Submitted by Erin Gentry Lamb on Jun 24, 2009, 10:47 AM
I am truly delighted to get to introduce to you the next Director of the HASTAC Scholars Program, Fiona Barnett.  Fiona is a Ph.D. candidate in the Literature Program and Women's Studies at Duke University. She graduated with a B.A. in Modern Culture & Media from Brown University in 2001, and then spent several years working in a multimedia studio in Vancouver, BC.  Her scholarly work is at the intersection of feminist and queer theory, science studies, critical theory and visual studies. She is currently at work on her dissertation, entitled Turning the Body Inside Out, which is a genealogy of the fantasy that the body requires investigation, and traces the attachment to the kind of knowledges that can be produced by examining the body (both inside and out). It considers the social, scientific, aesthetic and theoretical practices which discursively produce the body as a visible ? and thus knowable ?  object by repeatedly staging the scene of its dissection. In particular, her project focuses on the historical practices and contemporary situations that reinscribe the desire for an open and legible body, including the autopsy, dissection, lens technologies, museum exhibits, freak shows, serial killers, DNA and especially critical theory itself.  At Duke, Fiona also enjoys organizing the Women's Studies Graduate Scholars Colloquium, a unique program that generates a supportive intellectual community for graduate students.  In her free time, she loves to practice her photography, enjoy the vibrant Durham community and foster dogs through a local rescue organization.

 

I know that Fiona is thrilled to be joining the HASTAC team - perhaps as thrilled as we are to have her on board!  Please join me in welcoming Fiona to HASTAC!

Submitted by Erin Gentry Lamb on Jun 22, 2009, 09:57 PM

Dear HASTAC Members,

I am nearing the end of my tenure as Director of the HASTAC Scholars
Program (and will soon be replaced by the amazing Fiona Barnett, whom I
will properly introduce in a later post). It has been an honor and a
pleasure to be part of the HASTAC team and to get to work with such an
amazing group of scholars.

I want to share with you the performance report we sent to the
Mentors who nominated HASTAC Scholars for the 2008-2009 pilot year (in
the hopes that this might help them to convince their administration to
offer up money again to sponsor another Scholar this next year, even in
hard financial times). For those of you who are regular HASTAC
readers/bloggers/etc., the activities recorded here may all seem quite
familiar, but to see it all gathered together at least reminds me what
an amazing year it was for this pilot program.

We had a group of 55 impressively diverse, creative and accomplished
Scholars. Between September 2009 and May 2010 over 12,650 absolutely
unique visitors from across the United States and internationally tuned
in (with more than 55,500 views) to one of the 13 HASTAC Scholars
Discussion Forums hosted on the HASTAC website. These forums were
facilitated by different HASTAC Scholars, featured an array of
distinguished guests, and were all addressed to HASTAC's three
missions: new media, critical thinking, and participatory learning, in
any and all possible configurations. The forums focused on such vital
and timely topics as ?Academic Publishing in the Digital Age,? ?Fair
Use and the Future of the Commons,? ?Blogging and Tweeting Academia?
and ?The Future of the Digital Humanities,? and featured such
distinguished participants as Brett Bobley (Director of the Office of
Digital Humanities for the National Endowment for the Humanities) and
Howard Rheingold (pioneer of social networking and author of Smart
Mobs). See the report below for a complete list of these discussion
forums.

The HASTAC Scholars also blogged regularly on a diverse array of
topics, participated in many national and international conferences,
tweeted and spread the word about their activities, events at their
universities and HASTAC happenings. They not only contributed to, but
in fact inspired a vibrant conversation about the future of higher
education and the humanities, arts, and interpretive social sciences in
a technological age. The report that follows includes many numbers and
details about the Scholars? performance this past year, but the bottom
line is that the program was so successful that we decided to expand it
in 2009-2010 and open it to the public, inviting nominations in an open
call on the HASTAC site.

