Slides for my short talk today at HASTAC 2013 in Toronto. You can follow the proceedings online, many panels being streamcast, plus on Twitter at hashtag #hastac2013.
hastac
New Upcoming HASTAC Forums
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?
HASTACers @ NUDHL: Feb. 26 Meeting Minutes
Hello fellow HASTACers. In response to my last post:
Andrew, Amanda, Kevin, and I met up earlier this week to talk about some possible directions for the HASTACers to take this spring. I’m attaching an abbreviated list of the points we touched on, to keep you all in the loop. Please feel free to respond to this post with suggestions, or to bring your ideas to the next NUDHL meeting. We’re hoping we can get all of the HASTAC grads here on board to make next quarter productive.
Also, feel free to use the #NUDHL tag on Twitter to keep the conversation going. You can find me, for example, @emilydvb (as I desperately attempt to become a tweet-er). Looking forward to all of us collaborating on the next quarter.
(Apologies for the messy form of these minutes!)
Meeting Minutes
Tuesday, 26 February 2013
Andrew, Amanda, Kevin, & Emily
1. Discussed potential tools workshops (ex: text mining, coding, GIS, programming languages)
2. Discussed pooling opinions and information via census (which Andrew has created as a Google Doc)
3. Discussed potential census questions
4. Discussed possibility of creating an NUDHL twitter handle
5. Discussed enlisting grad students from other departments (non-humanities) to help us learn coding languages by leading workshops
6. Discussed the possibility of consolidating resources at NU to establish a larger digital community (ex: connecting our work with the library’s ongoing software workshops), trying to connect our grad student digital initiative to other ongoing digital resources @ NU
7. Discussed setting up informal working group (as outlined in NUDHL blog post)
8. What would this look like in a quarter? We think we should approach it on a month-to-month basis. We discussed alternating workshops (to learn tools/skills/technologies) with working groups (presentations and discussions with grad students, Michael, Jillana, and Josh).
9. We think the workshop topics should be determined by the grad student working group. We discussed tracking interests/suggestions/opinions via a short survey at the end of each group meeting.
10. Who is the audience for these workshops and working group meetings? We think it would be best to start out with these sessions being open to all NU grad students, and then eventually expanding to accommodate others. We could keep Michael, Jillana, and Josh in the loop, and ask faculty members to visit and do workshop presentations. We could even expand this to include undergraduates, eventually.
11. We tried to think of a name/label for this initiative FOREVER. Could not think of one that we loved. Agreed on a working title of: Graduate Student Digital Scholarship Working Group
12. Game plan: First step is sending census to HASTACers and non-HASTAC grad students. Second step is having a meeting with Michael, Jillana, (and Josh?). Third step is scheduling first working group (with one presentation and a general meeting among all participants to gauge interests and gather ideas). We are aiming for the second week of April. We’d like to do at least one workshop before the end of the year, and more than one working group.
Hey, Northwestern HASTAC Scholars: Please Read This!
Hello, fellow HASTAC grad students!
I’m writing, per Michael’s suggestion, to start a conversation about where we’d like to take the HASTAC program next quarter (Spring 2013). As we all know, this has been a busy two quarters for all of us, and I know some of us have scheduling conflicts with this quarter’s meetings. So in the spirit of making the most of our last quarter as HASTAC Scholars, let’s start thinking about what we’d like to accomplish this spring!
At the end of our last NUDHL meeting, we kicked around the idea of setting up a structured series of events and meetings for the HASTAC grad students. I suggested that we might take turns signing up for biweekly, informal presentations. I use the word “presentation” loosely here, because I was thinking we could take turns sharing our research with one another in a low-pressure atmosphere, as-is, wherever we happen to be in the research process. For example, as a first-year student, I’m still in the beginning stages of my research. So if I were scheduled to share with the group, I could bring in my evidence in its messy form (some blurry photographs of my archival documents, some more organized transcriptions that have been tagged and catalogued in Zotero, etc.). Then, I could explain to the group what I’m trying to do with my project, and open up the floor for suggestions from fellow grad students. This could be something as basic as how to organize my evidence more efficiently, or more complex like how to use a new piece of digital text analysis software, or more theoretically grounded like how to ask different questions of my source material. The point is that it would be relaxed and constructive for each of us — not merely another task, but something that would help us to engage more effectively with the digital in our own research. And we would do this in a grad-friendly atmosphere, because even while we are lucky to have some very accessible and friendly faculty in our NUDHL meetings, we all know that it can be a bit intimidating to share your work with established faculty when you are just starting out. We could approach this with the understanding that we’re all in different places — in the PhD process, in our encounters with DH, or even just in different disciplines. No pressure, no stress.
Similarly, Lisa mentioned that it might be helpful to also set up some workshops that focus explicitly on learning about new tools and technologies, where we could bring in a guest speaker and acquire some practical skills.
So, what do you think? Do me a favor and share your thoughts and ideas in the comments below. What would be helpful for you, so that we can make the spring quarter a productive and positive experience for everyone?
(Thanks in advance, and looking forward to collaborating with each of you!)
best wishes,
Emily
Thinking about memory and the digital
Hello, all —
I saw that Michael shared this link on Twitter, but thought I’d throw it on here for those of you who haven’t seen it. In her (brief) blog post, Yvonne Seale reflects on a recent presentation at the U of Iowa by Jennifer Shook, and thinks about the challenges of digital commemoration. I think she raises some interesting questions about privacy and the necessity of maintaining digital memory products. In the comments below the post, she suggests that we might think about the digital memorial as more of a verb than a noun, to emphasize its continual transformation/making. I think it’s worth checking out!
