{"id":233,"date":"2009-06-29T11:16:47","date_gmt":"2009-06-29T15:16:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/?page_id=233"},"modified":"2025-08-20T12:46:39","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T16:46:39","slug":"greenspan-brian","status":"publish","type":"cu_people","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/people\/greenspan-brian\/","title":{"rendered":"Greenspan, Brian"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"mb-6 cu-pageheader cu-component-updated md:mb-12\">\n    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold !mt-2 mb-4 md:mb-6 text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] relative after:absolute after:h-px after:bottom-0 pb-5 after:w-10 after:bg-cu-red after:left-px\">\n                    \n             \n                \n            <\/h1>\n\n    \n    <\/header>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Research Interests<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Digital humanities<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Utopian studies<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>New narrative media<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Current Research<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My research traces the intersections of print narrative and new storytelling media.&nbsp;I\u2019m particularly interested in how utopian and dystopian narratives from any given era represent and respond to narrative technologies, and in how the lessons of Utopian Studies might inform the new affordances offered by hypertext, video games and social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With colleagues at Carleton&#8217;s Hyperlab and elsewhere, I\u2019m developing innovative locative media authorware for spatial storytelling.&nbsp;Our StoryTrek system makes it easy to create complex, \u201caugmented reality\u201d multimedia narratives that twist and turn depending on the reader\u2019s geospatial position&nbsp;and style of navigation through real space. &nbsp;We\u2019ve used the system for mobile stories and games, heritage conservation projects, and the critical study of social and literary spaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Currently, I\u2019m using our software to layer city maps over fictional city narratives (in the form of novels, serialized stories and unpublished manuscripts), historical street maps, photographs, blueprints of landmark buildings (both extant and demolished), and visionary drawings of urban spaces. &nbsp;By using the city streets themselves as an interactive interface to historical representations of urban decline, destruction and renewal, I aim to create a speculative archive of the cities that were, and those that might have been.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Recent Honours and Awards<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>International&nbsp;Co-Investigator, AHRC Follow-on Funding for Impact and Engagement Scheme&nbsp;Grant, 2017-19<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Collaborator, SSHRC Partnership Development&nbsp;Grant, 2017-19<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Teaching Achievement Award,&nbsp;Carleton University, 2017<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Collaborator, FRQSC&nbsp;Appui a\u0300 la recherche creation, 2016-19<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Collaborator, SSHRC&nbsp;Partnership Grant, 2015-18<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Network Partner, Leverhulme International Research Network Grant,&nbsp;2014-16<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>FASS Research Award, Carleton University, 2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Co-PI, Canada Foundation for Innovation Infrastructure Grant, 2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Co-Recipient, Best Paper Award, Canadian Game Studies Association<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Principle Network Investigator, Graphics, Animation and New Media&nbsp;Network of Centres of Excellence, 2013-15<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>SSHRC Standard Research Grant, 2011-14<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Co-applicant, SSHRC Insight Development Grant, 2012-13<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Recent Publications<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe Scandal of Digital Humanities.\u201d Forthcoming in Matthew K.&nbsp;Gold and Lauren Klein, eds.,Debates in&nbsp;the Digital Humanities 2017. