Davis Family Library Center for Teaching, Learning and Research

The switch from the term “humanities computing” to “digital humanities” will turn 15 (approximately) next year. This conversation offers an opportunity to take stock of the field by focusing on the surprising dimensions of actual scholarship in digital humanities that often happen below the surface of the administrative faddishness and hype about the field.

The switch from the term “humanities computing” to “digital humanities” will turn 15 (approximately) next year. This conversation offers an opportunity to take stock of the field by focusing on the surprising dimensions of actual scholarship in digital humanities that often happen below the surface of the administrative faddishness and hype about the field.

What role do bots (automated fake social media accounts) and sockpuppets (human-operated fake social media accounts) play in our digital information environments? How do you spot a bot or sockpuppet and try understand their influence? In this session, we will discuss the traits of bots/sockpuppets, how they infiltrate digital “public” spheres, and how to combat them. Lunch will be served. Please sign up at the URL.

This session broaches the topic of digital publishing. What does it mean to be publishing scholarship online? How do new modes of digital publishing and scholarly communication relate to older print and face-to-face models? What is worth preserving from older systems and what begs for radical transformation and reinvention? How are both the financial and status economies of academia changing with the transition to digital publishing?

Digital environments can robustly foster access, inclusion, and full participation. They also can disadvantage and exclude. This interactive session spotlights simple ways to reduce barriers using digital tool and spaces, and ways to promote accessibility within digital worlds. No prior experience or preparation required. Curiosity and lived wisdom welcome.

Please sign up. Lunch will be served.

Panelists: Sarah Laursen (Art History), Matt Lawrence (Sociology), Alex Lyford (Math), Jason Mittell, (FMMC), Caitlin Myers (Economics), Amy Morsman (History), Phil Murphy (MIIS)

Part of the Contemporary Teaching in the Liberal Arts Series, Senator Ruth Hardy will lead a workshop on how faculty across all disciplines can apply their academic expertise to help solve pressing policy issues before state and local governments in Vermont. For more details and to register see the Faculty Development Calendar at go/ctlr.

EVENT LOCATION: Davis Family Library 225 (CTLR)

Come to this informal lunch session to learn about her career path in law. At Middlebury, Crystal received a BA in American Literature, and a Minor in Russian Language. She currently prosecutes cases involving narcotics, firearms, crimes of violence, crimes against children and white collar fraud. She is developing a juvenile outreach program to educate youth and address crime in Springfield, and is the co-chair of Central Illinois Human Trafficking Task Force. Bring your questions.

Open to students of all class years, any major, all are welcome. A light lunch will be available.

What happens to our reading of literature if the role of the paratext (the ancillary materials surround texts), instead of the text, is foregrounded? Using Edward Said’s notion of the contrapuntal, I discuss how digital modes of analysis facilitate a concurrent process of close and distant readings of paratexts in Arabic-to-English translations. Digital analysis brings to the surface power dynamics—in terms of gender, colonialism, and other key topics—buried in paratexts such as glossaries. Lunch will be served. Suggested readings and please sign up at url for event.

Grace Spatafora, Michelle Lehman & Daniel Houghton discuss a collaboration between a biologist and a student in Middlebury’s Animation Studio. Lunch will be served. Please sign up at the URL