Apr 08

Post-Doc in Digital Storytelling at McMaster University

The Lewis & Ruth Sherman Centre for Digital Scholarship, located in Mills Memorial Library at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, invites qualified candidates to apply for a two-year postdoctoral fellowship.

Application Deadline: April 30, 2019
Position Start Date: August 1, 2019
Position End Date: July 31, 2021
Supervisor: Dr. Andrea Zeffiro
Remuneration: $50,000/year
This position is included within the Canadian Union of Public Employees (“CUPE”) Local 3906 Unit 3, representing Post-Doctoral Fellows.

Background

Founded in 2012, the Sherman Centre engages in a wide range of activities to support and build the McMaster digital humanities (DH) community. A critical need that has become apparent in the course of this work is the inclusion of DH skill instruction, methodology, and theory in the curriculum, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. From the vantage point of the Sherman Centre, we see this as the beginning of a clear trend toward increased interest in introducing students to a wide range of approaches (including text analysis, data visualization, and GIS), while improving their general technical fluency and research competency.

Job Description 

Working under the direction of the Academic and Administrative Directors of the Sherman Centre, the postdoctoral fellow will support the general outreach and curricular activities of the Sherman Centre, with a specific focus on the application of DH approaches to the area of digital storytelling through a variety of visualization, digital dissemination, and knowledge mobilization approaches. In alignment with their own DH research agenda, the fellow will, in close collaboration with other Sherman Centre staff:
– offer training and support for general and selected specific DH tools and techniques
– assess faculty and graduate student interests, needs, and goals with relation to digital storytelling in various forms of data analyses and visualization, knowledge dissemination and mobilization
– offer consultation to faculty and graduate students to enable them to begin including DH elements in their teaching and research
– engage library staff in other functional areas to draw their expertise into the DH space and connect them to faculty who need support
– support the further development of DH workshops, talks, and events at the Sherman Centre
– prepare and deliver an undergraduate digital humanities introductory course annually, and
– connect with other digital humanities initiatives in the region and beyond.

Beyond these responsibilities, the fellow will participate actively in the life and activities of the Sherman Centre and represent it at key DH events such as the Digital Humanities Summer Institute (DHSI) and the annual Digital Humanities conference at the institution’s expense.

Eligibility

The Postdoctoral Fellowship is open to scholars who have completed their doctoral degree no earlier than June 1, 2015. Candidates must have defended their dissertation and received their Ph.D. by July 1, 2019. The optimal candidate will have a Ph.D. in a DH-relevant discipline and a digital humanities research agenda with expertise in approaches to digital storytelling. International scholars are invited to apply, however, preference will be given to Canadian citizens and permanent residents.

How To Apply 

To apply for this job, please submit your application online: u.mcmaster.ca/scds-postdoc-2019

The completed online application package must include the following components:
– a CV
– a cover letter that outlines your qualifications for and interest in the position, your commitment to excellence in research and teaching, and efforts to advance equity, diversity, and inclusion in university or community settings
– a sample portfolio (10 pages maximum) that highlights your writing and previous DH-related work, and
– names and contact information for three references

Additional documentation may be requested at a later stage in the selection process.

Please contact Dr. Jay Brodeur (brodeujj@mcmaster.ca) if you have any general questions about the position.

Employment Equity Statement 

McMaster University is located on the traditional territories of the Haudenosaunee and Mississauga Nations and, within the lands protected by the “Dish with One Spoon” wampum agreement.

McMaster University is strongly committed to employment equity within its community and to recruiting a diverse faculty and staff.  The University encourages applications from all qualified candidates including women, persons with disabilities, First Nations, Métis and Inuit persons, members of racialized communities and LGBTQ-identified persons. Job applicants requiring accommodation to participate in the hiring process should contact the Human Resources Service Centre at 905-525-9140 ext. 222-HR (22247) or the Faculty of Health Sciences Human Resources office at ext. 22207 to communicate accommodation needs.

