Digital Humanities Group
Leads:
Ryan Cordell, Assistant Professor, English, CSSH
Julia Flanders, Professor of the Practice, English, CSSH
Mentoring Team:
Elizabeth Dillon, Professor, English, CSSH
Benjamin Schmidt, Assistant Professor, History, CSSH
Moya Bailey, Dean’s Post-doctoral Fellow in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Digital Humanities, CSSH
Neil Fraistat, Professor, Department of English, University of Maryland
Synopsis of mentoring grant:
There is a need to discuss the challenges of assessment and mentoring of digital humanities, colleagues within the Northeastern DH community, and also to bring in expertise and perspectives from outside the institution. The plan was to use these discussions as the starting point for a larger departmental discussion about evaluating digital scholarship and to prepare a white paper that would gather and analyze existing materials, and highlight key components of digital scholarship, especially those which older methods of evaluation might overlook.
Accomplishments:
This project provided an opportunity for all members of the group to share insight and mentor one another. Indeed, one of the strengths of the group was the diversity of perspectives, including junior and senior faculty, a post-doctoral fellow, a professor of practice, and a PhD candidate. Each of these roles faces different kinds of challenges in pursuing a scholarly career in digital humanities, and their discussions highlighted these perspectives vividly. The process of researching and preparing the white paper was extremely helpful in anchoring these discussions. The white paper asked the group to think about how their own careers and professional prospects would be affected by their institutional situation, and what kinds of changes might help eliminate artificial obstacles and enable them to contribute more effectively to the departments’ research profiles.
Impact on Research:
“I found our group discussions and [research fellow]’s research on other institutions quite useful as I prepared my third-year review and looked toward tenure. In particular, [research fellow] helped synthesize a range of practices, both positive and negative, that clarified the ways in which junior faculty in digital humanities have worked to make their research legible to senior colleagues at diverse institutions. Our group conversations helped clarify how to apply these insights at Northeastern specifically, outlining both the challenges and opportunities at an institution focused on interdisciplinary work. My colleagues’ mentorship actively shaped the way I wrote about my research and service in my mid-course review dossier, which was received quite positively by the department, and helped me clarify my priorities in the coming three years as I prepare for my tenure review. Our workshop was likewise valuable, allowing us to bring our local ideas back to a larger community and test how our ideas would resonate with the wider DH community. Though T&P has been central to my conversations with colleagues and administrators since arriving at Northeastern, I was grateful to work directly with other DH colleagues on this vital issue well in advance of submitting my dossier.”