What is you name, job title, institution or company, & how long you have been in your current position?

Name: Hannah Gunderman (any pronouns)

Job Title: Data, Gaming, and Popular Culture Librarian

Institution: Carnegie Mellon University Libraries

Length in Current Position: A little over 2 years (started in July 2019)

Twitter: @HannahGunderman 

What are 3 words that describe you? 

Three words that describe me: Gamer, Introvert, Neurodivergent 

What motivated you to attend/join/participate in RDAP?

I wanted to get involved in RDAP because when I first started in my role 2 years ago, I was completely new to data librarianship and was feeling confused about how to start building my network. RDAP was a great way to meet new people and learn about the research happening in this field!

Do you have any roles in RDAP? If so, what do you do and what do you find motivating about your work with RDAP?

I do not, but I hope to be more active in an RDAP committee in the future! 

Please describe your path to your current position/profession.

I am a cultural geographer by training (specializing in popular culture), and have always had an interest in exploring unique forms of data such as images, text, and video - all data that is super common in cultural geography research! I decided to pivot my career towards data librarianship so I could help other researchers navigate the world of data, and pursued a postdoc at the University of Tennessee with the DataONE team working on data management research and resources. I was then hired as a Research Data Management Consultant at Carnegie Mellon University Libraries, and after a few months I explored teaching data management concepts through a pop culture lens. Several months later, we transitioned my role to the Data, Gaming, and Popular Culture Librarian in recognition of my niche skills in data management support and popular culture research background. 

What is a current project you’re working on that you’re excited about?

I’m currently working on my YouTube-based webseries called Pixel Datascapes, where I explore the data management lessons we can learn through video games! Each episode features a different video game, including Pokémon, Untitled Goose Game, GRIS, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons. New episodes will continue to come out during the remainder of 2021!