In 2015-2017, CHCI and centerNet partnered to organize a pre-conference seminar, right before the annual Digital Humanities conference.
The Kule Institute for Advanced Study at the University of Alberta organized this seminar on behalf of CHCI and centerNet. Rachel Hendery (Senior Lecturer in Digital Humanities, Western Sydney University) and Geoffrey Rockwell (Director, Kule Institute for Advanced Study, University of Alberta, Canada) convened the New Scholars Seminar.
In 2017, the New Scholars Seminar took place on August 8th, in Montreal, where DH2017 took place. CHCI and centerNet had arranged for support for up to 15 scholars to help with the costs of transportation, accommodation, mentoring, and a day-long unconference.
What is the New Scholars Seminar?
New Scholars Seminar Program
The program for the seminar was be developed by the selected participants and coordinated by the Kule Institute for Advanced Study. The idea was to empower new scholars to develop their own research directions and collaborations. There was therefore two phases:
- Before the on site portion of the Seminar, participants shared their Statements online and negotiated what would happen during the seminar. The clusters of research interests that emerged formed the intellectual backbone of the Seminar. KIAS coordinated an online conversation that encouraged leadership to emerge from within the group so that the actual structure of the on site days was primarily organized by the participants. This was also the time at which participants could peruse the conference program and notify the organizers of their preferences for who they would like to be paired with for the mentorship activity.
- The on site portion of the Seminar took place on the evening of the 7th August (for lightning talks) and from 9-4:30pm on 8 August. The program included discussions led by participants addressing issues identified in online discussion and unconference activities.