Mar 20

Videogames, Glitches, and the Narrative of Malfunction

Greetings all,

Join us on Tuesday March 26 at 12:30 pm at MITH for Andrew Ferguson’s talk in our Spring 2019 Digital Dialogue series.

Andrew Ferguson
Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of English, University of Maryland

Videogames, Glitches, and the Narrative of Malfunction

Tuesday March 26 2019 at 12:30 pm
MITH Conference Room, 0301 Hornbake Library North
or via livestream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZEQG0HnqGI

The word “glitch,” meaning a small voltage variance that can short out a circuit, entered the English language through radio hobbyists and was popularized by astronauts, for whom a glitch could mean the difference between life and death. But while the word “glitch” is often still used to connote catastrophic failure, videogamers have come to view glitches opportunistically, as chances to intervene in game texts in ways unforeseen (and often unforeseeable) by their developers. The results range from the ability to walk through walls, to new strategies for survival in unfavorable conditions, all the way to the discovery of entirely new navigable spaces outside the game’s imposed boundaries.

 

My presentation draws on a variety of game glitches and the alternate modes of textual navigation they enable to demonstrate how the glitch forces us to rethink even such basic concepts as plot, character, temporality, and point of view, ultimately showing how the resulting “narrative of malfunction” blends and reshapes digital studies, narratology, and queer/disability theory to establish brokenness, error, and failure as baseline states within which narrative “function” is at best temporary and often actively to be avoided. All texts are thus potentially glitched, and much can be learned and accomplished within them by reading for the glitches.

 
Andrew Ferguson is a visiting assistant professor of digital studies in the Department of English at UMD. He works at the intersection of media-textual studies, cultural theory, and popular culture, which results in him doing things like willingly signing up to write an article that will require watching The Star Wars Holiday Special several times. Other ongoing projects include a study on editorial labor and style in science fiction, essays on born-digital horror and the writings of Dr. Chuck Tingle, and the manuscript on glitches and narrative theory from which this talk is taken.

Feb 18

Call for Applications: R.D. Mullen Fellowships

Call for Applications: R.D. Mullen Fellowships

 

Named for the founder of our journal, Richard “Dale” Mullen (1915-1998), the Mullen fellowships are awarded by Science Fiction Studies to support archival research in science fiction. 

We have three categories of awards: 

1.    Postdoctoral Research Fellowship

Amount: Up to $3000

Number: 2 awards each year

Qualifications: Candidates must have received their PhD degree but must not hold (or be contracted to begin) a tenure-track position. Also eligible are ABD students who have not yet been conferred their degree but who are scheduled to do so before taking up the award, for research in support of a new project only. The relation between the new research and the topic of the dissertation should be clarified in the proposal, particularly in cases of closely related projects.

 2.    PhD Research Fellowship

Amount: Up to $2000

Number: 3 awards each year

Qualifications: Research must be in support of a dissertation, and students may apply at any stage of their degree. The proposal should make it clear that applicants have familiarized themselves in some detail with the resources available at the library or archive they propose to use. Projects with an overall science fiction emphasis, other things being equal, will receive priority over projects with a more tangential relationship to the field.

3.    MA Thesis Research Fellowship

Amount: Up to $1000

Number: 1 award each year

Qualifications: Candidates may be in an MA program or in the MA phase of a combined graduate program. The award must be used in support of a graduate research project, which may be an article or an MA thesis. The proposal should specify which materials are unique to the archive the student proposes to visit and why they are essential to the project. 

 

Application Process

All projects must centrally investigate science fiction, of any nation, culture, medium or era.

