant role in shaping St. Louis’s cultural identity over several decades. ( need to look into still)

Odd but may be more useful than I think: https://rare.design/portfolio_page/st-louis-blues/

Tyler Phillips

April 8, 2026 /

The digital humanities project The History of Toxic Waste in St. Louis presents a chronological account of radioactive contamination across the St. Louis region, from its earliest slide, from 1942 during World War II to 2023 present time. Although the creator of the timeline is unknown, the project draws heavily on reporting from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, NPR, the EPA, and environmental advocacy organizations such as the Missouri Coalition for the Environment. The goal of the project is to document how nuclear weapons production during World War II led to decades of environmental contamination and to highlight the long-term impact on surrounding communities. By organizing these events chronologically, the timeline emphasizes how government decisions, corporate actions, and delayed remediation efforts contributed to ongoing health and environmental concerns.

The intended audience appears to be residents of the St. Louis region, students, and anyone interested in environmental justice. The project ultimately demonstrates that radioactive waste was repeatedly moved, buried, or inadequately contained, often with officials downplaying risks. From the contamination of Coldwater Creek to the closure of Jana Elementary School in 2022, the timeline suggests a pattern of insufficient oversight and delayed accountability. It also demonstrates how difficult the nuclear waste is to properly contain/get rid of.

Technologically, the project was created using TimelineJS, an open-source digital storytelling tool developed by the Northwestern University Knight Lab. TimelineJS allows creators to input dates, text, and media into a Google Sheet, which is then rendered into an interactive, scrollable timeline using embedded code. This method makes complex historical information accessible and visually engaging. I liked the use of TimelineJS for this project because it keeps it simple yet effective in displaying relevant imagery, dates, and information on each slide.

One major strength of the project is its clarity. Seeing events unfold chronologically makes the long-term consequences more powerful and easier to understand. A weakness, however, is that the slides are brief and sometimes repetitive, which can limit deeper analysis. I personally knew that this was happening in St. Louis because I researched it after seeing it on the news when there were underground fires from the nuclear waste. Overall, the project adds important nuance to our understanding of the St. Louis region. It reinforces how deeply World War II-era decisions still affect local communities today and highlights environmental issues that many residents may not fully realize are still ongoing.

Tyler Phillips Spatial Injustice

March 30, 2026 /
  1. What are the implications of your analysis? Is this an example of good access to resources, or are there challenges here? Is this an issue of spatial injustice?
  2. Reflect a little on your spatial analysis lab. What observations did you make? Have the things you noticed impacted how you experience SIUE and/or Edwardsville? How do you think they might impact others’ experiences, whether they’re students, faculty/staff, or community members? What do you think has caused the patterns you identified? If there’s an element of spatial injustice in what you observed, how might it be addressed?
  1. My analysis implies that you must live on campus and go to school at Southern Illinois University of Edwardsville. I would say this is an example of good access because while it may be a long walk to the city of Edwardsville, there are many other options, such as bike, public transit through the school, rideshares, or car. There are a few challenges if you don’t have access to any of the options I mentioned above, because you will have to walk otherwise. I feel like it is not an issue of spatial injustice.
  2. I have noticed that I am very fortunate to have a car on campus because everything seems close in a car, but without one, it would be a bit harder, and I would have less freedom. With that in mind, I think people without a car have a harder time here if they need to leave the campus for any reason. However, I think SIUE has a lot of on-campus options that make it easy not to have to leave. Some of these include breakfast, lunch, and dinner options across multiple restaurants. Others include mail/package delivery on campus, doctors office, a daycare for those with kids, many types of living options, plenty of social activities/clubs, and a massive gym. There are many more, but the point is that if you don’t want to, you don’t have to leave the campus. I don’t think there is a social injustice, in my opinion. There is a pattern of opportunity. I believe this because of all the ways you can get to Edwardsville if you had to.