If you would like to nominate a HASTAC Scholar for the 2009-2010 program there?s still time! Nominations will run until July 31.
We?ve already received several, including our first international
HASTAC Scholar from Spain, and I hope we?ll see many more flowing in
soon!

I want to thank all of you who participated in our HASTAC Scholar
discussions and who make HASTAC such a vibrant, worthwhile community.
It is largely thanks to your support that we will get to continue this
program that allows the future leaders of the digital humanities to set
the agenda and the conversation now, as part of their own
professionalization and as a way of revitalizing the work we all do.

Sincerely,
Erin Gentry Lamb
Director, HASTAC Scholars Program

Submitted by Erin Gentry Lamb on May 31, 2009, 09:14 PM

HASTAC SCHOLARS PROGRAM WELCOMES NOMINATIONS FOR 2009-2010

Access the online nomination form here.

The HASTAC Scholars fellowship program recognizes graduate and undergraduate students who are engaged in innovative work across the areas of technology, the arts, the humanities, and the social sciences. The HASTAC Scholars act as the eyes and ears of HASTAC?s virtual network. In the wake of the crisis facing traditional news media, the HASTAC Scholars are Citizen Journalists exploring the next-generation possibilities for intellectual dialogue imaginable through digital technology. The HASTAC Scholars report on the work happening on their campuses and in their region to an international audience by blogging, tweeting, vlogging, podcasting and other forms of networking with the online HASTAC community and with their local communities. The Scholars also facilitate a series of discussion forums on www.hastac.org. Open to all, these expansive forums initiate rich insights and meaty exchanges on timely issues related to digital media and learning and the digital humanities more broadly. See www.hastac.org/scholars for more about the program.

After an incredibly successful 2008-2009 pilot year for the HASTAC Scholars Program, the HASTAC Steering Committee has voted to expand the program for 2009-2010, and invites any HASTAC member who is faculty or staff at an institution of higher education to nominate a HASTAC Scholar. The official nomination form is available online from June 1 through July 31 HERE.

Submitted by Erin Gentry Lamb on May 27, 2009, 05:09 PM

HASTAC SCHOLARS PROGRAM WELCOMES NOMINATIONS FOR 2009-2010

The HASTAC Scholars fellowship program recognizes graduate and undergraduate students who are engaged in innovative work across the areas of technology, the arts, the humanities, and the social sciences. The HASTAC Scholars act as the eyes and ears of HASTAC?s virtual network. In the wake of the crisis facing traditional news media, the HASTAC Scholars are Citizen Journalists exploring the next-generation possibilities for intellectual dialogue imaginable through digital technology. The HASTAC Scholars report on the work happening on their campuses and in their region to an international audience by blogging, tweeting, vlogging, podcasting and other forms of networking with the online HASTAC community and with their local communities. The Scholars also facilitate a series of discussion forums on www.hastac.org. Open to all, these expansive forums initiate rich insights and meaty exchanges on timely issues related to digital media and learning and the digital humanities more broadly. See www.hastac.org/scholars for more about the program.

After an incredibly successful 2008-2009 pilot year for the HASTAC Scholars Program, the HASTAC Steering Committee has voted to expand the program for 2009-2010, and invites any HASTAC member who is faculty or staff at an institution of higher education to nominate a HASTAC Scholar. Here is how the nomination process and the program work...

Submitted by Erin Gentry Lamb on Apr 15, 2009, 10:46 PM

Blogging Academia

A HASTAC Scholars Discussion Forum open now at http://www.hastac.org/scholars/forums/04-16-09Blogging-Academia

Submitted by Erin Gentry Lamb on Apr 05, 2009, 10:03 PM

 

