Wrapping Up Spring Semester

So I’ve been home for a few weeks and I haven’t been writing for my blog. But that’s not for lack of information – it’s just taking me a bit longer to settle down and get my words on screen. 

In the meantime however, I wanted to to talk about & link to a few events this semester that I didn’t get a chance to write about.

• Roopika Risam explored critical and postcolonial digital humanities, and the challenges presented by the limits of postcolonial theory for DH. (storify)
• D. Fox Harrell discussed the computational narrative and social empowerment – I wrote more about his talk here. (storify)
• Miriam Posner, coordinator of the Digital Humanities Program at UCLA, discussed her most recent project on photography and lobotomy, while discussing ethics of DH projects. (storify)
• The undergraduate fellows for Five College Digital Humanities presented their projects and accomplishments at the Student Symposium. They all blew me away with their presentations which covered topics like queer horror, Pompeii, and public robotics. (storify)
• Emily Graslie came to Smith College to discuss the rise of her YouTube show The Brain Scoop and her role as Chief Curiosity Correspondent at the Field Museum, as well as natural history in general. 
• Angela Davis spoke to the UMass community about the prison-industrial complex, protest movements, and institutional change.
• An Evening With Museums was an event hosted by the UMass English department that invited museum professionals to talk about how skills of English majors can be applied to the museum field. I met Alexandra Kennedy of the Eric Carle Museum, Margaret Powell of Winterthur Museum, and Jane Wald of the Emily Dickinson Museum, all of whom discussed what they do, how they got there, and what college graduates can do to enter the museum world. 
• My English 350 class met with professionals in and out of the publishing industry to discuss their experiences and talk about the future of digital publishing. We spoke with Charlotte Roh and David Toomey of UMass, and alum Molly Bashaw who now works at Penguin Random House.