Project descriptions should concisely but clearly

1.     Define the project,

2.     Include a statement describing the relationship of this project to science fiction as a genre and to sf criticism as a practice, 

3.     show familiarity with the specific holdings and strengths of the archive in which the proposed research will be conducted to explain why archival research is essential to the project, and 

4.     Offer a research plan (including time frame and budget) that is practical for the time-frame proposed.

Applications may propose research in—but need not limit themselves to—specialized sf archives such as the Eaton Collection at UC Riverside, the Maison d’Ailleurs in Switzerland, the Judith Merril Collection in Toronto, or the SF Foundation Collection in Liverpool. Proposals for work in general archives with relevant sf holdings—authors’ papers, for example—are also welcome. 

For possible research locations, applicants may wish to consult the partial list of sf archives compiled in SFS37.2 (July 2010): 161-90. This list is also available online at: <http://sfanthology.site.wesleyan.edu/files/2010/08/WASF-Teachers-Guide-2Archives.pdf>.

Applications should be written in English and should include

1.    the project description (approximately 500 words),

2.    a work plan and an itemized budget, 

3.    a cover letter clearly identifying which fellowship or award is sought,

4.    an updated curriculum vitae, and

5.    two letters of reference, including one from the faculty supervisor in cases of PhD and MA research.

 

Students who receive awards must acknowledge the support provided by SFS’s Mullen Fellowship program in any completed theses, dissertations or published work that makes use of research supported by this fellowship. After the research is conducted, each awardee shall provide SFS with a 500-word report on the results.

 

Successful candidates will be reimbursed for expenses incurred conducting research, up to the amount of the award, once they complete the research and submit relevant receipts. Valid research expenses include

·     airfare or ground transportation costs from one’s home to the archive,

·     meals for the scholar,

·     accommodation costs, and

·     costs associated with using an archive, such as photocopying, camera fees, or other institutional costs.

 

Funds cannot be used in support of

·     conference travel (one may attend a conference at the same venue as the archive),

·     capital items such as computers or other equipment,

·     the purchase of books or other research material, and 

·     meals, travel, or accommodation costs for anyone other than the researcher.

 

Applications should be submitted electronically to the chair of the evaluation committee, Sherryl Vint, at sherryl.vint@gmail.com.  Applications are due April 2, 2019 and awards will be announced in early May. 

 

The selection committee for 2019 consists of SFS Advisory Board members Carl Freedman and Graham Murphy, and SFS editors Istvan Csicsery-Ronay and Sherryl Vint. 

 

— 

Sherryl Vint
Professor, UC Riverside
IAFA President
Editor, Science Fiction Studies 
Editor, Palgrave Science and Popular Culture series

Feb 16

Participate in a NEH Summer Seminar Deadline: March 1, 2019

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Education

Participate in a NEH Summer Seminar & Institute Program

Application Deadline: March 1, 2019

Seminars and Institutes

National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminars and Institutes broaden and deepen understanding of the humanities by supporting professional development programs, specifically designed for a national audience of college and university faculty. The programs provide one- to four-week opportunities for participants (NEH Summer Scholars) to explore a variety of topics relevant to undergraduate education in the humanities. They take place throughout the United States and participant stipends help cover travel and living expenses.

NEH Summer Seminars and Institutes

  • focus on the study and teaching of significant texts and other resources;
  • provide models of excellent scholarship and teaching;
  • contribute to the intellectual growth of the participants; and
  • build lasting communities of inquiry.

Participants of these programs frequently describe them as professionally transformational—a gift to educators across the country who want to gain a deeper understanding of the history, literature, art, and culture they teach.

 

This year’s programs could have you exploring new perspectives on Jewish history in the American South, reading and using material maps at Newberry Library, rethinking the dawn of the American Century through José Martí and immigrant communities in Cuban independence, examining the intersection of religion, secularism, and the novel, and considering writing and democracy in western New York in the context of U.S. political crises.

For a complete list of the seminars and institutes offered this summer, along with eligibility and application requirements, please visit our website.

Jan 30

Japanese Association for Digital Humanities (JADH) ninth annual conference

Dear Think Factory Workers,

If you are already headed to the Pacific Rim this summer (I wish I were!), then this Global DH conference in Japan would be pretty sweet. I send this on to you mostly so that you can see that the conversation we’ll have next Wednesday about global DH is part of a lively and current global process.