Yvonne Seale, “Love, Death, and Digital Memories” @ HASTAC:
http://hastac.org/blogs/yvonneseale/2013/02/16/love-death-and-digital-memories
Opportunity: Cultural Studies Association Conference—2013 Digital Humanities Fellowship
Calling all HASTAC Scholars@NUDHL interested in cultural studies, here is an opportunity to participate in this year’s Cultural Studies Association conference in Chicago (don’t forget to x-post on NUDHL blog if you do this!):
The Cultural Studies Association (US) is looking for three HASTAC Scholars to participate in a pilot Digital Humanities Fellowship program. In particular, we are looking for three Scholars to help promote the work of CSA and to foster dialogue between the digital humanities and cultural studies. Using social media networks, DH Fellows will highlight relevant internet content (blog posts, news stories, videos, etc), promote CSA-sponsored events and projects (particularly our annual conference), and increase the organization’s visibility in digital spaces. In addition, DH Fellows will be asked to participate in a roundtable discussion on social networking and cultural studies at the 2013 CSA conference in Chicago, May 23-26, 2013. Registration fees for all Fellows will be waived.
If you would like to be considered for a Digital Humanities Fellowship, please email me (Megan Turner) at M2Turner@ucsd.edu at your earliest convenience. Fellowships will be awarded on a first-come-first-served basis.
Thanks,
Megan Turner
Program Coordinator
Future of Higher Education Forum @ HASTAC
Interesting discussion going on here on HASTAC:
The Future of Higher Education forum.
In particular: studio model, laboratory model, seminar model…what do you think for the future of NUDHL at Northwestern. Other reflections?
HASTAC Scholars @ NUDHL
We are delighted to welcome our 11 (!) HASTAC Scholars @ NUDHL. The HASTAC Scholars come from a wide range of fields across the humanities and will be contributing to both the NUDHL blog and the HASTAC (Humanities, Arts, Sciences, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory) forums this academic year. The HASTAC Scholars @ NUDHL are:
- Emily Vanburen, History
- Aaron Greenberg, English
- Amanda Kleintop, History
- Kendall Krawchuk, Slavic Languages & Literatures
- Sarah Roth, English
- Beth Corzo-Duchardt, Screen Cultures
- Lisa Kelly, Theatre and Drama
- Kevin Baker, History
- Raff Donelson, Philosophy
- Juliana Serôa da Motta Lugão, Spanish and Portuguese
- Jade Werner, English
Call for Graduate Students: Become a HASTAC Scholar @ NUDHL
CALL FOR GRADUATE STUDENT HASTAC SCHOLARS @ NUDHL (Northwestern University Digital Humanities Laboratory)
**APPLICATION DEADLINES EXTENDED** INTERNAL APPLICATION DUE SEPT 20, 2012 EXTERNAL APPLICATION DUE SEPT 30, 2012
NUDHL, the Northwestern University Digital Humanities Laboratory, invites graduate students to apply for HASTAC Scholarships in connection with a 2012-2013 Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities Research Workshop. The research seminar is co-organized by Jillana Enteen of the Gender Studies and Asian American Studies programs and Michael Kramer of the History Department and American Studies program. HASTAC (pronounced Haystack) is the Humanities, Arts, Sciences, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory, an active website for digital humanities exploration and study that is funded, in part, by the MacArthur Foundation.
REQUIREMENTS AND STIPEND:
HASTAC Scholars @ NUDHL are required to participate in the yearlong research seminar, post blog entries and reflections on laboratory blog as well as the HASTAC website. They will also have the opportunity to share their own work and research in our workshop, on our blog, and in HASTAC’s active online forums.
Graduate students are welcome to apply from all departments and schools at Northwestern. Each HASTAC Scholar will be required to attend at minimum six of the nine research workshop meetings and will receive a $300 stipend, funded by the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities.
The seminar itself is open to both graduate students and faculty members regardless of whether you are a HASTAC Scholar or not. Books and readings are provided for all participants. The seminars will generally be held between 12 and 3pm on three Fridays each quarter. Fall dates are Oct 5, Nov 9, and Dec 7.
APPLICATION PROCESS:
The application process has two parts.
- First, we ask you to apply for the HASTAC Scholars @ NUDHL program. By September 20th, 2012, please send a brief letter to <mjk@northwestern.edu> with your name, affiliation at Northwestern, and a short description of your interests in the digital humanities. You will hear back from us within five days.
- Second, once you hear that NUDHL has accepted your application, you must apply to the HASTAC Scholars program itself by September 30th, 2012. This is a simple and quick process. Instructions are at: http://hastac.org/scholars/apply/form. You may use Michael Kramer, Jillana Enteen, or your own thesis adviser as a “mentor” for the application. Full details of the application process for HASTAC are at http://hastac.org/scholars/apply. The home page for the HASTAC Scholars program can be found at http://hastac.org/scholars/.
If you have any questions, please contact Jillana Enteen at <j-enteen@northwestern.edu> or Michael Kramer at <mjk@northwestern.edu>.