• MSUDH Hiring! Assistant Professor, Culturally Engaged Digital Humanities/Digital Rhetorics

    Join the team of scholars at MSU Digital Humanities! Find the full posting here.

    This is an academic-year, tenure-system faculty appointment to begin August 16, 2018. Applicants are expected to hold a Ph.D. in rhetoric & writing or in a closely related field or discipline. The successful candidate will demonstrate a promising scholarly trajectory anchored by culturally-engaged research in digital humanities/digital rhetorics (including digital publishing), experience or interest in grant-seeking, engagement in culturally-sustaining teaching practices, and evidence of promise or interest in local and national service and/or leadership.

    We favor candidates whose work engages with issues of rhetoric, culture, and environmental justice (such as rhetoric & food sovereignty, migration/immigration, environmental racism, land-based social justice issues, or culturally relevant environmental rhetorics) in relation to digital practice who can contribute to the College of Arts & Letters’ Critical Diversity in the Digital Age initiative (see cal.msu.edu/criticaldiversity ) through CEDAR, an infrastructure that embodies the Initiatives ethos of critical diversity and emphasizes creative openness rather than simple inclusion in pre-existing structures (cal.msu.edu/criticaldiversity/cedar), as well as bring their expertise to the Department’s signature graduate and undergraduate programs.

    Review of applications will begin November 22, and will continue until the position is filled. Applications should include: a letter expressing interest in this position and describing qualifications and experience; a current curriculum vitae; a summary of your experience with diversity in the classroom and/or in your past or planned research endeavors, any experience mentoring diverse students or community outreach initiatives, and an explanation of how you will advance our goals of inclusive excellence; and, the names and email addresses of three potential referees.

    Contact Dr. Danielle DeVoss (devossda@msu.edu) with questions.

    The Department of Writing, Rhetoric & American Cultures has a strong institutional commitment to diversity in all areas and encourages candidates from underrepresented groups. The College of Arts & Letters recognizes that only an academic and organizational culture, which actively seeks out and strengthens diverse voices and perspectives among its members, results in true excellence. We are an equal opportunity / affirmative action employer. The College is particularly interested in candidates of all backgrounds who are committed to the principle that intellectual leadership is achieved through open access and pro-active inclusion.

    Michigan State University is an affirmative action, equal opportunity employer and is committed to achieving excellence through cultural diversity. The university actively encourages applications and/or nominations of women, persons of color, veterans and persons with disabilities. Job applicants are considered for employment opportunities and employees are treated without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status. Persons with disabilities have the right to request and receive reasonable accommodation.

  • Virtual Reality (VR) Brown Bag Sessions

    Come one, come all!
    If you’re hearing a lot about VR (virtual reality) lately and wondering how you might incorporate it meaningfully into your teaching, or you’re already using it in your teaching or research, this is for you.
    The Libraries and CAL will host demonstrations of our VR headsets (Vive and Oculus), and provide the snacks! The focus of the events will be on conversation between participants; the equipment will be used for illustration and to spur discussion. We are hoping to facilitate an academic community of practice around the uses of VR for teaching and learning.
    The first two sessions will be:
    • Tuesday, November 14th, 11:30am – 1:00pm, Library Green Room (4th Floor West)
    • Wednesday, November 15th, 3:00 – 4:30pm, Library Green Room
    Snacks will be provided, but you are also welcome to bring your own food.
    There will be two more sessions in December after classes end—stay tuned for a follow-up announcement with those dates and times.
  • Present at Locus: Social Media & Social Media Analysis! Proposals due 11/27

    Please consider submitting a short proposal on ideas, works in progress, or completed work for this semester’s Locus talks series on December 7, 3-5pm! We are looking for presentations from anyone – faculty, students, staff – on topics relating to the theme of social media.

    Proposals to submit are due November 27

    Social media comprise an important set of platforms for understanding the spread of information (along with mis/disinformation) on some of the most urgent social and political issues of the moment. Whether it is information sharing, the homogeneity or heterogeneity of social networks, issues of personal privacy, or concerns about election hacking, social media analysis provides a means of reckoning with public opinion on a global scale. Social media platforms provide data for social research, and also, crucially, provide venues for organizing and activism. They allow various grassroots organizations to support one another and arrange meetings and protests, even amid critiques about the role social media has played in fostering harassment and hate speech.

