While the beginning of the academic year can feel like a force of nature, nothing compares to the real thing. To our colleagues and their families impacted by hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes, our thoughts are with you. We know the after effects of these natural disasters could linger well into 2017, long after the academic year begins. As your lives slowly return to normal, we send our well wishes to you and your families, neighbors, colleagues, and students. Stay safe, everyone.
HASTAC 2017: The Possible Worlds of Digital Humanities is Happening!
On the heels of Hurricane Irma, our HASTAC conference organizers and friends are safe and dry! They thank everyone for their well wishes, and pass along this message: There will be a short delay in posting the program for HASTAC 2017: The Possible Worlds of Digital Humanities while power is restored across the state of Florida.
In the meantime, now more than ever, it is important to register for HASTAC 2017 in Orlando, Florida, on Friday, November 3 and Saturday, November 4. HASTAC Scholars will host an Un-Conference the night before, on Thursday, November 2 between 7-10 pm that is open to the public. Click here to register. We look forward to seeing everyone in person!
Applications for HASTAC Scholars Due October 15
Apply for HASTAC Scholars, or encourage your students to apply! The application period closes October 15. Please apply here or share this link with interested colleagues and students. Be sure to read carefully the instructions on the page linked here before applying.
HASTAC Scholars is a student-centered network of Ph.D., Masters, and some undergraduate students who are interested in engaging the intersections of technology and learning. Read more about the HASTAC Scholars program here.
Queens College Undergraduates Publish Article in Hybrid Pedagogy
On August 30, 2017, Hybrid Pedagogy, one of the leading scholarly, peer-reviewed academic journals on education, published an article co-authored by three undergraduate students at Queens College: Sumedha Madan, Fina Ferrara, and Gavriel Lev. Their article, The Ultimate Life Experience: Preparing Students for the World Beyond the Classroom argues that colleges ought to prepare students for a great future, and offers concrete suggestions for how teachers, administrators, and students can work together to make this happen. Doctoral candidate and Professor Danica Savonick reflects on the assignment on HASTAC.
It’s here! HASTAC’s Cofounder and Co-Director Cathy N. Davidson’s The New Education: How To Revolutionize the University to Prepare Students for a World in Flux (Basic Books) is now available. The New Education has been widely praised in The New York Times, the New York Post, Washington Post (where Davidson was compared to Dewey and DuBois), and Inside Higher Education. Visit this blog for a schedule of Davidson’s upcoming book tour and a summary of op eds (Time Magazine and Fast Company, etc.) and podcasts, and to sign up for her monthly newsletter, New Education News. (Please note: In honor of the publication of The New Education, the author contributes to a scholarship fund established at the Graduate Center, CUNY.)
The Nexus Digital Research Co-Op
The Nexus Digital Research Co-op at Arizona State University (formerly the Nexus Lab) will launch officially in their new location at ASU this month. Nexus is the physical and administrative home for HASTAC@ASU. Like other co-ops, Nexus at its most basic is an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet commons needs. More specifically, this co-op is a voluntary association of researchers at all levels who are interested in doing digital research (method) or research on the digital (subject). Nexus is also a physical space and set of resources located within the Institute for Humanities Research (IHR).
HASTAC@ASU operations will be run from within Nexus and the IHR, and we look forward to programming and event announcements in the coming months! More information on Nexus can be found at nexuslab.org.
Dr. Richard Marciano Honored With Emmett Leahy Award
Congratulations to HASTAC Steering Committee Member Dr. Richard Marciano, who was recently honored with the Emmett Leahy Award in recognition of his outstanding, pioneering work in the fields of records and information management. According to a University of Maryland press release, Dr. Marciano's "insightful development of cyberinfrastructure to support records management has resulted in new methodologies, experimental systems, and analytics - producing new knowledge and new ways to understand the past. Dr. Marciano’s work has led to innovative advancements in record keeping for the humanities, sciences, and archives." Click here to read more.
Digital Media and Learning Conference 2017
Connecting Leading Innovators, Educators, and Researchers
October 4-6, 2017 / University of California, Irvine
Featuring keynote speakers danah boyd, Esra'a Al-Shafei, and Henry Jenkins. Program highlights also feature games gurus Constance Steinkuehler and Kurt Squire, who will present a workshop on the contributions games for impact could or should make to the pressing social and political issues of the President Trump era. Plus, Mimi Ito, chair of the Connected Learning Research Network, will moderate a provocative panel discussion on how families connect and learn digitally. Click here to register.
Welcome to our new HASTAC Social Media Interns!
We are delighted to announce that Jennifer Byron and Scott Caddy will be joining HASTAC's team as Communications and Digital Content Development interns for Fall 2017. Over the course of the semester, they will be working behind the scenes to create a new social media strategy for HASTAC, as well as interacting and serving our HASTAC community in new and exciting ways. Keep a look out for their work this semester!
