announcements

Design and the Digital Humanities CFP

Michael J. Kramer

Co-organized by our own mighty NUDHL contributor Josh Honn!
Topic: Design and the Digital Humanities

With this year’s M/MLA topic of “Art & Artifice,” the new Permanent Section on Digital Humanities will explore issues of, experiments with, and provocations on design. Digital humanities (DH) is often equated with tool-oriented, procedural tasks like text analysis and data gathering. For example, the recent MLA open access publication Literary Studies in the Digital Age, focuses on textual databases, mining, analysis, and modeling. However, Johanna Drucker, Anne Burdick, Bethany Nowviskie, Tara McPherson, and others have argued that interface and systems design, visual narrative, and graphical display are not peripheral concerns, but rather important “intellectual methods” (Burdick et al. 2012). Likewise, DH projects and publications often segment (content first, design last) and/or outsource (hire a firm, select a template) the design process, overlooking the powerful and important dialectic of design and argument, at times to the great detriment of the project itself. In an effort to further the conversation, we invite papers related to any aspect of design and the digital humanities. Possible topics/questions may include, but are certainly not limited to:

  • design of interactive fiction, hypertext fiction, and electronic literature
  • games and virtual spaces
  • hybrid digital/analog fabrication practices and the ethos of hacking, making, and crafting that surrounds them
  • tensions between original designs and prefabricated templates and visualizations
  • the relationship between content and design in a scholarly edition, web archive, course website, or other digital content management project
  • design and affect, design and imagination
  • the tendency of DH project groups to separate designers and programmers on a team; tendency to divide design concerns from “technical” concerns
  • design standards, web standards, responsive & participatory design, and issues of accessibility of online publications and projects
  • skeuomorphism vs. born-digital design?
  • design and code as language art, code poetry, etc.?

Please send 250-word abstracts by May 31st to both Josh Honn (josh.honn@gmail.com) and Rachael Sullivan (sullivan.rachael@gmail.com).
Co-chairs: Josh Honn (Northwestern University) and Rachael Sullivan (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee)

Call for Responses: Teaching with Technology

Beth Corzo-Duchardt

http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/content/cfr-teaching-technology

The MediaCommons Front Page Collective is looking for responses to the
survey question: What does the use of digital teaching tools look like
in the classroom?

Several educational institutions
(NCTE<http://www.ncte.org/cee/positions/beliefsontechnology> for
example) have addressed teaching with technology, including both the
necessity for it and the need for using technology within sound pedagogy.
Teaching with digital tools is growing and offering online sections is
becoming the norm. With this survey, we hope to bring together teachers and
scholars who utilize technology in their own classrooms to talk about not
only tools that scholars can apply, but also some of their findings in
their own classrooms. This project will run from May 20 to June 21.

Responses may include but are not limited to:

  • Digital tools used in the classroom
  • Digital tools for grading/class organization
  • How digital tools shape the classroom
  • Creating multimodal assignments
  • Using digital tools from a student’s perspective
  • Unexpected/unforeseen outcomes of using digital tools

Responses are 400-600 words and typically focus on introducing an idea for
conversation.  Proposals may be brief (a few sentences) and should state
your topic and approach. Groups may also submit a cluster of responses.
Submit proposals to mediacommons.odu@gmail.com by *May 10* to be considered
for inclusion into this project.

In case you are unfamiliar with *MediaCommons*, we are an experimental
project created in 2006 by Drs. Kathleen Fitzpatrick and Avi Santo, seeking
to envision how a born-digital scholarly press might re-conceptualize both
the processes and end-products of scholarship. MediaCommons was initially
developed in collaboration with the Institute for the Future of the Book
through a grant from the MacArthur Foundation and is currently supported by
New York University’s Digital Library Technology Services through funding
from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment
for the Humanities.

artist-built tools and slippery standards: a conversation with jon.satrom

Michael J. Kramer

artist-built tools and slippery standards:
a conversation with jon.satrom

May 19, Noon
@ HCL 1401 W. Wabansia
Free
RSVP here

HCL’s new monthly Cultural Conversation seriesinvites you to meet some of Chicago’s most innovative and inspirational artists and cultural producers as they share the intimate details of their projects, passions and inspirations. Join us for casual brunch time talks and take part in the dialogues that propel guest artists, scholars and thinkers to investigate their unique perspectives across a diverse range of creative forms.

Jon Satrom is an artist who undermines interfaces, problematizes presets, and playfully bends data.

He spends his days fixing things and making things work. He spends his evenings breaking things and searching for the unique blips inherent to the systems he explores and exploits. His works and warez have been enjoyed on screens of all sizes. His artwork and efforts have been featured in glowing-rectangles and on dead-trees. Collaboratively, Satrom performs with I ♥ PRESETS & PoxParty and co-organizes the GLI.TC/H conference/festival/gathering.

