Research in Embodied Analytics and Cultural Heritage Studio
Bunce Island: Through the Mirror is a powerful interface which immersively brings research around the slave trade to students through a digitally generated historically significant site, fostering learning, and literally embodying historical datasets to be better understood.
We have designed an educational interface between WWW’s managed datasets and university learning management systems that engages and captivates students; this is a transformative tool which will support virtual and online learning.
Screenshot from Meta-Reality: Bunce Island, a digital 3D immersive recreation of the Bunce Island harnessing photogrammetry and GIS technologies
Research Program Areas
Scarification and Branding Practices
Digitizing Endangered Archives
Machine Learning Models
Educational Games
Photogrammetry and GIS technologies
REACH Studio represents an interdisciplinary network which brings creatives and academics together to produce innovative new approaches to learning and research. With games under development that explore the European Middle Ages or the early 18th century in Sierra Leone, REACH is providing technologies and ideas to bring historical periods to a new audience.
Grants & Awards
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)
- Sierra Leone Public Archives
- Trent University
- OCAD University
- York University
Publications
- Our Director, Dr. Katrina Keefer's work has been published in History in Africa, the Journal of West African History, the African Studies Review, the Canadian Journal of African Studies, Games and Culture, and Atlantic Studies: Global Currents. She has contributed chapters to multiple volumes on African History, Digital Humanities, and Game Studies.
Research Keywords
cultural history, body markings, african history, classical history, intellectual history, history of global slavery globally, missionary education and development, representation within games
Our Research Projects