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Emily Christina Murphy, Brian Greenspan &amp;&nbsp;Shannon Smith. \u201cThe Undergraduate Summer Intensive: Principles of Pedagogy and&nbsp;Design.\u201d Forthcoming in Crompton, Lane &amp; Siemens, eds.&nbsp;Doing Digital&nbsp;Humanities: Practice, Training, Research. Routledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAre Digital Humanists Utopian?\u201d In Matthew K. Gold and LaurenDebates in&nbsp;the Digital Humanities 2016. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota&nbsp;Press: 393-409.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kim Martin, Anabel Quan-Haase, Brian Greenspan&nbsp;(co-author). (2016). \u201cSTAK \u2013Serendipitous Tool for Augmenting Knowledge:&nbsp;Connecting Digital and Physical Resources.\u201d Digital&nbsp;Studies\/Le champ nume\u0301rique&nbsp;2016. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.digitalstudies.org\/\">https:\/\/www.digitalstudies.org\/<\/a>&nbsp;ojs\/index.php\/digital_studies\/article\/view\/336\/462.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Burning Canada\u2019s Libraries and other&nbsp;Monumental Errors.&#8221; MediaTropes 5.2 (2015): 89-101.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cDon\u2019t Make a Scene: Game Studies for an Uncertain&nbsp;World.\u201d Digital Studies\/Le champ nume\u0301rique Vol.5 (2014-15).&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.digitalstudies.org\/ojs\/index.php\/digital_studies\/article\/view\/283\/375\">http:\/\/www.digitalstudies.org\/ojs\/index.php\/digital_studies\/article\/view\/283\/375<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Selected Keynotes and Invited Lectures&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cStrange Cognitions: SF and the Metanovum.\u201d Plenary Lecture.&nbsp;Science Fiction Colloquium, Universit\u00e9 de Montr\u00e9al, December 11, 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cParty Dress: Wearable Media for Utopian Bodies\u201d. Keynote&nbsp;address. Digital Humanities Summer Institute-Atlantic (DHSI@Dal), May 10, 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBurning the Library: DH as Dystopia.\u201d Closing plenary address.&nbsp;DHSI@Congress, May 30-31, 2015 Ottawa, Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cNew Worlds for New Media: A Digital Humanist\u2019s Map of Utopia.\u201d&nbsp;Keynote lecture for Digital Utopias: Literary Space(s) in the Digital Age, EGSA&nbsp;Annual Conference, April 3-4 2014, University of Texas-Arlington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMoving Forward, Backwards and Sideways: Navigating the New&nbsp;Landscape of Knowledge Mobilization.\u201d Invited presentation for Imagining&nbsp;Canada\u2019s Future: Insights from Carleton University, SSHRC Research&nbsp;Impact&nbsp;Regional Event, 1125@Carleton, March 20, 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cNot in Kansas Anymore: Designing an Abducted Reality Game\u201d.&nbsp;Keynote Lecture for the Canadian Game Studies Association, Victoria University,&nbsp;June 3-5, 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cDream Mode: Utopian Rhetoric and Spatial Play.\u201d Keynote address&nbsp;for Multimodality: Considerations for Communication, Interpretation, and&nbsp;Adaptatation, The 17th Pacific Rim Conference on Literature and&nbsp;Rhetoric,&nbsp;University of Alaska Anchorage, March 9 &amp; 10, 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The Digital Humanities and Other Utopias.&#8221; Invited lecture&nbsp;for the Interdisciplinary Development Initiative in Digital Humanities&#8217; Speaker&nbsp;Series, University of Western Ontario, November, 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cGone Viral: Collaborative Media as Dystopia.\u201d Keynote address for&nbsp;Co-op Mode: Interactivity and Narrative, the Sixth Annual University of Ottawa&nbsp;English Graduate Conference, May 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cVirtually Perfect: New Media and the Future of Utopia.\u201d Series&nbsp;capstone lecture for Possible Worlds, Alternative Futures: Utopianism in Theory&nbsp;&amp; Practice Seminar. The Center for the Humanities, The Graduate&nbsp;Center,&nbsp;CUNY, May 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cCasual Revolutionaries: Work and Play in the Networked Utopia\u201d.&nbsp;Keynote address for the 2011 Free- Exchange Graduate Conference, Department of&nbsp;English, Calgary University, March 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Other Selected Presentations<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cYesterday\u2019s Island of Tomorrow: Augmented Reality as Utopian&nbsp;Space\u201d. Society for Utopian Studies 41st Annual Meeting. St. Petersburg, FL,&nbsp;October 27-30.