Project Charters

The charter is the foundational document that describes the rationale, goals, overall timeline, necessary resources, terms and conditions, and outcomes of a Center for Digital Humanities at Princeton (hereafter CDH) project. Charters are written by core members of a project team in a series of planning meetings taking place over the course of a month. The planning process is intensive, collaborative, and requires substantial input from everyone on a team. Charters serve as formalized agreements among all team members on such crucial questions as scope, technical design, infrastructural needs, and success criteria. Each project charter is peer-reviewed by the CDH Faculty Director and Executive Director.

The charter has a twofold importance: 1) it provides the project’s organizational infrastructure and 2) it defines and embodies a commitment to a set of intellectual, ethical, social, and political values, providing space to negotiate topics like equity and fair labor, accountability, accessibility, sustainability and community practices. Charters are social, setting the tone for collaborative work and establishing the terms on which the project engages its audiences.

The published charters below are digital copies of a “living document” at a single point in time. Charters are amended as necessary throughout the project lifecycle to document major changes and serve as part of the CDH project archive. CDH charters and their planning documents exist in several forms as we have refined them over the years and tailored them to the several types of projects we have supported.

Sample Charters

CDH Project Charter — Simulating risk, risking simulations 2022-2023 (2022)
Charter for research partnership on Simulating risk, risking simulations.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8087661

CDH Project Charter – Princeton Geniza Project 2020-2021. (2020)
Charter for research partnership on Princeton Geniza Project. CDH Development & Design Team led the planning and implementation.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4081714

CDH Project Charter — Princeton Ethiopian Miracles of Mary 2019-20. (2019)
Charter for continuing data work and exploratory implementation work for Princeton Ethiopian Miracles of Mary. CDH Development & Design Team actively involved in planning and implementation.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3359178

CDH Project Charter — Princeton Prosody Archive 2017-18. (2017). Charter for the most recent development phase of Princeton Prosody Archive. CDH Development & Design Team actively involved in planning and implementation.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3359172

CDH Project Charter — bitKlavier 2017-18. (2017)
bitKlavier. CDH staff consulted on the project, but were not involved in the implementation.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3359176

CDH Project Charter — Derrida’s Margins 2016-17. (2016)
Derrida’s Margins; this charter was written before the CDH Development & Design Team had been formed.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3359144

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