Ravina, Mark

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The past is never dead. It's not even pastNOT EVEN PASTSearch the site ...   Like 9TweetMassive Data and DigitalHistory: Teaching withMark RavinaIn Spring 2020, Professor Mark Ravina introduced a new variant on the highlysuccessful, HIS 320W • Thinking Like A Historian. He describes the course as follows:Historians use a range of analytical skills and our discipline, like the rest of the world, isentering the age of big data. In this class we will explore changes in American societyusing a massive data source, the hundreds of millions of names in the Social Securitydatabase. We will treat changes in baby names as evidence of broader political, social,and cultural change. When and why did the name Adolph drop in popularity? That shouldbe obvious, but which name dropped in popularity the fastest: Adolph, Benito, or Hillary?Which name switched genders the fastest: Ashleigh, Kerry, or Jackie? Have personalnames in the US become more or less diverse? Do the answers to these questions varyby state or region? Is Texas more “name diverse” than Wisconsin? Through thesequestions, we will explore the intersection of history with the interdisciplinary  eld ofdata science.So that we can analyze name trends, this course will introduce the computer language Rand review some basic algebra. Math and coding-related questions will include how tomeasure name diversity and how to calculate it by state and year. We will also exploremore conventional historical sources and methods: newspapers, magazines,  ction andnon- ction books, and archival materials. Which politicians, celebrities, or  ctionalcharacters might have changed the popularity of a name? Was the name Marion, forexample, already trending female when Marion Robert Morrison chose the screen nameJohn Wayne? Did Cassius Clay spark a trend toward Islamic and Afro-centric nameswhen he became Muhammed Ali? How do biographies, autobiographies, and othersources explain trends in names? How do those explanation match our quantitativeevidence?You do not need any special background in mathematics or computer science, justcuriosity and a lack of “math anxiety.” If you have a strong math, stats, or codingbackground, you will learn to apply those skills to real world data. If not, this is a greatintroduction to data science. For all students, by combining humanistic critical thinkingwith computational analysis, this course will give you skills applicable to a range ofcareers.This article highlights three innovative student projects that emerged out of this excitingnew course.William KovachPrivacy  - TermsIn the following excerpt, William Kovach discusses his  rst name’s popularity, and thevarious forces that impacted it. The project was focused on identifying how a name, inthis case William, can serve as a lens through which to investigate US History morebroadly.The below graph shows the yearly change of the name William’s popularity, which hassteadily decreased since 1880.The name’s fall has been gradual and consistent, so similarly gradual forces—namelyincreasing name diversity, urbanization, and globalization—have likely contributed to it.Data demonstrate signi cant negative correlation between these phenomena andWilliam’s popularity, and scholarly articles suggest that the forces may be causal.Nicknames of William have seen greater volatility than the name itself. This fact can belinked to characters and individuals known by the names in popular culture. Billy’spopularity, for example, rose considerably leading up to the 1930s. Bill was also popularduring the period. Characters including Buffalo Bill, Billy the Kid, Wild Bill Hickok, andBroncho Billy were popularized in association with depictions of the United States’ “WildWest,” and many of them were growing in popularity leading up to and during the early1900s. This suggests that they may have in uenced the nicknames’ popularity in thesame period and the following one. The graph below shows the frequency of each ofthose character names in American English literature (from Google ngrams).Liam MonahanIn the following excerpt, Liam Monahan discusses his given name and how it has grownin popularity following the rise to fame of certain actors.Baby names in the U.S. are deeply entrenched in popular culture. Liam, for example, waspropelled on the wings of fame to become the U.S.’s most popular baby name in 2018.The name’s popularity soared from the depths of