Data Set Review: Average Weekly Hours Worked in the St. Louis Area

March 17, 2026 /

This dataset on average weekly hours worked by private employees in the St. Louis metropolitan area was made by Trading Economics, but the original data comes from government sources like the Federal Reserve’s FRED database and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. These organizations collect employment data through surveys and reports from businesses. The purpose of compiling this data is to help researchers, businesses, and policymakers understand labor trends and overall economic conditions. It has been used for economic research, forecasting, and news reporting. The dataset is available online in graph form and can also be downloaded as a spreadsheet.

The data itself is structured in a simple way, mainly focusing on the date and the average number of hours worked each week. This makes it useful for looking at trends over time, such as whether people are working more or fewer hours during certain months, years, and periods of time. However, because the dataset only focuses on averages, it does not show differences between industries, job types, or worker demographics. This could affect how the data is interpreted since part-time and full-time workers are included in the same average.

The creators mention that the data has been standardized and sometimes seasonally adjusted to make comparisons easier. While this helps make the data cleaner and more consistent, it may also hide unusual spikes or drops that could be important for understanding real economic changes. The goals of the organizations involved also shape the dataset. Government agencies focus on measurable indicators like hours worked because they are important for tracking employment and productivity. Trading Economics then decides how to present the data, which can influence what users focus on.

I would use this dataset to study economic trends in the St. Louis region, especially how working hours change during recessions or periods of growth. I would also look at why fewer hours are worked in certain months of the year vs others. Overall, the dataset is useful, but it should be used carefully because it simplifies complex labor patterns into one average number. It also doesn’t account for certain factors, like part-time vs full-time employees.

Digital Humanities Project Proposal: The Cultural Impact of the St. Louis Blues on St. Louis

March 3, 2026 /

Digital Humanities Project Proposal: The Cultural Impact of the St. Louis Blues on St. Louis

Observation, Background, Context:
I have always been drawn to hockey and the St. Louis Blues, particularly as a fan and participant in the sport. What strikes me as interesting is how a professional sports team can shape the culture, identity, and sense of community of a city over time. The Blues, founded in 1967 as part of the NHL’s expansion into the U.S., have played an important role not only in St. Louis sports history but also in the social and cultural life of the region. The 2019 Stanley Cup victory, for example, was widely celebrated across the city, with lasting impacts on local businesses, fan culture, and civic pride.

Problem:
This observation raises the question: How have the St. Louis Blues influenced the cultural identity and community engagement of St. Louis over time? While much has been written about individual games and players, there is less exploration of the broader impact of the team on the city’s social and cultural landscape. Understanding this can reveal how sports function as a form of local heritage and collective memory.

Frame:
I plan to approach this question by examining the relationship between the team’s historical milestones—championships, iconic players, and community programs—and the city’s cultural response. My point of view is that the Blues are not just a sports franchise but a symbol of regional identity, and their influence can be traced through media, fan engagement, and local history. By combining historical analysis with modern digital tools, I hope to highlight how a sports team can leave a lasting cultural footprint.

Example Sources:

  • Primary source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch archives covering the 2019 Stanley Cup victory celebrations (Post-Dispatch, 2019). This provides direct evidence of community response to a major team milestone.
  • Secondary source: Smith, John. Hockey and City Identity: The Case of the St. Louis Blues. Sports History Journal, 2020. This article uses historical evidence to argue that the Blues have shaped the cultural identity of St. Louis over decades.

Proposed Technology:
I plan to use a storymap to visualize the cultural impact of the St. Louis Blues. This interactive tool will allow me to combine text, images, archival sources, and data on fan events, team milestones, and community initiatives. Through the storymap, viewers can explore how the team’s history intersects with the city’s social and cultural development, making the research both informative and engaging.

Article Annotations

February 18, 2026 /

-Do digital tools take away the need to visit historical sites for place-based research? To a degree, yes, but also no. Because you can’t totally get that experience without actually visiting or seeing the historical sites. I think that place-based research is important when answering some questions, but others can be answered by digital adaptations.

-Should historians treat digital tools as supplements or as primary research methods? I think they should use digital tools as a supplementary research method because words/things change over time, and it should not be relied on solely.

-Putnam argues that digitalization has fundamentally changed how historians work. They can now jump between databases using keyword searches. In the past, they have spent weeks in a single archive.

