Alyssa Toby Fahringer
Alyssa Toby Fahringer
Librarian III
Alyssa is the Digital Humanities Librarian at George Mason University Libraries' Data and Digital Scholarship Services. In this role she collaborates with students and faculty on digital humanities-based methods and projects. She teaches classroom instruction sessions, leads workshops, and provides consultations to researchers who are engaging in digital scholarship. As the Associate Director of Digital Scholarship at the Center for Mason Legacies, Alyssa provides guidance and instruction to researchers and community partners on their digital public history projects.
Selected Publications
Co-authored with Andrea Weeks et. al., "Adapting Digital Humanities Tools for Biodiversity Science: A Case Study in Field Notebook Digitization and the Extended Specimen Network," Biodiversity Informatics 20, no. 2 (2026): doi.org/10.17161/bi.v20i2.25170
Review of Jody Lynn Allen, Roses in December: Black Life in Hanover County from Civil War to Civil Rights, Journal of American History, June 2026: doi.org/10.1093/jahist/jaag130
“Richmond’s Year of Disasters: Reconciliation, Relief, and the End of Reconstruction,” in Rethinking American Disasters, ed. Cynthia A. Kierner, Matthew Mulcahy, and Liz Skilton (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2023)
"'With All Her Sad Disasters, What Do We See in this City?': Reconstruction, Race, and the Politics of Disaster in Richmond, 1870-1918," (PhD diss., George Mason University, 2022)
Education
PhD, History, George Mason University
MA, History, George Mason University
MLIS, University of Pittsburgh
BA, History, Virginia Commonwealth University
BA, Political Science, Virginia Commonwealth University
Recent Presentations
“From Sources to (Digital) Exhibit,” Virginia Forum, 2025
“Reimagining Teaching Historical Methods Through Exploring the American Revolution,” with Georgia Brown, Anthony Guidone, and George D. Oberle III, Teaching American and Digital Revolutions, 2024
“Using Omeka S as a Tool for Pedagogy and Digital Scholarship,” Keystone DH, 2023
“‘Party Feelings and Sectional Animosities Were in a Moment Forgotten’: Reconciliation and Relief During Richmond’s Year of Disasters, 1870,” Southern Historical Association, 2022
“Digital Initiatives at the Center for Mason Legacies,” with Anne Dobberteen, Anthony Guidone, and George D. Oberle III, Conference on Community Writing, 2021
“Library Support for Faculty Digital Projects,” with Wendy Mann, ACRL Digital Scholarship Section Digital Collections Discussion Group, 2021
“Digital Initiatives and the Ethics of Racial Reckoning at the Center for Mason Legacies,” with Anne Dobberteen and George D. Oberle III, Chesapeake Digital Humanities Consortium, 2021