Event Title
Southeastern Academic Community for the Digital Humanities
Location
CB1-121
Start Date
4-11-2017 8:15 AM
End Date
4-11-2017 11:15 AM
Description
In imagining the possible worlds of Digital Humanities, and recognizing the need to create a future that is more interdisciplinary and inclusive, we propose to begin where we are. We propose a roundtable to discuss together the possibilities for a Southeastern Academic Community for DH. This community is inspired in part by the work of the Florida Digital Humanities Consortium, which has connected across different types of institutions and groups in Florida, as well as other collaborative entities including library collaboratives (e.g., HBCU Library Alliance, Association of Southeastern Research Libraries or ASERL, Digital Library of the Caribbean or dLOC), and research computing networks (e.g., Southeastern Universities Research Association, SURA, and the Sunshine State Educational and Research Computing Alliance, SSERCA).
Our roundtable is inspired by the work of these groups and our known shared needs. Many of our humanities departments have contracted. Whether our individual departments remain staffed and funded, we lack certain kinds of resources in the southeast. For example, the majority of our institutions cannot offer the full complement of courses needed for DH at the graduate or undergraduate levels. While we lack certain kinds of resources, we also have an abundance of resources with our libraries, archives, and museums both in terms of our collections and our communities. Further, we have an abundance of resources when we act collectively, collaborating and connecting together to address our individual needs and shared community dreams. This roundtable will be an opportunity to identify and discuss shared needs, resources, and goals.
This roundtable will focus on our identities, pasts, presents, and futures as southeastern institutions. Several of our institutions are members of the SECU academic initiative where the athletic program of "the Southeastern Conference sponsors, supports and promotes collaborative higher education programs and activities involving administrators, faculty and students at its fourteen member universities" (http://www.thesecu.com/about-secu/). Similarly, several of our institutions are members of the Associated Colleges of the South (ACS), which seeks to foster collaborations across institutions. This roundtable will include at least one speaker each from an SECU and ACS institution, along with speakers from institutions outside of the SECU and ACS, to discuss our shared goals and vision. We will also consider opportunities for seeking funds from the SECU, ACS, and others for collaboration across our institutions.
Our focus is on the specifics of our region. Each speaker for the roundtable will share on their local institutional context for needs and resources to share to make connections. The roundtable will be a lightning roundtable so that each can share, and then the focus can be on the discussion for next steps with the roundtable and all participants attending. In the process of holding this roundtable, we will also expand our draft contact list for DH practitioners and collaborators in the southeast (https://goo.gl/qfpBNt), to move forward on major initiatives, shared projects, and other needs.
Southeastern Academic Community for the Digital Humanities
CB1-121
In imagining the possible worlds of Digital Humanities, and recognizing the need to create a future that is more interdisciplinary and inclusive, we propose to begin where we are. We propose a roundtable to discuss together the possibilities for a Southeastern Academic Community for DH.
