Special Sessions
In spring 2015 the DLA launched a successful, new lunchtime series called “Behind the Scenes: Demystifying Projects in the Digital Liberal Arts.” During these informal lunches, Middlebury faculty and staff shared stories and tips from their experiences creating digital projects.
We are thrilled to announce that we will be hosting the Behind the Scenes series as a monthly luncheon in 2015-2016. We’re still arranging our lineup for the spring, so watch this space or sign-up for the DLA newsletter (in the right-hand column) for updates. If you would like to be featured in a Behind the Scenes luncheon, contact Alicia Peaker at dla@middlebury.edu.
Lunch will be provided, so please RSVP in the space below to ensure we have ordered enough food.
Past Sessions
“Using GitHub to Encourage Open Learning and Feedback”
May 3, 2016
12:15-1:30
Location TBA
Inspired by a humanist colleague’s approach to grading papers and discussions taking place in statistics pedagogy circles, I present my use of the GitHub web-based repository hosting service in my Introduction to Data Science course to encourage open and collaborative development of students’ coding skills and to facilitate the delivery of feedback from instructor to student. This short presentation will be followed by discussion of using digital tools for feedback in the classroom, so come with your questions. Lunch will be served, so please RSVP at go/DLAscenes.
Albert Y. Kim is originally from Montreal Quebec. After completing his PhD in statistics at the University of Washington in Seattle, he worked at Google as a Data Scientist for two years, followed by a two-year visiting stint at Reed College. He joined the Middlebury faculty in August 2015.
“The Collinwood Fire, 1908”
April 26, 2016
12:15-1:30
Axinn 232
DLA Faculty Fellow Michael Newbury (American Studies), Arts Technology Specialist Daniel Houghton, and their student research assistants will talk about the process of collaborating on The Collinwood Fire, 1908, an online project uniting digital animation and historical research. The project tells the story of an elementary school fire in Collinwood, Ohio that killed 172 children. In an animated film and written materials, the project offers paths into thinking about the horror of the event and the historical moment that surrounded it.
“Digital Surrealism as Research Strategy”
April 5, 2016
12:15-1:30
CTLR Lounge
Most digital humanities approaches pursue traditional forms of scholarship by extracting a single variable from cultural texts that is already legible to scholars. Instead, this talk advocates a mostly-ignored “digital-surrealism” that uses computer-based methods to transform film texts in radical ways not previously possible. Kevin Ferguson (Queens College, CUNY) scientific image analysis software to compare for corpora of different genres of film: (1) the animated features produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, (2) a representative selection of the western genre (including American and Italian “spaghetti” westerns), (3) a group of gialli (stylish horror films originating from Italy that influenced American slasher films), and (4) the series of popular Japanese Zatoichi films, following the adventures of the titular blind masseuse and swordsman living in 1830s Japan.
“The Real Work”
March 1st, 2016
12:15-1:30
Axinn 232
DLA Faculty Fellow Jamie McCallum (SOAN) will screen his short film “The Real Work,” produced during his DLA fellowship. He will then discuss the challenges of conveying sociological ideas through film and the tension between creating a documentary and constructing a scripted narrative through which those sociological ideas emerge.
“Midd Italiano”
December 15th, 2015
12:30-1:15
CTLR Lounge
Join Tom Van Order (Italian) and Mikaela Taylor ‘15.5 (co-author, Post Graduate Fellow for Special Collections and Archives) as they discuss Midd Italiano, a new online text for introductory Italian courses. Beginning this fall, the Italian dept. has moved to its own online text and lab/workbook. Tom and Mikaela will discuss the challenges of putting the program together, as well as the many advantages that Midd Italiano offers to students and faculty.
“Body and Earth: Seven Web-Based Somatic Excursions”
November 3rd, 2015
12:30-1:15
Axinn 232
Join professor Andrea Olsen, dance & digital media artist Scotty Hardwig, DLA staff members Daniel Houghton and Matt Lennon, and performer Miguel Castillo ‘17 for a short screening and discussion of the process of creating a web-based learning series for courses linking the environment with the deep intelligence of the body. Discuss the challenges and invitations of shaping an educational and artistic experiential film in international locations. See body-earth.org to preview the films.
“Fifty Years of Green: A Digital Exhibition”
October 20th, 2015
12:30-1:15
CTLR Lounge
Professor Kathy Morse (History) and Postdoc Alicia Peaker (DLA) will discuss the goals, process, successes and stumbles in having students build a series of collaborative, digital exhibits to mark 50 years of environmental studies at Middlebury. Fifty Years of Green, built using Omeka & Neatline, showcases the work of students in a Spring 2015 Environmental History course (HIST 222). During their talk, Kathy and Alicia will reflect on collaborative digital work; modifying an existing course with an experimental project; and student reactions to learning new software and skills.
“What is Videographic Criticism?”
September 22nd, 2015
12:30-1:15
CTLR Lounge
Join Film & Media Culture professors Christian Keathley and Jason Mittell as they provide a behind-the-scenes glimpse of their NEH-funded summer workshop on creating video essays as a form of academic criticism. See the workshop’s website for more information and resources.