DLA Behind the Scenes Series Spring 2018

Please join us on various Tuesdays this spring from 12:15-1:30pm in the CTLR Lounge for the DLA Behind the Scenes Series. Lunch will be provided. Please RSVP for each event so that we can order enough food.

February 20: Michael J. Kramer—Analog Music >> Digital History: Sights & Sounds from the Berkeley Folk Music Festival Project

March 13: Mike Roy & Amy Collier—What Is Digital Fluency & Why Does It Matter?

March 20: Matthew Dickerson—Digital Story-Telling about Trout and Ecology

April 17: Sarah Laursen—Museums Enter the Digital Age

The Behind the Scenes Series offers an opportunity for discussion of digital scholarship up close, from a variety of angles and perspectives.

See also our new Digital Fluencies series.

DLA Newsletter – January 2018

Note from the Faculty Director

Happy New Year! 2018 marks a new beginning for the DLA, as we welcome a new colleague in Michael Kramer. This week we also are sponsoring a lecture from a major thinker about the future of higher education, Cathy Davidson, on Wednesday afternoon. Read more below to learn about Michael, and see what is in store for the DLA in January!
-Jason Mittell, Faculty Director of the DLA

In this issue:

  • Welcome to Michael Kramer!
  • Cathy Davidson on The New Education
  • DLA-related events in Winter Term

Professor Michael J. Kramer Joins the DLA 

The DLA is excited to announce that we have hired Professor Michael J. Kramer to join us at Middlebury! Michael will be the Associate Director of the DLA and Professor of the Practice in digital history. He comes to Middlebury from Northwestern University, where he was Visiting Assistant Professor of History and co-founded the Northwestern Digital Humanities Laboratory. His research focuses on the cultural history of 20th century America, with expertise on music, popular culture, and technology, as exemplified by his book The Republic of Rock: Music and Citizenship in the Sixties Counterculture (Oxford University Press, 2013; paperback, 2017), as well as his writings on digital history.

Michael will manage day-to-day operations of the DLA based in the CTLR, as well as work with other faculty to integrate digital pedagogy and research strategies into their work. He joins us mid-year in January, and will start teaching courses in digital history in the fall. Stop by Davis Library 215 to say hello!

 
Learn More about Michael J. Kramer.


Special Event: Professor Cathy Davidson on The New Education 

On Wednesday, January 10 at 4:30pm in Dana Auditorium, Professor Cathy Davidson will discuss her new book, The New Education: How to Revolutionize the University to Prepare Students for a World in Flux. Professor Davidson, an educational innovator and a distinguished scholar of the history of technology, is an avid proponent of active ways of learning that help students to understand and navigate the radically changed global world in which we now all live, work, and learn. Davidson is Distinguished Professor of English and Founding Director of the Futures Initiative at the Graduate Center, CUNY, and the R. F. DeVarney Professor Emerita of Interdisciplinary Studies at Duke University where she served as Duke’s (and the nation’s) first Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Studies. Davidson is the cofounding director (2002-2017, now co-director) of HASTAC (“Haystack”), Humanities, Arts, Science and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory. She is on the Board of Directors of Mozilla and served on the National Council of the Humanities as an appointee of President Barack Obama (2011-2017). She is the 2016 recipient of the Ernest J. Boyer Award for Significant Contributions to Higher Education, she champions new ideas and methods for learning and professional development–in school, in the workplace, and in everyday life. Professor Davidson’s visit is co-sponsored by the Office of the President, the Digital Liberal Arts Initiative, the Library, and the Center for Teaching, Learning & Research.
 
Learn More About Cathy Davidson.


January Events of Note
 
Professor Davidson’s lecture kicks off a Winter Term full of events relevant to the DLA. Check out the CTLR’s site featuring numerous presentations and sessions as part of the Contemporary Pedagogy Series, as well as a series of sessions focused on digital tools and techniques for teaching. We hope to see many of you at these events!


If you have any questions about the DLA, please contact us at dla@middlebury.edu.

Accolades for the Collinwood Project

07_chandelier

“The Collinwood Fire” unites digital animation and historical research to tell the story of a 1908 elementary school fire in Collinwood, Ohio that killed 172 children. Through both the short animated film and the multimedia website, the project offers paths into thinking about the horror of the event and the historical moment that surrounded it.  

Professor Michael Newbury (American Studies) led the project as one of the DLA 2015/2016 Faculty Fellows. He worked with Arts Technologist Daniel Houghton and a team of students that included Elise Biette (‘16.5), Maddie Dai (’14), Hosain Ghassemi (’17), James Graham (’16), Justin Holmes, Chad Kahn (’16), and Sofy Maia (’16), under the auspices of the Middlebury College Animation Studio to build an animation-rich website which tells the story of the Collinwood Fire.   The website debuted in Fall of 2016, concurrent with several screenings of the animation at international film festivals.  

The DLA would like to extend heartfelt congratulations to the talented team that worked on the project.  You can read more about the project in the followling articles, and visit the Collinwood Fire website below.

Awards

The Ray & Pat Browne Electronic Site Award, Popular Culture Association, 2018

“Most Innovative Film” and “Most Creative Use of Archival Footage” awards at the VT International Film Festival, October 21, 2016

“Best Short” the Blender Conference in Amsterdam, October 28-30, 2016

“Best Ohio Short Film” at the Cleveland International Film Festival, March 29- April 9, 2017

Press

“What Did I Just See?” written by Matt Jennings for Middlebury Magazine. January 31, 2018

Local Film and Multimedia Project Together Illuminate a Tragedy”  written by Rachel Elizabeth Jones for 7 Days. October 26, 2016

Horrific Collinwood school fire of 1908 remembered in new movie (vintage photos, video)” written by Laura DeMarco for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. October 27, 2016

Collinwood Fire Film Wins Awards at Vermont Film Festival” written by Stephen Diehl for the Middlebury News Room.  October 25, 2016.

A New Animated Short Examines What Happened in The 1908 Collinwood School Fire” radio interview by Kabir Bhatia for WKSU 89.7 (Kent State University, Ohio).  January 9, 2017.