2021-2022 Annual Report
Letter from Director
It still feels, from moment to moment, as though we’re stuck in the long 2020. But then, as I sat down to begin writing this message and thought to look back at last year’s, I was sure that one was missing, because the last one I could find was from 2020-21. Oh wait.
Time is both moving too slowly and flying by; summer just began and yet we’re about to start a new academic year. Personally, I still feel like I just arrived at MSU, and yet somehow I’ve just concluded my first five-year term as director of DH@MSU and, with thanks to everyone who participated in my re-appointment review, I’m moving into my second.
As you’ll see below, our community accomplished a lot last year, even as we all faced the cumulative stresses of the last few years. We have more ahead of us in the year to come: a return to strategic planning, to community building, and to supporting the amazing work being done by DH faculty, staff, and students. Let us know how you’d like to see our work together develop; we’ll look forward to hearing from you.
– Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Director of Digital Humanities
Table of Contents
Core Faculty
Affiliated Faculty
Faculty Meeting
DH@MSU held a faculty meeting at the beginning of the Spring 2022 End of Semester Celebration. Topics of discussion included: implications and meaning of Core and Affiliated Faculty status and participation in DH@MSU governance; and, recruitment for inclusion in the curriculum (teaching courses, associating courses with the Minor and Certificate as electives).
Faculty meetings will continue to be held as part of each End of Semester Celebration moving forward.
DH@MSU Committees
Advisory
The Advisory Committee discussed strategies for improving faculty engagement in DH@MSU and began strategic work to develop partnerships on the research and curriculum front for DH with units across campus.
Members
Kate Birdsall (2022)
Christina Boyles (2023)
Megan Kudzia (2023)
Sharon Leon (2022)
Andy Petersen (2022)
Stephen Rachman (2023)
Stephanie Vasko (2023)
Ethan Watrall (2022)
Katie Knowles (Graduate Student Representative)
Kathleen Fitzpatrick (ex-officio) (Chair)
Kristen Mapes (ex-officio)
New Members
Catalina Bartlett
Devin Higgins
Kate Birdsall
Curriculum
The Curriculum Committee reviewed Graduate Certificate portfolios and worked to improve the Undergraduate Minor by: developing a process for adding electives to the program, creating a Capstone Course, and improving communication through a flyer and website redesign.
Members
Zach Kaiser (2023)
Xinqiang Li (2023)
Adam Liszkiewicz (2023)
Alice Lynn McMichael (2022)
Terence O’Neill (2022) (Co-Chair)
Natalie Philips (2022)
Kate Topham (2022) (Co-Chair)
Danielle Willcutt (Graduate Student Representative)
Kathleen Fitzpatrick (ex-officio)
Kristen Mapes (ex-officio)
New Members
Kirk Astle
Dean Rehberger
Matthew Rossi
Kate Topham
Research
The Research Committee launched the Professional Development funding program to replace Microgrant Funding, awarded Seed Grant Funds, and worked with the Digital Scholarship Lab to review Graduate Arts Fellowship applications.
Members
Jon Frey (2022) (Chair)
Matthew Handelman (2023)
Kuhu Tanvir (2023)
Kate Topham (2022)
Tianyi Kou-Herrema (Graduate Student Representative)
Kathleen Fitzpatrick (ex-officio)
Kristen Mapes (ex-officio)
New Member
Sharon Leon
Engagement & Outreach
The Engagement & Outreach committee organized events for the community and began developing an outreach initiative to alumni of the undergraduate minor and the graduate certificate.
Members
Max Evjen (Chair)
Kristen Mapes
Jonah Magar
Michael Rodriguez
Katie Knowles (Graduate Student Representative)
Danielle Willcutt (Graduate Student Representative)
Curriculum
Undergraduate Minor
The Committee improved communication about the Minor, developing a handout (see below) with the CAL Graphic Designer, Joshua Morey, and redesigning the pages on the website about the Minor.
The Committee reframed the Minor to require a capstone experience and a new DH Capstone Course was developed, to be offered in Spring 2023. Capstone Experiences also include internships and DH study abroad.
The Committee streamlined the process for adding elective courses to the Minor. The new Curriculum-For Faculty page provides further information.
New Advisor
Graduate Certificate
Congratulations to the following graduate students who received the Digital Humanities Certificate in 2021-2022:
- Jennifer Andrella (History)
- Sandy Burnley (English)
- Kylene Cave (English)
- Ramya Swayamprakash (History)
- Cora Walby (History)
Events
DH@MSU continued its tradition of running THATCamps in August and in January of each year. In 2021-22 both events were virtual.
THATCamp is a gathering where the agenda is set by attendees on the day of the event based on what people want to learn and/or share. These events gave community members an opportunity to network, explore skills and interests, and share about their work.
