2010 Articles

"Dangerous Citizens" Online: a case study of an author-press-library partnership

Kennison, Rebecca R.; Panourgia, Neni; Tartar, Helen

This essay traces how Neni Panourgiá, Professor of Anthropology at Columbia University, Fordham University Press and the Columbia Center for Digital Research and Scholarship worked together to produce an online book that strives not to replace but to augment the printed book it accompanies. The 'synaesthetic' reading experience provided by the online book enables readers to experience more fully the author's rich fieldwork materials and to customize their own reading of the various texts that make up the book, thereby gaining a better sense of the multiple levels of anthropological analysis. Moreover, the online book can remain open-ended, enabling ongoing updating. Particular attention is devoted to the challenges faced by the digital project and the aspects of the partnership that made the project a success.