Satrom will share some of his favorite artist-built tools and discuss some of his own current projects.

http://highconceptlabs.ticketleap.com/jon-satrom/

Damon Horowitz, Google “In-House Philosopher” Speaks @ NU

Michael J. Kramer

NU News Press Release:

Damon Horowitz to deliver Contemporary Thought Speakers Lecture April 30

April 29, 2013 | by Wendy Leopold

EVANSTON, Ill. – Damon Horowitz, director of engineering and “in-house philosopher” at Google, will speak at Northwestern University Tuesday, April 30, as part of the University’s Contemporary Thought Speaker Series.

Horowitz, whose work explores what is possible at the boundaries of technology and the humanities, will speak at 6 p.m. in Ryan Auditorium in the Technological Institute, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston campus. His lecture is free and open to the public.

A “serial entrepreneur,” Horowitz was cofounder and chief technology officer of Aardvark, a popular social search engine acquired in 2010 by Google. He has taught courses in philosophy, cognitive science and computer science at institutions including Stanford University, New York University, the University of Pennsylvania and San Quentin State Prison.

Horowitz’s work has been featured in popular media outlets from The New York Times to the Discovery Channel, and in TechCrunch, a web publication that provides technology news and analysis along with profiles of startup companies, products and websites. With a bachelor’s degree in computer science and a Ph.D. in philosophy, Horowitz advocates for the importance and integration of both subjects in today’s world.

The Contemporary Thought Speaker Series brings leading intellectuals to Northwestern to foster community-wide discussions on important subjects of the day. The series dates back to the 1920s and 1930s and, over the years, has brought Jane Addams, Frank Lloyd Wright, Clarence Darrow, W.E.B. DuBois, Carl Sandburg, Bertrand Russell and other notable figures to campus.

The series was revived last year when the Office of the President and Office of the Provost agreed to support an undergraduate initiative to reinstate the lecture series.

Tickets are not required but can be reserved online through the Norris University Center Box Office. For more about the Contemporary Thought Speaker Series, email Ellie Graham at jegraham@u.northwestern.edu.

http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2013/04/google-in-house-philosopher-and-director-of-engineering-to-speak.html

UIC Digital Humanities Working Group

Michael J. Kramer

The Institute for the Humanities

and the UIC Digital Humanities Working Group

 

present

 

UIC faculty, staff, and Graduate Student Presentations

 

Wednesday, May 1, 2013 from 3 – 5 pm

Institute for the Humanities, Lower Level, Stevenson Hall, 701 South Morgan

 

Presentations by:

Joe Tabbi, English Dept

Tim Soriano, History Dept

Tracy Seneca & Sandy DeGroote, Digital Humanities Task Force, Library

Jim Sosnoski, Communication Dept, Emeritus

 

Light refreshments will be served.

If you need disability accommodations or for more information, please contact huminst@uic.edu or 312-996-6354.

 

 

NU GIS Working Group Opportunity

Michael J. Kramer

From Ian Saxine:

Hello colleagues,

Ann Aler, the GIS specialist at the library, has agreed to host several training workshops for interested history grad students and faculty in the fall quarter of 2013. GIS (Geographic Information System) is a program that allows you to present and manage geographic data. Useful for everything from creating a customized map, to more complex tasks like categorizing, organizing, and presenting research findings (such as shifts in criminal activity in a city over time, economic patterns, etc.), GIS familiarity can enhance your dissertation or monograph. If people are interested in participating in several GIS workshops next fall (scheduling TBD) we have an opportunity to secure funding for them. The workshops would teach you to use the GIS lab technology in the library on your own in the future.

 

If you would like to participate, please send a brief response to iansaxine2014@u.northwestern.edu. The level of interest will influence the success of our funding proposal.

 

Regards,

Ian Saxine

Talk Today, 4/22: Sarah Igo, Tracking the ‘Surveillance Society’

Michael J. Kramer

DH-relevant talk today over at the Program in Science in Human Culture:

SARAH IGO (Vanderbilt)

“Tracking the ‘Surveillance Society’”

Description: This talk explores the cultural effects of new ways of housing and accessing personal data in the U.S. in the 1960s and 1970s. It was in this period that citizens first mobilized around what they had known, in low-grade fashion, since at least the 1930s: that many agencies, public and private, were collecting information about them. New suspicions attended the mundane data-gathering operations of agencies like the Internal Revenue Service and Census Bureau, while hidden monitoring devices, vast warehouses of private information, and menacing bureaucracies loop through the cultural and political texts of the period. Faster computers, larger bureaucracies, and expanding databanks, I will argue, generated novel claims and claimants for the protection of “private” information. They also led to a distinctive understanding of the postindustrial U.S. as a “surveillance society,” which depended on the collection of personal data for its very operation.

Hagstrum Room (University Hall Room 201) on Mondays from 4pm-5:30pm.

http://www.shc.northwestern.edu/klopsteg/index.html

Fascinating and DH-relevant article by Igo: Sarah Igo, “Knowing Citizens,” Sensate Journal.

