Institute for the Humanities > Annual Report 2012 > Year in Review
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he centerpiece of 2011–12 has been our Year of Digital Humanities. We synergized partnership between the Hatcher Graduate Library (Scholarly Publishing, digitalculturebooks), School of Information, Sweetland Writing Center, and the new digital humanities faculty cluster hires. We explored profound shifts in scholarly practice occasioned by digital methodologies. We considered how scholarly partnerships are formulating across vast distances, taking examples of projects at Michigan and other places which link knowledge production and graduate instruction across China, the Middle East, Europe, America, and, importantly, “southern” locations such as South Africa, Ghana, Cuba, and Brazil. We also considered new developments, many inaugural or even more envisioned than real, in publication wherein digital publication is (or is about to) ring changes in scholarly argument, relationships between image and text, between book and an expansive set of web links, the single author model, and so on. New publication platforms (for example, Vectors) were discussed as models. We reflected on, and brought projects which illustrated, new kinds of relationship between the arts and humanities afforded by digital projection and web design. We brought top national and international exemplars in the various thematic areas brought under the rubric of the year, thus stimulating digital work on campus. We brought representatives of foundations to campus. Finally, our critical purpose was to bring Michigan’s strongly reflective as well as innovative capacities to bear on the digital humanities and to
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do so critically in this age of attention deficit disorder and flattening of prose, thanks to digital realities. The institute mounted a number of events which served to highlight digital work on the Michigan campus, and innovative relationships between the arts and the humanities in a digital world. These events included: Weekly brown bag lectures by Michigan faculty on matters digital. See p. 22. George Lewis and Arnold Davidson in concert/lecture. George Lewis, renowned jazz/avant-garde trombonist, and digital artist, was brought from Columbia Photos opposite Charles Atlas
| Julie Klein
Geri Allen and George Lewis Tara McPherson
| Phil Pochoda
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