 

JADH2019: “Localization in Global DH”

 

The Japanese Association for Digital Humanities (JADH) is pleased to announce its ninth annual conference, to be held at Kansai University, Osaka, Japan, August 29-31, 2019, hosted by the Open Research Center for Asian Studies (KU-ORCAS) at Kansai University.

 

The conference will feature posters, papers and panels. We invite proposals on all aspects of Digital Humanities, and especially encourage papers treating topics that deal with practices that aim to cross borders, for example, between academic fields, media, languages, cultures, organizations, and so on, as related to the field of Digital Humanities.

 

While globalization has spread our scholarly activities, digital humanities must inevitably confront the local: linguistically, geographically, historically. JADH has supported DH research relating to Japan, where the association is located, and the wider East Asian region, for almost a decade since it was first established. Through the activities of its members and its annual conference, JADH has also contributed to developing global approaches in DH. To exchange our experiences in the world, we welcome presentations treating “Localization in Global DH” this year. Although this is our  suggested central focus, we nonetheless welcome papers on a broad range of DH topics.

 

Research issues, including data mining, information design and modeling, software studies, and humanities research enabled through the digital medium; computer-based research and computer applications in literary, linguistic, cultural, and historical studies, including electronic literature, public humanities, and interdisciplinary aspects of modern scholarship. Examples might include text analysis, corpora, corpus linguistics, language processing, language learning, and endangered languages; the digital arts, architecture, music, film, theater, new media and related areas; the creation and curation of humanities digital resources; the role of digital humanities in academic curricula; The range of topics covered by Digital Humanities can also be consulted in the journal Digital Scholarship in the Humanities (http://dsh.oxfordjournals.org/), Oxford University Press.

 

Abstracts submitted should be of 500-1000 words in length in English, including the title.

Please submit abstracts via  the open conference system  (link below) by 11:59 PM, May 7, 2019 (HAST). 

https://www.jadh.org/confsys/index.php/jadh2019/

 

Presenters will be notified of acceptance on 31 May 2019.

 

Type of proposals:

1. Poster presentations: Poster presentations may include work-in-progress on any of the topics described above as well as demonstrations of computer technology, software and digital projects. A separate poster session will open the conference, during which time presenters should be on hand to explain their work, share their ideas with other delegates, and answer questions. Posters will also be on display at various times during the conference, and presenters are encouraged to provide material and handouts with more detailed information and URLs.

 

2. Short papers: Short papers are allotted 10 minutes (plus 5 minutes for questions) and are suitable for describing work-in-progress and reporting on shorter experiments and software and tools in early stages of development.

 

3. Long papers: Long papers are allotted 20 minutes (plus 10 minutes for questions) and are intended for presenting substantial unpublished research and reporting on significant new digital resources or methodologies.

 

4. Panels: Panels (90 minutes) are comprised of either: (a) Three long papers on a joint theme. All abstracts should be submitted together with a statement, of approximately 500-1000 words, outlining the session topic and its relevance to current directions in the digital humanities; or (b) A panel of four to six speakers. The panel organizer should submit a 500-1000 words outline of the topic session and its relevance to current directions in the digital humanities as well as an indication from all speakers of their willingness to participate.

 Contact:

Please direct enquiries about any aspect of the conference to:

conf2019 [ at ] jadh.org

 

Jan 16

Critical Analysis as Modeling and Prototyping

Through exploration, debate, enthusiasm, skepticism, engagement, and, importantly––making and doing things­­–– this iteration of 730/830 “Digital Humanities” engages the theory and practice of modeling and prototyping. Our focus will be on recently published work that reflects the ways in which literary critics and practitioners of DH address the entanglement of technology with society & culture, ways of reading & writing, and conducting or enacting criticism. The course requires creativity, critique, and a wide range of affective intellectual moods.