Today, 5pm: Pedagogy in the Digital Age

Michael J. Kramer

The Searle Center for Advancing Teaching and Learning is hosting a workshop for graduate TAs and instructors, “Pedagogy in the Digital Age,” on April 18th, 5:00-7:00pm. Come learn about how to incorporate new technologies and tools into your classroom teaching! Panelists include NUDHL conveners, Michael Kramer and Jillana Enteen, as well as Josh Honn (Digital Scholarship Fellow, NU Library) and Beth Corzo-Duchardt (Gender Studies TA and HASTAC Scholar).  For registration and further information, please visit the Searle Center workshops website:

http://www.northwestern.edu/searle/calendar/index.html#tab3

Looking forward to seeing everyone there!

 

New Upcoming HASTAC Forums

Michael J. Kramer
HASTAC@NUDHL Scholars and other interested folks, HASTAC just announced three new upcoming forums.
Dis/Ability: Moving Beyond Access in the Academy:

http://hastac.org/forums/disability-moving-beyond-access-academy

  • What strategies do you use in your classrooms to increase accessibility or even to cater to or accommodate particular disabilities? What challenges have you faced making your classroom more accessible? Have some strategies backfired? Are there particular issues that have prevented you from making accessibility-related changes?
  • What technologies are people using (whether assistive technologies or broader tech like YouTube & Twitter) to meet the needs of students? What technologies are used to create and/or support online disability identities?
  • How can our own scholarly research be more accessible? I mean this both in terms of wider availability (open access publishing, perhaps) and in terms of ensuring that a range of people with various physical differences can access our new media projects. How might accessibility enhance a digital or multimodal project?
  • How does disability theory intersect with technology, particularly in relation to race & resistance studies; “assistive” technologies; innovation, hacking & appropriation; and gender & queer studies?
Alan Turing: The First Digital Humanist?
  • What does it mean to include Turing as a digital humanist?
  • Is the “uncanny valley” still a useful concept?
  • What does it mean to consider technology queer?  Is information queer?  How might both be queered and to what end?
  • In considering the idea of the posthuman as queer, can we understand disability and /or illness to always already be posthuman? To never be posthuman? something else? What is the role of the state in creating the posthuman through technologies such as Turing’s chemical castration?
  • Why has Turing been a particularly important icon when thinking about the history of computing? In which histories is he highlighted or ignored?
  • The history of cybernetics is full of other interesting thinkers and makers, and many have gone unsung. We’d love to hear about the people, inventions or movements that you can add to this history.
  • What are your most interesting questions about cybernetics, posthumanism or Turing?
Visualizing Geography: Maps, Place and Pedagogy
  • How can web tools represent the literary spaces that a reader encounters (or imagines) in literature? What types of tools would fill the existing technological gaps in geospatial information studies?
  • How do narratives travel and replicate over geographical space? What would mapping these processes yield? How can we do it?
  • Is it problematic to represent literary and historical geography with modern interfaces like Google Maps? Should we be concerned that these visualizations may not be accurate representations of how our subjects would imagine space, or can we be content in uncovering new (and previously impossible) readings of old texts?
  • How does using maps as a pedagogical tool affect our understanding of both real and literary environments? Does mapping change the way we make connections even when we aren’t thinking about geographical space?

MediaCommons CFR: Media Studies vs. Digital Humanities

Michael J. Kramer

The MediaCommons Front Page Collective is looking for responses to the survey question: What are the differentiations and intersections of media studies and the digital humanities?

The term Digital Humanities is notoriously difficult to define. Often, it is conflated with media studies, especially new media studies. But, is this the best way to think about the digital humanities? What is the difference between the umbrella term digital humanities where media studies often falls and what is referred to as the capital DH, which deals with using new tools and archives? With this survey, we want to extend opportunities to scholars to discuss how media studies and the digital humanities do and do not intersect. This project will run on the front page of the site from April 15 to May 10.

Responses may include but are not limited to:

  • – Textual studies and the Digital Humanities
  • – Whether new media studies necessarily intersect with digital humanities
  • – How definitions of digital humanities determine its intersections with media studies
  • – Whether or no digital humanities purely a reflexive field that talks about itself or is it one that discusses content as well as form

Responses are 300-400 words and typically focus on introducing an idea. Proposals may be brief (a few sentences) and should state your topic and approach. Submit proposals to <mediacommons.odu@gmail.com> by *April 5* to be considered for inclusion into this project.

In case you are unfamiliar with *MediaCommons*, we are an experimental project created in 2006 by Drs. Kathleen Fitzpatrick and Avi Santo, seeking to envision how a born-digital scholarly press might re-conceptualize both the processes and end-products of scholarship. MediaCommons was initially developed in collaboration with the Institute for the Future of the Book through a grant from the MacArthur Foundation and is currently supported by New York University’s Digital Library Technology Services through funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/

A Guide to Digital Humanities

Josh

DH Comrades— I have published “A Guide to Digital Humanities” which has a focus on Northwestern University, but is also appropriate for all interested in DH. I would love for you all to check it out, use it, and offer suggestions. To Andrew and everyone else working on the NU toolography, I’d be happy to work with you and host it in the DH@NU section of the site. I may launch the blog at some point too, but I’m not sure yet. Happy to coordinate with NUDHL in anyway possible too!