Events and Opportunities
The New Education at New York Public Library
Tuesday, September 26, 2017 @ 6:30pm
Join us at the New York Public Library on Tuesday, September 26, 2017, 6:30 p.m., for a conversation with Futures Initiative Founding Director Cathy N. Davidson and Mellon Director of New York Public Libraries and Graduate Center President Emeritus William P. Kelly on the future of higher education. The event will take place at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Wachenheim Trustees Room at 476 Fifth Avenue, and is fully accessible to wheelchairs. The program is free, but advance registration is recommended.
Register Now for Digital Frontiers 2017: Exploring the Edges, Pushing the Boundaries
September 21-23 at University of North Texas in Denton, TX
Registration is now open for Digital Frontiers 2017. This year's conference is September 21-23 at the University of North Texas, featuring keynote speakers Jacqueline Wernimont and Stacie Williams, plus 43 presenters from throughout the U.S. who will share work that engages with the intersections of digital humanities, digital libraries, and social justice work in our communities. Registration closes today, September 15!
Opportunity: Postdoctoral Research Associate and PhD Fellowship
The Applied Innovation Lab at University of Nebraska-Omaha is hiring two research positions aimed at applying deep learning to problems in influence and radicalization on online platforms. Interested applicants can click here for more information.
The University Worth Fighting For
This semester, the Futures Initiative signature series The University Worth Fighting For continues. On September 11, the conversation is aimed at educators who are LGBTQ or allies in Queer Pedagogies: Pedagogy for LGBTQ Instructors. The event is a collaboration with CLAGS: Center for LGBTQ Studies, and organized by María R. Scharrón-del Río (Associate Professor, Brooklyn College, CUNY) and featured Stephanie Hsu (Associate Professor, Pace University), Kalle Westerling (Ph.D. Candidate and Futures Initiative Fellow, the Graduate Center, CUNY), and Jenn Polish (Ph.D. Candidate and Humanities Alliance Fellow, the Graduate Center, CUNY). The evening’s event was live-streamed and live transcribed. Read more about the event here, and on Twitter using hashtag #fight4edu.
Thursday Dialogues
In 2017-18 the Futures Initiative is organizing a Thursday Dialogues series, hosted by our Fellows and Staff with the purpose of bringing faculty and students together in informal conversation around pressing topics and issues. On September 7, we launched the series with Pedagogies of Dissent for Asian American Studies, featuring Kandice Chuh (Professor of English and American Studies, Graduate Center, CUNY; President, American Studies Association), Dorothy Wang (Professor of American Studies and Faculty Affiliate in English, Williams College), and Frances Tran (Postdoctoral Fellow and Interim Associate Director of the Futures Initiative and HASTAC@CUNY). Looking forward to this year’s American Studies Association Conference: Pedagogies of Dissent (Nov. 9-12; Chicago, IL), this roundtable discussion explored the frictions, possibilities, and complex entanglements between “pedagogy” and “dissent” for Asian American studies.
Our next Thursday Dialogue, “Mentors to Leaders,” organized by Futures Initiative Fellow Mike Rifino, is scheduled for September 28 at the Graduate Center, CUNY (365 Fifth Avenue; Room 3317; 12-2pm) and will highlight the CUNY Undergraduate Leadership Program that Mike co-directs with Futures Initiative fellow Kashema Hutchinson and Director Lauren Melendez. It promises be a great discussion, one that addresses important questions about leadership based on a sense of equity and social justice, not raw power, domination, and cruelty. The event is free and open to the public.
“Black Listed” Course: Join our Group on HASTAC.org
In Spring 2018, the Futures Initiative will be offering several interdisciplinary courses, some of which will have a public component hosted on the hastac.org website. We invite anyone interested in the topic to join our Group, “Black Listed,” dedicated to the study of the Cold War, the early Civil Rights movement, and the writing and censorship of African American writers, especially during the McCarthy Era. The course will be taught in Spring 2018 by Professors Cathy N. Davidson and Shelly Eversley (Baruch College, English), with Allison Guess, Graduate Research and Teaching Assistant (Futures Initiative Fellow and PhD Student in Earth and Environmental Sciences, The Graduate Center).
Digital Humanities at The MIT Press
30% off for HASTAC members!
The MIT Press is thrilled to offer members of HASTAC a 30% book discount on all MITP digital humanities titles. Use discount code MHASTAC30 when prompted during checkout to receive 30% off the list price. While this code can only be used for books purchased directly through the MIT Press website, it can be used more than once, for multiple titles, and for both print and e-editions. Happy reading from The MIT Press!