Full Panel
Panelists
Jen Rajchel (Moderator), B.A., Bryn Mawr College. Ms. Rajchel is the Assistant Director for the Tri-Co Digital Humanities Initiative and is also currently curating a multimedia exhibit in Haverford College’s library for February 2013.
Michael Suen, B.A., Middlebury College. Mr. Suen is a web producer at the Learning Games Network whose work focuses on transmedia storytelling and social engagement.
Anna Levine, B.A., Swarthmore College. Ms. Levine is currently on the market for a job that combines her interest in the future of education with digital media.
Hema Surendranathan, Expected B.A. 2015, Bryn Mawr College. Ms. Surendranathan is a HASTAC Scholar and a member of the Re:Humanities working group. This summer as a Tri-Co Digital Humanities Fellow, she interned at Electric Literature.
Panel Description
A hallmark of digital humanities work is the lowering of barriers to participation. Yet in respect to one key population – undergraduates engaging actively in DH research – the field remains limited in its receptivity. HASTAC and NITLE have sought to change this dynamic via a variety of programming and collaborative partnerships. Through these frameworks, DH is engaging with new possibilities for undergraduate scholarship through curriculum innovation.
Initiatives such as the Re:Humanities symposium, now in its third year at Bryn Mawr, have materially advanced successful undergraduate research models. The only national conference of, for, and by undergraduates working in the field, Re:Humanities gleans undergraduate perspectives on best DH practices for supporting student engagement with DH and reports out on them to faculty, staff, and administrators. Creating a national network of undergraduate digital humanists, Re:Humanities participants leverage their scholarship in the classroom and extend their community of scholars. This community remains a resource for students as they graduate, pursuing digital humanities interests in industry and academia2. By creating a truly interdisciplinary, collaborative network, students participating in Re:Humanities reimagine the future of undergraduate research and its impact.
Building on these efforts, we present a panel of three Re:humanities Alumni working actively in DH, to complement the panels of faculty scholars at the HASTAC conference. The undergraduate and post-bac participants include a current undergraduate, a first-, and a second year post-bac working in industry. Moderated by the Assistant Director of the Tri-Co Digital Humanities initiative, Jen Rajchel, our speakers will outline best practices (from their perspective) for advancing undergraduate DH research. They will offer examples from their own experiences: engaging with digital media in the classroom; collaborative work with faculty, staff and students; and independent research. And they will address what they see as the greatest challenges and opportunities for future undergraduate scholarship in DH.