Creative technological engagement with history, science, and art
Jaime Simons is an emerging curator and creative technologist. Passionate about merging heritage with technology to offer new ways of interacting with the past, their work has been shown at the Canada Science and Technology Museum (Ottawa, ON), the Earth Sciences Museum - Science Museum and Gallery (Waterloo, ON), digitally, and in various art galleries worldwide.

​ORCID: 0000-0002-3428-2849

Relevant Experience

  • Creative Lab Technologist, Maastricht University (Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, The Plant), 2023 - Present
  • Curatorial Researcher, Ingenium (Canada Science and Technology Museum), 2022-2023
  • Government Records Archivist Intern, Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, 2022-2023
  • Garth Wilson Fellow, Ingenium (Canada Science and Technology Museum), 2021-2022
  • Historical Photographs, Internal Communications Directorate, Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, 2021
  • Research Assistant, X-Lab (PI: Shawn Graham), Carleton University, 2020-2022
  • Teaching Assistant, Carleton University, 2020-2022
  • Assistant Curator/Exhibition Designer, Earth Sciences Museum - Science Museum and Galleries, 2019
  • Field Technician, Archaeological Services, Inc., 2018
  • Historical Teacher-Interpreter, Doon Heritage Village, 2017-2019
  • Interpreter, THEMUSEUM, 2014-2021

Education

  • MA Public History and Digital Humanities, Carleton University, 2022
  • BA Honours Arts & Business, Anthropology/Archaeology and Fine Arts, University of Waterloo, 2020

Publications

Published
  • Simons, J. Remixing the Ottawa River. You Are Here: The Journal of Creative Geography, Vol. 24, 2023
  • McKenney, C., Simons, J., Lane, A., Graham, S., and Huffer, D. Digital Folklore and Memes of Archaeology: Tiktok, Instagram, and the Human Remains Trade. Routledge Handbook of Digital Archaeology, 2023
  • Cohen-Stratyner, B., Eisenberg, S. E., Ledesma, J., McGurr, M., Medlock, G., Pankuch, T., Simmons, A., and Simons, J. Interpreting Transgender Stories in Museums and Cultural Heritage Institutions. LGBTQ+ Alliance Resources, 2022. https://www.aam-us.org/professional-networks/lgbtq-alliance/resources/ 
  • ​Huffer, D., Simons, J., Brughmans, T., and Graham, S. ‘Alleen voor studiedoeleinden’ (For study purposes only): The human remains trade on Marktplaats.nl. Anthropologica et Praehistorica, 131(2022): 37-53.
  • Burns, J., Cronquist, M., Huang, J., Murphy, D., Rawson, K. J., Schaefer, B., Simons, J., Watson, B. M., and Williams, A. Metadata Best Practices for Trans and Gender Diverse Resources, Librarian Publications & Presentations 52, 2022. https://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1052&context=librarians
  • Graham, S., Huffer, D., and Simons, J. When TikTok Discovered the Human Remains Trade: A Case Study, Open Archaeology,  Open Archaeology, vol. 8, no. 1, 2022, pp. 196-219. https://doi.org/10.1515/opar-2022-0235
  • Simons, J. Shipwrecks of the Ottawa River and Rideau Canal, The Historical Society of Ottawa, 2021. https://www.historicalsocietyottawa.ca/publications/features/shipwrecks-of-the-ottawa-river-and-rideau-canal-1823-1949.
  • Graham, S, and Simons, J. Listening to Dura Europos: An Experiment in Archaeological Image Sonification, Internet Archaeology 56, 2021. https://doi.org/10.11141/ia.56.8.

Forthcoming
  • Simons, J. Archaeology and Virtual Reality: A Critical Appraisal of Google Expeditions. Ontario Archaeological Society, Sidestone Press, 2023
  • Simons, J. Exploring Artifacts through Sound: Using Twine to Create an Geolocated Audio-Based Collection Tour. EnTwine, Amherst College Press, 2024

Conference Talks, Workshops, & Panels

  • ​The Plant: Growing & Nurturing an Innovative Technological Ecosystem in an Arts-Focused Academic Institution, Modern Languages Association, New Orleans (United States), 2025
  • Our Research Software Engineering is Different from Yours: Situated Engineering and Workflows in the Humanities and Social Sciences, DARIAH, Lisbon (Portugal), 2024
  • Sounding Out Artifact Lives: Exploring Science and Technology Collections through Soundscapes and Oral Histories, International Federation for Public History, Berlin (Germany), 2022
  • Exploring Artifact Histories through Sound: An Audio-based Tour of Ingenium's Oversized Artifact Collections Room, Sensing Public HIstory, Public History Summer School, International Federation for Public History, Wroclaw (Poland), 2022
  • Steamboat Connections: Remixing the Ottawa River, Panel: Place-Based Memory and Public History, Underhill Colloquium, Ottawa (Canada), 2022
  • Linked Open Data and Archaeological Image Sonificaiton, ​New Directions in Digital Humanities: The X-Lab Presents, Carleton Digital Humanities Conference, Ottawa (Canada), 2022
  • Steamboats on the Ottawa, Jammin' with our MREs/MRPs, The Heritage Jam, York (England), 2022
  • Shipwrecks of the Ottawa River and Rideau Canal, History + DH Roundtable, Underhill Colloquium, Ottawa (Canada), 2021
  • Archaeology and Virtual Reality: A Critical Appraisal of Google Expeditions, Knowledge Production in the Age of Zoom, Ontario Archaeological Society Symposium, 2021

Teaching & Lecturing

Maastricht University
  • Museum Meanings, ACU3004 with Dr. Vivian van Saaze, Anne Frank in Virtual Reality, 2024​

Carleton University
  • Historian's Craft, HIST 2809, Department of History, Fall 2020
  • Aztecs, HIST 3704, Department of History, Winter 2021
  • Classical Mythology, CLCV/ENGL 2500, Greek and Roman Studies and Department of English Language and Literature, Fall 2021
  • Ancient Rome, CLCV/HIST 2904, Greek and Roman Studies and Department of History, Fall 2021
  • Survey of Greek Civilization, CLCV/ARCY 1002B, Greek and Roman Studies and Archaeology Studies, Winter 2022

Service

  • Co-Chair, Underhill Colloquium, 2021-2022
  • Secretary-Treasuer, Carleton History Graduate Student Association, 2020-2022
  • Secretary, Carleton Digital Humanities Society, 2021-2022

Memberships & Affiliations

  • Carleton Centre for Public History, Carleton University, Researcher
  • ​X-Lab (Digital Humanities Research), Carleton University, Researcher
  • ​Capital Heritage Connexion, Treasurer
  • Transgender Metadata Committee, Researcher
  • AAM LGBTQ+ Alliance, Taskforce for Transgender Inclusion, Researcher

Grants and Awards

  • Colonel John By Award in History (Historical Society of Ottawa), 2021
  • Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council - Masters, 2021
  • Ontario Graduate Scholarship, 2021
  • Domestic Entrance Masters, 2020
  • Departmental Scholarship 1, 2020
  • Departmental Scholarship 2, 2020 and 2021
  • Entrance Scholarship, 2020
  • Faculty of Arts Award for Distinguished Academic Achievement in Anthropology, 2020
  • Iris Yuzdepski Memorial Undergraduate Award in Anthropology, 2020
  • Robert and Margaret Forwell Award, 2019 and 2016
  • Suzanne Forth Award, 2020 and 2018
  • Founder’s Scholarship, 2016
  • President’s Scholarship of Distinction, 2016