As global communities become increasingly immersed in and reliant on digital technologies, Carleton University is contributing important insights on how digital media impacts society and how digital tools can help answer questions about the human experience.
Carleton University’s College of the Humanities and the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) are pleased to announce the creation of StudioDH, a reimagination of the professionalization component of the Master of Arts (MA) in Digital Humanities program, whose faculty and students engage in innovative research often employing progressive scholarly tools to explore the evolving and intensifying influence of digital technologies on culture, identities and communities.
StudioDH is envisioned as a public focused, inside-out community-based research and art collective that will allow students to work closely with public- and private-sector partners via a physical ‘pop-up’ style laboratory, located in the community and open to the public. Identified partners will be organizations that rely heavily on digital media, including those in the art and entertainment, media production, library and archives, museums and gaming sectors.
Student projects will cover a breadth of cross-disciplinary topics and will seek to identify community needs and present creative solutions. Past student research projects in Carleton’s digital humanities program have included: a creative representation of the environmental history of the Ottawa River through data “songs,” a scholarly digital edition of a notorious 18th century publication about ‘pyrates,’ a video game about historical memory, and a game to teach principles of philosophical reasoning for use in under-resourced schools.
StudioDH has been created thanks to a $2.2M gift from a generous Carleton donor. This donation will support StudioDH activities and related experiential learning through the creation of three funds: a Student Experience Fund, which will provide students with opportunities to learn from experts in the field and network with peers from other institutions by attending national and international conferences and events; a Student Support Fund, which will provide financial aid to students participating in the Digital Humanities program and; an Equipment Fund, which will bolster research activities. The gift will also enable the creation of a post-doctoral fellowship in community-based digital humanities.