Much has been said of maps, and it seems that---with technologies and software such as Loopt, the iPhone, ArcGIS, and Google Maps and Earth---people are becoming increasingly familiar with where, exactly, they are located. Of course, mapping suggests more than "you are here." It implies not only the delimiting of how people relate to each other, to space and place, and to objects, but also the study of how those relationships emerge. What's more, mapping is no doubt a slippery term. As scholars such as Willard McCarty note, it is affiliated with an array of other concepts and practices, such as modeling, diagramming, networking, and representation. With such affiliations in mind, this HASTAC discussion, facilitated by Jentery Sayers and Matthew W. Wilson, seeks to aggregate and unpack how "mapping" (broadly understood) is mobilized in different learning and research spaces, across the disciplines, in the field of the digital humanities:

• How does mapping inform how scholars identify novel patterns in their own research and archives?
• What does mapping afford pedagogy and classroom learning, and how does it foster collaboration and media expansion?
• How do mapping projects by academics alter how they engage their community partners and publics, and vice versa?

Regardless of experience in or familiarity with the digital humanities, we invite participation from anyone who is currently involved in a mapping project. We imagine that contributors could include, but are certainly not limited to, critical geographers, cartographers, literary historians, artists, architects and urban planners, community-based researchers, cultural anthropologists, information scientists, students in digital humanities courses, public intellectuals, and scholars of new media, design, and composition.

Submitted by Erin Gentry Lamb on Apr 01, 2009, 10:42 PM

Mapping the Digital Humanities
A HASTAC Scholars Discussion Forum opening Monday, April 6 at www.hastac.org

 

Much has been said of maps, and it seems that---with technologies and software such as Loopt, the iPhone, ArcGIS, and Google Maps and Earth---people are becoming increasingly familiar with where, exactly, they are located. Of course, mapping suggests more than "you are here." It implies not only the delimiting of how people relate to each other, to space and place, and to objects, but also the study of how those relationships emerge. What's more, mapping is no doubt a slippery term. As scholars such as Willard McCarty note, it is affiliated with an array of other concepts and practices, such as modeling, diagramming, networking, and representation. With such affiliations in mind, this HASTAC discussion, facilitated by Jentery Sayers and Matthew W. Wilson, seeks to aggregate and unpack how "mapping" (broadly understood) is mobilized in different learning and research spaces, across the disciplines, in the field of the digital humanities.

Submitted by Erin Gentry Lamb on Mar 22, 2009, 09:03 PM

Making Invisible Learning Visible

A HASTAC Scholars Discussion Forum with
Randy Bass and Bret Eynon, co-Project Directors of the Visible
Knowledge
Project
Open now at www.hastac.org/scholars/forum/03-23-09Making-Invisible-Learning-Visible

How do students learn? What
types of learning take place in the
classroom? How do pedagogical and technological tools impact learning?

The Visible Knowledge Project,
a five-year
collaborative effort to study the impact of technology on learning,
began as an
effort to make visible the hidden intermediate processes students
undergo on
the path to learning. The project, co-directed by Randy Bass and Bret
Eynon, involved more than 70 faculty from 22 institutions who not only
experimented with incorporating new media technologies into their
classrooms,
but also drew on the scholarship of teaching and learning in order to
document
and reflect on their findings. Many of these insights are synthesized in the January 2009 issue of Academic
Commons. One of the project?s key findings has been the
importance of digital media in helping instructors to make visible the
modes
and aspects of learning - intermediate learning processes, the
importance of
affective learning, the roles of community or creativity - too often
made
secondary to outputs and accountability.

We encounter questions of
digital media and learning in contexts both
prosaic and designed, from institutional policies to individual
experiments to
collaborative efforts. Teachers and learners of all varieties enter
academic contexts with different levels of technological exposure and
skill,
some of which are immediately productive and others of which need to be
nurtured in order to advance the learning process. This HASTAC
Scholars
Discussion Forum, hosted by Daniel Chamberlain and Chalet Siedel, will
focus on
the questions raised by the efforts of the Visible Knowledge Project
and the
similar projects instigated by members of the HASTAC community and
beyond:

