Check out what the Research Commons has been working on with our collaborative research partners, across campus and beyond:
A Just and True Return
Led by Cory Young, assistant professor in the UI Department of History, and developed with technical support from the Libraries’ Digital Scholarship and Publishing Studio (DSPS), JTR is a publicly accessible database of Pennsylvania’s surviving county slave registrations. The project brings together documents from more than a dozen repositories across three states, highlighting the lived realities of gradual abolition. The interactive website features essays written by descendants of individuals recorded in the registrations, offering historical context alongside an interactive map that allows users to browse records by county. These elements work together to humanize the data and expand how scholars and the public engage with the history of slavery in the United States. Young received funding for this project from a 2024 Arts and Humanities Initiative standard grant.
Genetic Privacy in the U.S.: Insurance and Law Enforcement Use
A collaborative digital project developed with the University of Iowa College of Law and the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, this project builds on a comprehensive 50-state survey published in 2021 and aims to inform individuals and policymakers about how the use of genetic information by law enforcement and for life, long-term care, and disability insurance is regulated on a state-by-state basis across the United States. Within this site, users can explore interactive maps and visualizations of how states regulate what genetic data is available to insurance companies and law enforcement, as well as protective features that can help to strengthen regulation of sensitive genetic information. The project was funded by the Greenwall Foundation Bridging Bioethics Research & Policymaking Grant Program.