Transcendent Communities:
Categorizing Transgender Communities in the United States, from the 1960s through the 1980s
Senior Capstone Research Paper - BA in US History at the University of Maryland
My paper's primary argument is that transgender communities in the United States from the 1960s to 1980s can be categorized geographically in three distinct ways: no community, local communities, and national communities. This is done through case studies of eight different trans people and the communities they were or were not part of during these decades. Using diverse primary source types including newspapers, memoirs, oral histories, court cases, speeches, and digital archival collections, the paper effectively engages with each of its subjects and shows the validity of its argument. The paper also engaged with numerous secondary sources, including books, essays, and articles that encompassed foundational works in the field, recent works, and other relevant works. Using secondary sources allowed me to properly explain how my research fits into the historiography, which gave way to a secondary argument that the historical study of trans people should shift more to interactions between trans people and their communities, instead of primarily interactions between trans people and the societal systems around them. I gained experience with a variety of tools during my research process. I learned how to use library resources through the University of Maryland, engaged with several digital archives and repositories, kept a research journal, participated in a peer review with a classmate, and learned how to use Zotero. Each of these were extremely beneficial and made my research much more organized.
I presented the paper on January 4, 2025 at the Phi Alpha Theta (History Honor Society) Biennial Convention in Arlington, VA. The paper was published in the Spring 2025 issue of Clio's Scroll, the undergraduate history journal at UC Berkeley.
Completed as part of the requirements for HIST408F - Senior Seminar; Social Movements of the 1960s and 1970s.
Full text (links to UC Berkeley - essay begins on p. 43)
Smith, Pete. "Transcendent Communities: Categorizing Transgender Communities in the United States, from the 1960s through the 1980s." Clio's Scroll 28, no. 1 (Spring 2025): 43-76.
Comet Statistics:
A graphical representation of international comet discovery and observation statistics from the NASA PDS Small Bodies Node and the Minor Planet Center
Website, Conference Presentation, and Conference Proceedings Paper - NASA PDS Small Bodies Node at the University of Maryland
Completed as part of my web development internship with the NASA PDS Small Bodies Node at the University of Maryland Astronomy Department
Abstract:
The Minor Planet Center (MPC) is the International Astronomical Union’s recognized clearing house for all positional and categorization data for small bodies, a.k.a. comets, asteroids, and irregular satellites. Comprehensive Discovery statistics are often represented as lists and specialized data tables on the MPC’s website (https://minorplanetcenter.net). We are creating an interface to summarize the discovery and observation data available through a variety of sources. Specifically, we use the Minor Planet Center’s table containing orbital elements for all comets, the NASA JPL Small Bodies Database API, and a copy of the MPC’s live processing database hosted by the Small Bodies Node. Each of these are parsed for the relevant data with a Python script using either HTTP requests or a Python-PostgreSQL library. This data is then processed and copied to the live site files, where it is then rendered in graph form by the user’s browser by using the Plotly.js framework. The site is designed to work as it is and, beyond a web browser, should not require the user to install any additional software.
Comet Statistics contains three main sections: comet discoveries, orbital elements, and unique observations. Similarly to summary information provided in Bauer et al. (2023), each page also supports overlaying an arbitrary number of user-specified observatory codes onto each graph.
The comet discovery subpage shows statistics by year and comet type. Data is retrieved from the Minor Planet Center, along with the NASA JPL Small Bodies Database to cover potential missing data. The orbital elements section contains subpages for different comet types. Each subpage contains five graphs relating to orbital elements. Orbital element data is retrieved from the Minor Planet Center. The third section of the site, unique observations, shows unique object observations by year and by comet type.
In addition to the three graphical data sections of the site, Comet Statistics is also standing up an engine for converting between the “old” IAU designation system and the “new” IAU designation system. The purpose of this is to allow for a single reference source for comet nomenclature that will open legacy data sources to research investigations. By using this, researchers may be able to avoid confusion and refer to comets using only one designation system, even when source data may be referred to using multiple names.
References:
Bauer et al. 2023. arXiv:2210.09400 [astro-ph.EP]
https://minorplanetcenter.net
https://sbnmpc.astro.umd.edu/cometInfo/
Comet Statistics Website (links to UMD Astronomy Department)
Smith, P. S., Tjiputra, L., Bauer, J. M., Sharkey, B., and Farnham, T., "Comet Statistics - A graphical representation of international comet discovery and observation statistics from the NASA PDS Small Bodies Node and the Minor Planet Center", in Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems XXXIII, [publication year TBA], in press.