Planning Teams:
August 2021 – Kate Birdsall, Max Evjen, Kristen Mapes, Leah Morin, Stephanie Vasko
January 2022 – Max Evjen, Summer Issawi, Michael Lockett, Kristen Mapes, Leah Morin, Justin Simard
A window into the day-of scheduling process at THATCamp January 2022.
In Fall 2021, the DH@MSU community heard from Seed Grant recipients about their projects and upcoming developments in their work. Presenters and projects were:
- Kate Birdsall, “The Cube: Superheroes Die in the Summer”
- Christina Boyles, “An Update on the Archivo de Respuestas Emergencias de Puerto Rico”
- Jessica Stokes, “Wingin’ It: The Material of Re-Storying the Ramayana”
- Stephanie Vasko, “Synthesizing the Sound of Space”
DH@MSU continued its fourth annual Distinguished Lecture in Fall 2021 with Jacqueline Wernimont, Distinguished Chair of Digital Humanities and Social Engagement, Dartmouth College, on “Visceral Data: Renderings That Matter.”
Locus is run annually as a showcase for work (nascent, in progress, or completed) around a theme. This year focused on the MI Diaries project and projects that were inspired by it or that used it for their own purposes. Find the program here.
DH@MSU launched an annual Local Distinguished Lecture in Spring 2022 to provide a more fulsome showcase for DH work on campus. Sharon Leon, Associate Professor in Digital History, presented “From Scholar to System to Scale: Generating Meso-level Historical Data to Recover the Lived Experiences of Enslaved People.”
Global Digital Humanities Symposium
The 7th annual Global Digital Humanities Symposium was held virtually on March 23-25th.
Over 140 people from over 16 countries attended through the Zoom meeting and the livestream over the course of the three days, taking advantage of the closed captions and the live interpretation, which supported English, Spanish, and French participation in the Symposium.
This year, H-Net joined DH@MSU in sponsoring the Symposium.
The Symposium Planning Committee included people from around MSU (Max Evjen, Devin Higgins, Taylor Hughes-Barrow, Kristen Mapes, Ellen Moll, Bonnie Russell, Kate Topham) and beyond (Ayodele James Akinola, Tiffany Esteban, Arun Jacob, Viola Lasmana, Gimena del Rio Riande).
The Symposium experimented with running sessions at different times of the day in order to reach participants from a range of time zones, held social events (including trivia!) and workshops, and concluded the event with a discussion among the Keynote presenters.
Olivia Quintanilla gave the first keynote address, discussing marine justice and indigenous Pacific Island ecologies.
June Rubis gave the second keynote, presenting a decolonial Indigenous approach to orang utan conservation and issues around mapping.
Hanna Musiol gave the third keynote presentation, on “Industry, Postcolony, and the Immersive Arts in Environmental Storytelling.”
The Symposium gathered work from the event together into a Proceedings website, building on the launch of the Proceedings site in 2021, using the Humanities Commons platform to deposit materials in the CORE repository and to showcase the work on a site. Nine presentations are included in the 2022 issue.
Digital Engagement
Website
While used most by the DH@MSU community in Michigan, the website has a global reach (see image below, showing users on the site Aug 2021-Aug 2022).
Top pages on the site over the 2021-2022 year other than the homepage:
- Topics of Interest (791)
- People (604)
- Graduate Certificate (563)
- Undergraduate Minor (475)
- THATCamp (395)
Activities
- Newsletter (215 subscribers)
- Email listserv (208 subscribers)
- Slack (265 members)
- @DHatMSU Twitter (418 followers)
- @MSUGlobalDh Twitter (183 followers)
Research
The Research Committee reframed the Microgrant Funding Program to support Professional Development Funding writ large. Faculty and students could apply for up to $500 to support DH work. The Funding program will continue in future years, with a deadline in September and a deadline in January of each year.
Awardee in Fall 2021:
- Justin Wigard
Awardees in Spring 2022:
- Lorelei Blackburn
- Katie Carline
- Rhian Dunn
- Brittany Finch
- Tianyi Kou-Herrema
- Michael Lockett
The Graduate Arts Fellowship, begun in 2020, is a joint program between the College of Arts and Letters and MSU Libraries to support the creation of art that takes advantage of the technologies and expertise offered through the Digital Scholarship Lab.
Patrick N. Taylor, graduate student in the Art, Art History, and Design Department, received the $5000 summer Fellowship to support work on his project, “Irrational Architecture.”. His work will be presented in early September 2022 through a workshop and an artist’s showcase in the Digital Scholarship Lab.
In its fifth year, the Seed Grant Funding program provides funds up to $2000 to support DH projects over the summer. Funding recipients present on their work at the Research Highlights event in the Fall and share project reports.
Awardees for Summer 2022 were:
- Christina Boyles, “Archivo de Respuestas Emergencias de Puerto Rico (The Puerto Rico Disaster Archive)”
- Catherine Ryu, “Mapping the World of Ethnic Korean Authors’ Writings”