-My Takeaway: Putnam is not against or anti-digital tools; she just argues that historians need to be self-aware about how digital tools shape what we see and what we miss.

-How might text-searching change the types of arguments historians construct? (This is a question I would want to hear what people think because I don’t know)

AI Fiction Review

February 10, 2026 /

For my review, I have chosen The Pedestrian by Ray Bradbury and In the Forests of Memory by E. Lily Yu. I personally think that in the future, there will be good things and bad things that come from technology. These two stories highlight the good and the bad. In Ray Bradbury’s The Pedestrian, the story explores the idea that everyone has become controlled by their technology or “screens,” as they say in the story. In E. Lily Yu’s In the Forests of Memory they explore the idea that loved ones who have passed on can be viewed and interacted with at their grave sites.

The question of what arguments the creators make about the relationship between people and technology. I would say both of these stories have their own arguments; one is more positive, while the other is more negative. In The Pedestrian, from what Mr. Mead says and how the story is written, I can conclude that technology and people get along, but in a way that is not healthy for people, almost like a parasitic relationship. I think this because Bradbury uses descriptive language, like the light from the screen being painted on their faces. Which I interpret as something negative, kind of like they just sit there and just stare all evening after they work. I think another reason I believe this to be is that not only do they just have one police officer, but it is a robot police officer. The fact that they don’t need police tells me that no one breaks the rules and everyone just does what they’re supposed to, which can be seen as a good thing, but to me, I see that as them being controlled to a degree.

When I think about In the Forests of Memory, I see it as a positive adaptation and relationship between people and technology. Thinking about how Sunny can talk to all the people who have passed on in the cemetery is sweet and wholesome. I’m sure many people today wish there were a technology like the one from the story available. Whether you have lost loved ones or not, it is something a lot of us think about as family members get older or as sickness comes and goes. The idea of being able to still talk and interact with your loved ones after they have passed would bring a lot of people joy. I also think that Sunny talking with all the people who have passed that are in the cemetery and getting to hear their stories is special because it gives off the message to not take life for granted. After all, you never know what can happen. This is seen when she talks with Gilda, who was only twenty years old when she died from something relating to tumors she developed.

The last question I’ll explore is how these fictional AIs relate to your experiences of and/or understanding of the technologies branded as AI today. I’ll start with In the Forests of Memory, I feel as though the technology involved to allow people to interact with their loved ones after they have passed is something similar to what I’ve seen today, just at a more advanced level. They are called deep fakes, where it is basically an AI video of someone famous saying something funny that someone has made through AI technologies. To me, this is just the beginning of what is possible, and the people in the cemetery are something of future advancement.

In The Pedestrian, I would say the closest related thing I have seen would be the robot police car, and I will relate that to Waymo taxis. Waymo taxis are self-driving taxis that drive people around in big cities using autonomous map technologies to get you to your destination without the need for you to drive yourself. I relate that because you can also talk to the taxi, but much like in the story, it has a programmed/automated response, and it isn’t someone in real time.

This is a Waymo Taxi from San Francisco

This is a deep fake in which a normal guy makes himself appear to be Tom Cruise

This is an image ChatGPT generated for me as a resemblance to the story In the Forests of Memory. Here is the prompt I used: “Can you generate me an image of what it would be like if you could interact with passed loved ones in a cemetery? Make the person who passed away almost like a hologram”.

Tyler Phillips ITS Page

January 28, 2026 /
  • What accessibility issues crop up for the page you chose?

Two click-away links are invisible on the page

Four areas where contrast errors exist

  • Who is most likely to need the content on the page?

People who need support with their technology

  • How might the accessibility issues impede people’s access to the content?Who might be most impacted?

It may affect the page’s UX. They might think the page is cluttered or the colors too much.

  • Name one or two ways that the accessibility of the site could be improved – the smaller and easier, the better!

Get rid of the invisible links in the background

Clean up the coloring on the page to improve overall contrast and make the UX better.

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Header image: "Gateway Arch" by Jim Bauer, https://flic.kr/p/2gjv6pL

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