anonymity to the heights of conformistendorsements, all thanks to the 1993 movie Schindler’s List and its star, Liam Neeson.After the initial spike, the name surged while a successive chain of celebrity Liamssupported its popularity. After achieving mainstream usage, Liam shed its Irish heritageand has expanded to become common in Hispanic, Black and Asian populations in NewYork state. Ultimately, Liam’s popularity proliferated throughout the US, including PuertoRico, and spread abroad to Canada, France, the UK, Spain and Switzerland.Liam’s rise in popularity is connected chie y to the Academy Award winning  lm,Schindler’s List. In fact, Liam and Oskar (with a Germanic “k”) both soared after the  lm.According to The New York Times, Liam Neeson played the protagonist Oskar Schindlerwith “mesmerizing authority” and “unmistakably larger than life, with the panache of anold-time movie star” (“Review/Film: Schindler’s List; Imagining the Holocaust toRemember It – The New York Times.” Accessed March 28, 2020https://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/15/movies/review- lm-schindler-s-list-imagining-the-holocaust-to-remember-it.html). This relatively obscure name – uniquely spelledwith a Germanic “k” and not Anglicized “c” – surged in popularity in 1993, correspondingwith the release of Schindler’s List and in parallel with the spike in the name Liam. Oskarrose from near anonymity to 0.0013% in 1993 and  nally 0.0073% in 2018, a 462%increase. Oskar increased amongst boy baby names from 1993 until 2009, jumping444%. Notably there was no similar rise in the related and more common name Oscar,spelled with a “c,” which subsequently diminished in popularity.Patrick SmithPatrick Smith examines his  rst name and its connection with religion anddemographics.“Patrick” has historically been a popular male name in the United States. Its popularitypeaked in 1968, when it was given to 0.751% of male babies born (Social SecurityAdministration 2020). The name has steadily declined in popularity since and was givento only 0.117% of male infants born in 2018, (Social Security Administration 2020). (SeeFigure 1).The name’s association with the 5  century patron-saint of Ireland, Saint Patrick, mayexplain why the decline of its popularity has coincided with declining religiosity andshifting demographics in the United States. In 1976, 81% of Americans identi ed aswhite Christians, but by 2017 only 43% did so (Cox and Jones 2017). Weekly churchattendance amongst Catholics decreased from 75% to 39% between 1955 and 2017(Saad 2018). Amongst 20-29-year-old Catholics, church attendance has declined from73% to 25% (Saad 2018). This may contribute to the declining selection of “Patrick”;decreasing religiosity likely lessens desire to name children after saints.thRECENT POSTSIHS Podcast: Colonial Peru’s Fractional Freedoms meet Morgan’s thesis: American Freedom, American SlaveryTeaching Global Environmental HistoryNEP Author Spotlight – Nathan StoneReview of The Fishmeal Revolution: The Industrialization of the Humboldt Current Ecosystem by Kristin A. Wintersteen(2021)IHS Podcast: Hungry for RevolutionNOT EVEN PAST is produced byThe Department of HistoryTHE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN We are supported by the College of Liberal ArtsAnd our READERSDONATECONTACTAll content © 2010-present NOT EVEN PAST and the authors, unless otherwise notedSign up to receive the monthly Not Even Past newsletterSUBSCRIBEThis trend seems also to have affected other religious names, such as those of theApostles. (See Figure 2).Certain religious names will likely continue to decline as American Christians becomeless numerous and less devout.ReferencesCox, Daniel and Robert P. Jones. “America’s Changing Religious Identity”. Research.PRRI, September 6, 2017. https://www.prri.org/research/american-religious-landscape-christian-religiously-una liated/.Saad, Lydia. “Catholics’ Church Attendance Continues Downward Slide.” Politics. Gallup,April 9, 2018. https://news.gallup.com/poll/232226/church-attendance-among-catholics-resumes-downward-slide.aspxSocial Security AdministratioPosted October 31, 2020More TeachingYour email addressFEATURES BOOKS TEACHING DIGITAL & FILMBLOG IHS TEXAS SPOTLIGHTABOUT

Massive Data and Digital History: Teaching with Mark Ravina

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Massive Data and Digital History: Teaching with Mark Ravina

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