    We are seeking proposals of up to 250 words for 7 minute presentations to facilitate an interdisciplinary conversation on these topics. We are particularly interested in presentations that engage with one or more of the following issues:

    • What forms of social media analyses are particularly interesting or successful?
    • What does a “successful” analysis look like? How do we know?
    • What are we missing when we analyze social media? Whose voices are missing?
    • What are some of the critical gaps in social media analysis, and how might we ameliorate them?
    • What might ethics of social media analysis look like? What lessons have we learned from previous and current failures?
    • What about non-English language platforms and analysis? What are the areas of opportunity? What analyses or methodologies have been particularly useful, and what might others emulate?

    We are especially interested in works in progress relating to research, teaching, or any other type of work that wrestles with the challenges of access in the digital environment. Proposals from students (undergraduate and graduate), faculty, and staff are all encouraged equally.

    Submit a proposal by Monday, November 27 to go.cal.msu.edu/locus

  • MSUDH Hiring! Associate/Full Professor, Literary Studies & Digital Humanities

    Join the team of scholars at MSU Digital Humanities! Find the full posting here.

    The Department of English at Michigan State University invites applications for a scholar, at the level of Associate or Full Professor, whose work connects literary studies and the digital humanities to critical diversity. This position is part of the College’s Critical Diversity in a Digital Age initiative, which will facilitate research programs, develop new curricula, and seek external funding for scholarship at the intersections of digital theory and practice with issues of social justice and human difference, including race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, ability, and religion. Within the Department of English, this position will foreground literature’s singular ability to shape and critique ideas about our common humanity through the study of history, identity, belief, narrative,and other socially embedded imaginative forms. For a full description of the Critical Diversity in a Digital Age initiative, see cal.msu.edu/criticaldiversity.

    The Department of English seeks a colleague committed to critical diversity and whose work bridges literary studies and the digital humanities in innovative, field-defining ways. Our new colleague will find faculty in the Department of English who foreground scholarly and pedagogical interest in critical diversity across many subfields, including literature, film studies, creative writing, popular culture, and English education. Our Department also features cross-field areas of study, such as black literature, film, and culture; empire and globalization studies; feminisms, genders, sexualities; film, visual culture, and digital media; modern, contemporary, emergent; and neuro-literary studies. We look forward to welcoming a scholar and teacher who will complement our strengths and help develop new directions, particularly in our literary studies program. This is an academic-year, tenure-system faculty appointment to begin August 16, 2018.

     

  • Join the MSUDH Email List

    Join the MSUDH Listserv for email updates about events and announcements on campus and beyond. Join the list at list.matrix.msu.edu/listinfo/msudh.

    Visit the listserv archive here.

  • Fall 2017 Digital Humanities Workshops

    We have some exciting workshops set up for this fall. We hope to see you there!

    • September 7, 3:00-4:30pm, Getting Started in the Digital Humanities: Beginner Tools, find out more here
    • September 28, October 19,  3:00-4:30pm, Experimental Design in the Digital Humanities, find out more here
    • October 11, 3:00-4:30pm, Preparing and Exploring Local Public Data with Tableau, find out more here
    • November 1, 3:00-4:30pm, Getting Started with Content Management Systems and Web Publishing, find out more here
    • November 9, 3:00-4:30pm, Security and Privacy in Online Scholarship, find out more here
    • November 15, 3:00-4:30pm, Crash Course in Research Data Management, find out more here
  • Open Consultation Every Tuesday and Wednesday 2pm-3pm

    Not sure where to get started on a digital scholarship project?

    Need help troubleshooting a new technology you’re using in your research?

    Wondering how you can use digital scholarship in your classroom?

    Join MSU Library experts at Open Consultation, every Tuesday and Wednesday from 1pm to 2pm, in the Main Library’s Make Central (2nd Floor West). This hour is perfect for folks just starting out on digital scholarship projects, as well as those that may have more advanced technical questions. We can help with GIS, data visualization, scanning and digitizing questions, content management and web design, and much more! We’re also here to help design assignments for faculty or graduate students who are interested in digital scholarship.

