The newest issue of the Modern Language Association (MLA) Newsletter is out and, in it, MLA is calling for innovative presentation proposals for the 128th MLA Annual Convention in Boston. In the newsletter, MLA does a wonderful service in articulating the need for innovative proposals as a way to support communication and discussion and innovative proposals as an addition to and not a replacement for traditional presentations. The first piece in the newsletter (pages 1-2) explains the need and interest in innovative proposals and explains that the goal is to support enriched exchange. On page 5, Rosemary G. Feal, Executive Director of MLA, again explains theRead More →

The Modern Language Association (MLA) Convention of 2012 is now over. MLA 2012 greatly exceeded my expectations. In this post, I’d like to note my appreciation to the MLA and all attendees for making MLA 2012 such a vibrant and wonderful experience.  As Roger Whitson noted, he and I had a number of discussions on how and why this MLA was a great conference. We both attributed a great deal of the energy and dynamism to the digital humanities (DH). In his blog post, Roger goes on to consider calls for transformation to DH, finding DH useful and supportive as it is without transformation. I stronglyRead More →

“Digital Platforms and the Future of Books” January 20 & 21, UF, Smathers Library, Room 1A As cultural and intellectual discourse becomes digitized at an ever-accelerating rate, what will become of books? According to several prominent literary theorists, the decline of print culture — “the civilization of the book” — makes us acutely aware of different kinds of writing that fit hand in glove with broadened notions of textuality. Contemporary scholarship across the humanities continues to interrogate the vitality of books in the twenty-first century. For instance, how have books shaped our conventional notions of authorship and commonplace reading practices? Looking ahead, how might theRead More →

The 2012 Digital Assembly Symposium “Digital Platforms and the Transformation of Intellectual Discourse” will be held 1/20-1/21/2012 at UF. Featured speakers will include David Blakesley (Campbell Chair in Technical Communication and Professor of English, Clemson University; Founder & Publisher, Parlor Press), Jay Bolter (Wesley Chair of New Media, Georgia Institute of Technology), Bob Stein (Founder & Director, Institute for the Future of the Book), and Elizabeth Swanstrom (Assistant Professor of English, Florida Atlantic University). More details will be forthcoming from the Department of English.Read More →

The “Writing the Digital Humanities” a conference is by graduate students in Laurie Gries’s current seminar and will be held 12/8/2011 from 1-6pm in Pugh Hall 210. Details: The Digital Humanities is an emergent field of study currently being “written” by scholars across the humanities. This conference highlights innovative scholarship being produced by graduate students in the Department of English, who are working at the intersections of computing and media studies, children’s literature, writing studies, queer studies, creative writing, and ecocritism. All panel presentations will take place in Pugh Hall 210. 1 PM, Opening remarks by Laurie Gries 1:15 PM, Panel A, “Interfaced Materialities.” Caroline Stone, Sean Printz, and Joan Shaffer. 2:25Read More →

Freedman Center Colloquium: Building a Culture for Digital Scholarship November 7th and 8th, , 2011 Kelvin Smith Library Case Western Reserve University Cleveland,  Ohio The Colloquium will provide an overview of: the nature and state of digital scholarship the support and infrastructure necessary to ensure faculty and student success the changes in the academic culture that are essential for digital scholarship to thrive new forms of scholarly communication underway or essential to exploit the advantages of digital scholarship. Complete program information is available at http://library.case.edu/ksl/colloquium/ The keynote speakers are: Dr. Laura Mandell, Professor of English and Associate Director of NINES, co-director of 18thConnect, and the directorRead More →

THATCamp Publishing 2011 Sunday, October 30, 2011 (preceding 2011 DLF Forum) Hyatt Regency Baltimore Please join us for the first ever unconference dedicated to new models for publishing!  THATCamp (The Humanities and Technology Camp) Publishing 2011 will be held Sunday, October 30, 2011, just before the 2011 Digital Library Federation Forum. New structures, tools, and services for scholarly publishing require new discussion venues and the development of new communities to nurture these discussions.  THATCamp Publishing represents just such an experiment in community development. By creating a meeting place that brings together colleagues from libraries, publishing, museums, archives, and digital humanities centers, we hope to stimulateRead More →

News: Caribbean Region of the International Resource Network presents “Preserving Our Stories – Caribbean LGBT Histories & Activism” Launch & Discussion The Digital Archive Collection of the Jamaica Gay Freedom Movement 21 June, 2011 at 6PM (USA Eastern Standard Time) Panelists include: Larry Chang (co-founder of the Jamaica Gay Freedom Movement and Jamaica Forum of Lesbians, All-Sexuals & Gays – JFLAG) & Thomas Glave (award-winning author and co-founder of JFLAG); along with co-chairs of the Caribbean IRN Board: Angelique V. Nixon (scholar, writer, community worker) & Rosamond S. King (writer, scholar, artist) Also featuring the short documentary “Sisters without Misters” by Cynthia Cheeseman http://bandwagonist.wordpress.com/2009/07/08/sisters-without-misters/ TheRead More →

Conference News: HUMANITIES (DOT) NET: CURRENTS IN THE DIGITAL HUMANITIES, the first joint conference of centerNet and CHCI will be taking place on June 15 at the University of Toronto’s Jackman Humanities Institute. The conference will feature plenary speakers John Unsworth (Illinois) and Brian Cantwell Smith (Toronto), panels on Digital Disciplines and Digital Publics, a roundtable discussion on the role of funders and programs that go beyond the academy, and opportunities for discussion. A small registration fee of $25US will cover the direct costs. Schedule information can be found via the CHCI website, http://chcinetwork.org. In addition, CHCI invites all centerNet members to join their internationalRead More →

The 2011 Digital Government (dg.o) conference will be in Washington, DC June 12-15, 2011 at the University of Maryland College Park.  The conference sounds very interesting for those working in any area of digital government, including libraries, archives, and other cultural heritage and educational institutions. More information is available on the conference website: http://dgo2011.dgsna.org/Read More →