Schedule

Thursday, October 24

12:30 - 2:00pm

Critical AI Challenges in the Classroom
Watson 503
Katie Conrad, Department of English

This session begins with an introduction to some of the ethical issues around generative AI as well as its capabilities and limitations. Are AI tools appropriate in a humanities course? If so, how and why might one use them? We will then move to discussion about how to have field-specific critical AI discussions in the classroom so that our students are prepared to think about these tools and, where necessary, use them more effectively. The session will include demos of some tools and discussion of pedagogical challenges and strategies

Creating interactive stories with TWINE
Watson 455
John McEwan, KU Libraries

Twine is an open-source tool for creating websites that tell interactive, nonlinear stories. Students can use Twine as a foundation for many types of digital projects. In this workshop, participants will learn about Twine’s built-in story formats, how students can extend them with basic HTML and CSS, and how students can share their Twine projects.

2:15 - 3:45pm

Incorporating Omeka into Your Pedagogy
Watson 455
Katherine Knowles, Hall Center for the Humanities

This workshop explores the way Omeka might be implemented as a pedagogical tool in the college classroom. This open-source web-publishing platform facilitates the development of online digital collections and works well for both individual and collaborative projects. Participants will have the opportunity to examine the different versions of the Omeka software, practice the process of uploading items and forming collections, and explore the variety of themes and plugins that users can implement to customize their sites. There will be time to brainstorm and discuss the different possibilities for instructors who are interested in incorporating Omeka into their curriculum.

Bringing Data Science into the Humanities Classroom
Watson 503
Jon Lamb, Department of English

This workshop will offer a roadmap for bringing data science research tools into humanities classrooms. From out-of-the-box tools like Voyant, an online tool for visualizing and analyzing text, to more advanced coding in Python, these tools can give humanities students new lines of critical inquiry. No coding experience required!

Using Scalar to Create a Community Archive
Watson Clark Instruction Center (3rd Floor)
Samantha Bishops Simmons, KU Libraries

This workshop begins with an introduction to Scalar, guiding participants through its setup and core functionalities. The second half transitions into a facilitated discussion exploring liberatory practices in scholarly archiving and publishing, with a focus on equitable inclusion of community partners and students. Participants will leave with a practical understanding of Scalar and critical insights into creating more inclusive and collaborative approaches to academic work in the digital humanities.

4:00 - 5:30pm

Reception, Panel and Keynote Address

4:15 - Panel: Using Digital Humanities in the Classroom
Watson 3 West
Brigid Enchill, French & Italian; Aimee Wilson, Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies; Jonathan Hagel, History
A panel of KU instructors will share their experience using digital humanities in the classroom, discussing tips, challenges, and strategies for creating successful assignments.

4:35 - Keynote Address
The Transformative Possibilities of Digital, Project-Based Pedagogy in the Humanities 

Watson 3 West
Danica Savonick, English, SUNY Cortland.

How can digital project assignments enhance learning in the humanities? How can we design such assignments in ways that help students increase their digital literacy while minimizing stress for both instructors and students? In this talk, I draw on my ten years of experience teaching digital humanities, as well as my research on student-centered and feminist pedagogy, to explore these questions and offer practical advice for instructors interested in incorporating project-based learning into their classrooms.  

Dr. Danica Savonick is an Assistant Professor of English at SUNY Cortland.Her research and teaching focus on multicultural and African American literature, feminist theory, and digital humanities. She holds a Ph.D. in English from the CUNY Graduate Center and a B.A. in English from Rutgers University. She is the author of Open Admissions: The Poetics and Pedagogy of Toni Cade Bambara, June Jordan, Audre Lorde, and Adrienne Rich in the Era of Free College (Duke University Press, 2024). Her research has also appeared in MELUS, American Literature, Modern Fiction Studies, Keywords for Digital Pedagogy in the Humanities, Digital Humanities Quarterly, and Hybrid Pedagogy as well as Inside Higher Ed and The Chronicle. She is an editor of The Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy and Reviews in DH.

Friday, October 25

12:30 - 2:00pm

Perusall Possibilities: Open Social Annotation
Watson 503
Elizabeth MacGonagle, History and African and African-American Studies

Perusall helps students to connect and interact in an asynchronous format by highlighting text, asking questions, and posting comments. Users provide their own original annotations and engage with the annotations of others through questions, comments, mentions, and upvoting. Perusall has also been shown to foster more equitable interactions by providing prominence to a range of voices and enhanced opportunities to learn from the perspectives of others. This session will draw on examples from an ethics course in history to explore how it is possible to get more out of course material by using Perusall in an asynchronous environment.

Digital Project Assignments: Tool Parade and Jam Session
Watson 455
Danica Savonick, Assistant Professor of English, SUNY Cortland

In this workshop, participants will have the opportunity to revise an existing assignment into a digital project, or create a new one. The first part of the workshop will consist of a tool parade in which participants are introduced to a range of digital tools and platforms that can be used to create projects like maps, timelines, podcasts, and websites. In the second part, a pedagogy jam session, participants will work individually and in small groups to create their own digital project assignment for one of their courses.

2:15 - 3:45pm

Digital Mapping Fundamentals: Geospatial Data Modeling and Visualization
Watson 455
Randa El Khatib, Associate Machine Learning Engineer, Carfax

In this workshop, participants will learn key geospatial concepts and terminology, as well as practice the basic steps involved in building a geospatial project, including how to extract geodata from a text, how to organize and enrich spatial data, and how to visualize that data on a variety of user-friendly, open-access mapping platforms. We will also explore what types of research questions can be asked and answered using mapping technologies. This session is intended for beginners.

Creating a culture of possibilities and innovation through podcasting assignments
Maker Lab, Anschutz Library
Tami Albin, KU Libraries, University of Kansas

In this workshop we will discuss types of podcast formats, course modifications necessary to create a podcasting assignment, designing a model that encourages student ownership and accountability for their own spoken work, as well as the work of others (music and sound effects) through creative commons licenses, and providing equipment, software, instruction, and support  needed to create a podcast, edit the podcast and share the podcast beyond the classroom. This conversation will take place in the KU Libraries Makerspace. Participants will learn to use the podcasting equipment to record a mock podcast on creating a culture of possibilities and innovation through podcasting assignments.

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