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Looking Back on Fall 2016 at CTSDH

Looking Back on Fall 2016 at CTSDH

The fall semester was an exciting time at CTSDH. We launched new faculty, graduate, and undergraduate research projects, introduced a lunchtime lecture series, co-hosted a symposium, and made our Facebook Live debut. Check out ten things CTSDH did this semester, and we welcome you to join us for our spring events!

  1. We mixed and mingled. At the end of September we invited the graduate student community to come learn about what we do at CTSDH. We met with students from a range of academic disciplines—including English, History, Sociology, and Computer Science—ate pizza, drank wine, ran a 3D printer demo, and surveyed participants on what workshops we should hold. 
  2. We reflected on the history (and future) of Digital Humanities. With Paul Eggert of the English Department, CTSDH ran a one-day symposium called "Instant History: The Postwar Digital Humanities and Their Legacies" with featured panelists Geoffrey Rockwell, Steven Jones, Ted Underwood, and Laura Mandell.
  3. We explored digital archives of the Caribbean. Our first lunchtime lecture was by Elizabeth Hopwood, who spoke of "Building (and Breaking) The Early Caribbean Digital Archive." 
  4. We considered stories of women, leadership, and labor. In our second lunchtime lecture, Nancy Freeman, the director of the Women and Leadership Archives debuted an online exhibit on the fascinating story of Mollie West.
  5.  We learned about the role of text encoding in building digital critical archives. Our third lunchtime lecture featured Paul Eggert, whose talk was entitled "Extracting Oneself from the TEI: The Charles Harpur Critical Archive."
  6. We went live! If you missed them, catch our lunchtime lectures via Facebook. 
  7. We got social. Thanks to our MA Fellows Maria Palacio, Francis Flynn, and Aman Meghrajani, we launched our Facebook page, Flickr page, and Twitter account. 
  8. We created. CTSDH now has two maker-spaces on the third floor of Loyola Hall, including a text analytics lab and a 3D printing studio. We've made it even easier for visitors to use our space or check out equipment by providing a reservation form and inventory list on our site.
  9. We gamed. To wrap up the semester, we threw a party to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Nintendo Wii. Organized by Francis Flynn, the party was a chance to relax during finals, play some classic Wii games, discuss CodeName Revolution by Center founders Steven Jones and George Thiruvathukal, and reflect on the state of gaming since the Wii. 
  10. We gathered. Digital Humanities doesn't exist without its community of practitioners, scholars, researchers, learners, builders, tinkers, and dabblers, and we were very excited to see so many familiar and new faces this semester. Our Center aims to support the endeavors of the Loyola community, and we invite you to come talk to us about your ideas (find us on the third floor of Loyola Hall!)

 We hope you enjoyed this semester as much as we did and we hope to see you all for are next round of events in the Spring.