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cJust What Is It That Makes Today&#8217;s E-Lit Labs So Different, So&nbsp;Appealing?\u201d. 2016 Electronic Literature Organization, University of Victoria,&nbsp;June 10-12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cCaught in the Mesh: Developing a First-Person Stroller\u201d. Canadian&nbsp;Game Studies Association Annual Meeting, University of Calgary, June 1-3, 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rilla Khaled, Pippin Barr, Christopher Moore, Brian Greenspan&nbsp;(co-author). \u201cToward Speculative Play\u201d. Canadian Game Studies Association&nbsp;Annual Meeting, Univeristy of Calgary, June 1-3, 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Greenspan, Brian and Sarah Thorne. \u201cProfane Perambulations:&nbsp;Protocols for Open Locative Memorials\u201d. Canadian Society for Digital Humanities&nbsp;Annual Meeting, University of Calgary, May 30- June 1, 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;In small clumsy letters he wrote:&#8221; Utopian Media and&nbsp;the Future of Writing. Association of Canadian College and University Teachers&nbsp;of English (ACCUTE) Annual Conference, University of Calgary, May 28-31,&nbsp;2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAgreeable Tactics: University Governance, Differentiation and the&nbsp;Digital Humanities\u201d. Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of&nbsp;English (ACCUTE) Annual Conference, University of Calgary,&nbsp;May 28-31, 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cPrivate Interests, Virtual Collectivity and Digital Humanities\u201d.&nbsp;2016 Digital Humanities Workshop, Carleton University, Ottawa, May 14-15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cUtopia and Technology.\u201d 500 Years after Utopia: A Symposium.&nbsp;Trent University, Peterborough, ON, April 16, 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Brian Greenspan and Adam Stock, \u201cIn the Mesh: Fuller\u2019s Montreal&nbsp;and the Technotopia That Never Was.\u201d Paper presentation and locative media&nbsp;workshop. POLITICS &amp; POETICS: The 3rd Symposium of the&nbsp;Leverhulme&nbsp;International Research Network \u2018Imaginaries of the Future\u2019. Queens University&nbsp;Belfast, January 19-21, 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSpex Fiction: Narrating the Augmented City\u201d. 40th Annual Meeting&nbsp;of the Society for Utopian Studies, Pittsburgh, PA, November 5-8, 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Brian Greenspan, Jiayu Li, Kim Martin, David Mould, Anabel&nbsp;Quan-Haase. \u201cThe Big Red Book: A Demonstration of Serendipitous Tool for&nbsp;Augmenting Knowledge (STAK)\u201d. Canadian Society for Digital&nbsp;Humanities, June&nbsp;2015, Ottawa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Recent Graduate Supervisions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Adrien Robertson, Ph.D. English. Topic: Digital&nbsp;Games and Community. In progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Co-Supervisor, Jenna Stidwill, Ph.D. Cultural Mediations. Topic:&nbsp;The Animation Archive. In progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sarah Thorne, Ph.D. Cultural Mediations. Topic: Narrative in&nbsp;analysis: examining the digital transformation of storytelling. In progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Adam Benn, Ph.D. English. Topic: The Political Economy of&nbsp;Digital Games. Defended December 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Co-Supervisor, Matt Carroll, Ph.D. English. Topic: Antarctic Speculations.&nbsp;Defended September 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Co-Supervisor, Ingrid Reiche, \u201cDigitizing the History of Pyrates.\u201d M.A.&nbsp;Thesis. Defended 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9299,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"cu_people_first_name":"Brian","cu_people_last_name":"Greenspan","cu_people_initials":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_people_type":[22],"cu_people_expertise":[],"class_list":["post-233","cu_people","type-cu_people","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_people_type-professors"],"acf":{"cu_people_job_title":"Associate Professor","cu_people_degree":"Ph.D. (University of Toronto), M.A. (University of Western Ontario), B.A. (Hons.) 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