Thinking (and Reading) About Digital Humanities II

Last week I talked about some of the texts I’ve been reading that emphasize the general excitement and scholarly potential surrounding digital humanities. Today we’ll take a look at some critiques of DH. One of the main critiques of digital humanities is that, rather than revolutionize humanities scholarship, it has perpetuated the biases of academia.… Continue reading Thinking (and Reading) About Digital Humanities II

Thinking (and Reading) about Digital Humanities I

While the first two sections of my second reading list focus on archival theory, the last group of readings have focused on digital humanities. I added these readings because DH is a field I’ve gotten really interested in since taking a seminar on it during my first semester at William and Mary. Like the archival… Continue reading Thinking (and Reading) about Digital Humanities I

Messy Archives

Last week I talked about a variety of readings that explored the allure of archival research, from the tantalizing yet ultimately impossible pursuit of origins as detailed by Derrida’s Archive Fever, to the seductive yet deceptive appeal of historical artifacts providing an unmitigated connection to the past, as explored in Carolyn Steedman’s Dust. Other authors,… Continue reading Messy Archives

Mobility and Power

As a scholar interested in the movement of art, I’ve been especially enjoying the texts dealing with mobility on my reading list. While I’m particularly interested in the movement of art objects, human-based travel networks also intrigue me, not least because of the travel people are willing to undertake in order to experience works of… Continue reading Mobility and Power

Thinking About Art Shipping

A few weeks ago I was reading about the history of shipping containers and their influence on society. The book, appropriately enough, was titled The Container Principle, by Alexander Klose. His central argument is that the concept of containerization, of putting things into a standard-sized box designed explicitly for moving stuff to other places, has… Continue reading Thinking About Art Shipping

Reading List Thoughts: Art and Classification

The last time I visited New York, I spent an afternoon at the American Museum of Natural History. While probably most famous for its naturalistic, taxidermied dioramas, the museum also has an extensive section on the classification system used to organize biological organisms: kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species. This system is rendered visually… Continue reading Reading List Thoughts: Art and Classification

So How Exactly Do You Get a Ph.D., Anyway?

“So when do you finish your degree?” I’ve been hearing a variation of that question since I arrived at William and Mary, but it’s picked up since I finished classes. It’s understandable though, because doctoral programs in the United States work differently from your standard K-12 schooling, or even undergraduate degrees. Today then, I’d like… Continue reading So How Exactly Do You Get a Ph.D., Anyway?