• How are classroom uses of new digital media transforming the nature of learning
  at your
  home institutions?
• What
  new forms
  of evidence of student learning could we be paying more attention to?
  Do new
  forms of learning yield new kinds of readable artifacts of student work?
• What
  kind of
  learning communities should institutions form in order to allow
  imaginative
  pedagogies to be locally shared? How can we leverage social tools to
  make
  these innovations broadly sharable?
• How
  might we
  better link classroom learning to integrative activities outside the
  formal
  curriculum, like undergraduate research, study abroad, internships, and
  service
  learning?
• How
  can emergent
  media technologies be used to encourage creativity in faculty and
  student
  discipline-related work?
• How
  much of the
  challenge of incorporating digital media into the classroom is about
  technological affinity, and how much is it about the uncertainty and
  loss of
  control that accompanies learner-centered pedagogies?

Submitted by Erin Gentry Lamb on Mar 19, 2009, 11:54 AM

Making Invisible Learning Visible

A HASTAC Scholars Discussion Forum with
Randy Bass and Bret Eynon, co-Project Directors of the Visible
Knowledge
Project
Opening Monday, March 23
at www.hastac.org

How do students learn? What
types of learning take place in the
classroom? How do pedagogical and technological tools impact learning?

The Visible Knowledge Project,
a five-year
collaborative effort to study the impact of technology on learning,
began as an
effort to make visible the hidden intermediate processes students
undergo on
the path to learning. The project, co-directed by Randy Bass and Bret
Eynon, involved more than 70 faculty from 22 institutions who not only
experimented with incorporating new media technologies into their
classrooms,
but also drew on the scholarship of teaching and learning in order to
document
and reflect on their findings. Many of these insights are synthesized in the January 2009 issue of Academic
Commons. One of the project?s key findings has been the
importance of digital media in helping instructors to make visible the
modes
and aspects of learning - intermediate learning processes, the
importance of
affective learning, the roles of community or creativity - too often
made
secondary to outputs and accountability.

We encounter questions of
digital media and learning in contexts both
prosaic and designed, from institutional policies to individual
experiments to
collaborative efforts. Teachers and learners of all varieties enter
academic contexts with different levels of technological exposure and
skill,
some of which are immediately productive and others of which need to be
nurtured in order to advance the learning process. This HASTAC
Scholars
Discussion Forum, hosted by Daniel Chamberlain and Chalet Siedel, will
focus on
the questions raised by the efforts of the Visible Knowledge Project
and the
similar projects instigated by members of the HASTAC community and
beyond:

• How are classroom uses of new digital media transforming the nature of learning
  at your
  home institutions?
• What
  new forms
  of evidence of student learning could we be paying more attention to?
  Do new
  forms of learning yield new kinds of readable artifacts of student work?
• What
  kind of
  learning communities should institutions form in order to allow
  imaginative
  pedagogies to be locally shared? How can we leverage social tools to
  make
  these innovations broadly sharable?
• How
  might we
  better link classroom learning to integrative activities outside the
  formal
  curriculum, like undergraduate research, study abroad, internships, and
  service
  learning?
• How
  can emergent
  media technologies be used to encourage creativity in faculty and
  student
  discipline-related work?
• How
  much of the
  challenge of incorporating digital media into the classroom is about
  technological affinity, and how much is it about the uncertainty and
  loss of
  control that accompanies learner-centered pedagogies?

Submitted by Erin Gentry Lamb on Mar 17, 2009, 10:18 PM

DIGITAL HUMANITIES POST-DOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP
2009-10

The Illinois Informatics Institute (I3), Illinois Program for Research in the
Humanities (IPRH), and Department of History at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign seek to fill a one-year post-doctoral position in
informatics (with an emphasis on humanities and history-based research) for
the 2009-10 academic year.

The jointly-appointed I3 Post-Doctoral Fellow/Visiting Assistant Professor will
undertake, publish, and present research; teach one course in the Department
of History on a relevant topic to be negotiated; and collaborate with others on
the University of Illinois campus to strengthen informatics engagement with the
IPRH and the Department of History.