    All skill levels welcome!!!

  • DH Pizza Meetup for Undergrad Students

    This is a monthly gathering for undergraduate students who are doing or interested in digital humanities. Anyone is welcome to join once or regularly. We will start with one undergrad student sharing informally about something they are interested in relating to digital humanities. After about 10 minutes, then the rest of the time will be left to the group to share their interests and work, and/or talk about the field and MSU DH generally.

    There will be soda and pizza provided. This gathering is meant to be informal, so even if you can only stop by for a few minutes, feel free to do so!

    The schedule for Fall 2017 is:

    • September 13, 6:00-7:00, Make Central (2nd Floor West, Main Library)
    • October 12, 6:00-7:00, Make Central (2nd Floor West, Main Library)
    • November 13, 6:00-7:00, Make Central (2nd Floor West, Main Library)
    • December 4, 6:00-7:00, Make Central (2nd Floor West, Main Library)
  • Distant Reading/Graphesis Research Workshops, led by the English Department

    Distant Reading/Graphesis
    Coordinators: Dr. Steve Rachman and Laura McGrath
    Find out more: english.msu.edu/graduate/research-workshops

    This workshop is for faculty and graduate students who wish to learn more about two important turns in literary studies and digital humanities: distant reading and graphesis.

    Over the two semesters of this academic year we will engage the techniques and theories operating behind these analytical approaches. This workshop will 1.) discuss current work in the fields of distant reading and graphical analysis, 2.) share examples of works-in-progress by scholars on and off campus, and 3.) introduce relevant technologies and programs (Voyant, Gephi, etc., tailored to the interests of participants).

    For the distant reading portion of the Workshop, key questions include: Do literary genres possess distinctive features at all possible scales of analysis and to what extent can these features be measured? Should the DH practices associated with distant reading be considered as “science” or “humanities”? How can the techniques of distant reading be applied to questions of gender, class, race, or other problems of identity, representation, and diversity?

    The graphic mediation elements of the workshop will deal with a growing array of visual forms of knowledge production and consumption as they intersect with literary forms, and we will be investigating the ways in which diverse fields such as graphic design, mathematics, geography, the natural sciences, rhetoric, and philosophy and disciplines of the digital humanities, rhetoric, art history, architecture, and media studies have transformed and will transform literary study. As with the distant reading parts of the workshop, we will be trying to think through these interdisciplinary questions in terms of critical diversity.

    Fall Semester events [NOTE DATE CHANGES]. All events take place in Linton Hall, Room 120

    • Meeting 1, September 14, September 19 4:30-6:00. Histories of Distant Reading. Reading, “Graphs” from Graphs, Maps, and Trees by Franco Moretti (full text available online through MSU Library); “A Genealogy of Distant Reading” by Ted Underwood.
    • Meeting 2, October 19, October 17, 4:30-6:00. Graphical Analysis and Machine Reading. Reading: selections from “Graphesis” by Joanna Drucker (to be circulated via email), and from “Comparative Textual Media” by Katherine Hayles (full text available online through MSU Library).
    • Meeting 3, November 16, November 14, 4:30-6:00. Computational Hermeneutics, Computational Trends with Andrew Piper (guest via skype). Reading, “Novel Devotions” by Andrew Piper. Tentative Voyant workshop.
    • Meeting 4, November 30, December 5, 4:30-6:00. Presentation of Works in Progress

  • Visualization Community Seminar Series

    The Visualization Community Seminar Series is a place for anyone interested in visualization/data visualization to learn about emerging ideas, research and methods. Faculty, students, and community members are invited to attend sessions where an invited visualization practitioner(s) will share their research and methods. The goal of this seminar series is to build a community of practice around visualization that crosses disciplinary boundaries and techniques. Anyone with an interest in the topic of visualization is welcome and encouraged to attend! Feel free to bring your lunch.
    Seminars will take place from 12:00-1:00pm on 9/22 (in Library 3 West Real Classroom), 10/20 (in Library 3 West Real Classroom), and 11/17 (in Library 3 West Beal Classroom)
    Find out more at blogpublic.lib.msu.edu/digital-scholarship-collaborative/2017/sep/visualization-community-seminar-series