NDAR Student Editors Present at First eLaboratories Conference

Four student editors from Naval Documents of the American Revolution (NDAR) participated in the inaugural eLaboratories conference at the University of Virginia in August, presenting their work alongside documentary editors, digital humanists, archivists, public historians, and other scholars from across the United States and beyond.

Held August 8–9, 2026, in UVA’s Newcomb Hall, “Revolutions and Reflections: A Conference for Editing and Recovery Practitioners” was the first annual conference organized by eLaboratories (eLabs), an initiative of UVA’s Center for Digital Editing. Taking place during the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the conference explored both revolution as a historical subject and the changing methods, technologies, and practices through which scholars edit, recover, and make historical sources accessible.

NDAR student editors Christopher Flores-Bravo, Jonathan Lerdau, Audrey Miracle, and Isabella Shealy presented as part of the session “Collaborative Editing, Transformative Learning: Student Roles in Documentary Projects.” Their presentation introduced NDAR and discussed the substantive role students play in the project’s research and editorial work. The panel placed their experiences in conversation with presentations on the Dickinson Electronic Archives and the recovery of records concerning escaped unfree people in the seventeenth-century Chesapeake.

The session highlighted an important part of NDAR’s work at UVA. Students are not simply observing the process of documentary editing: they participate directly in the research and editorial work required to build a modern scholarly edition. Working with eighteenth-century documents introduces students to archival research, transcription, annotation, historical interpretation, metadata, and the challenges involved in transforming manuscript sources into reliable and accessible digital scholarship. Their presentation at eLabs offered an opportunity to reflect on that work and to share their experiences with a wider community of editors and recovery practitioners.

Christopher F. Minty, NDAR’s Managing Editor and Project Director, moderated the student panel. Minty also moderated the conference session “Exploring the Applications and Effects of AI,” which considered synthetic media and digital memory, AI-assisted editorial workflows, and questions surrounding digital preservation, copyright, and publishing.

The NDAR presentation formed part of a wide-ranging two-day program devoted to the future of editing and recovery. Sessions addressed subjects including accessible transcription, metadata, community-engaged scholarship, digital preservation, artificial intelligence, archival recovery, digital exhibitions, and new approaches to publishing historical materials. A Saturday evening reception and poster session in the Dome Room of UVA’s Rotunda provided another opportunity for participants to exchange ideas and learn about projects underway across the field.

For NDAR, the conference was particularly valuable because it brought together two central parts of the project’s mission: producing rigorous, innovative scholarship about the revolutionary era and training the next generation of editors and historians. We were delighted to see Isabella, Jonathan, Audrey, and Christopher representing NDAR and contributing their perspectives to a broader conversation about what documentary editing can become.

The inaugural conference was only the beginning. eLaboratories and the Center for Digital Editing will host the conference again next year at the University of Virginia, and NDAR looks forward to once again participating in this growing community of scholars, students, editors, and practitioners.

More information about the 2026 conference and its full program is available from eLaboratories.