NMCC Welcomes New Students!

Posted on January 11, 2016 by Kaitie Garvin

NMCC enthusiastically welcomes new students to our collaborative community of new media scholars: Tara Burke, Stephen Carlson, Stephanie Mastrostefano, Christie Pang, Christopher St. Louis, Laura Strait, Chris Telomen, Kris Wright, and Erin Zysett.

Learn a bit more about our latest members below!

Tara Burke: MA Candidate, Arts Management

About Tara: Tara is especially interested in media journalism and social branding. She is currently an independent artistic contractor that specializes in art production and operation management along with education. She has worked at everything from live music events to local movement art classes. To learn more about Tara, check out her September 2015 Shelfie!

Stephen Carlson: MA Candidate, Arts Management

About Stephen: Stephen is interested in video games as a vehicle for telling cultural stories, and is exploring new media to possibly open his own digital arts studio in the future.

Stephanie Mastrostefano: PhD Candidate, English

About Stephanie: Stephanie studies film theory, and is interested in 20^th and 21^st-century American popular culture focusing especially on children’s animated films and representations of gender.

Christie Pang: PhD Candidate, English

About Christie: Christie is currently a student in the English department concentrating on Film Studies. Specifically, she works with the idea of monstrosity and the posthuman in Japanese animation along with the construction of gender in Japanese music videos and visual culture.

Christopher St. Louis: MA Candidate, Media Studies

About Christopher: Christopher holds a previous MA from the University of Tokyo, where his thesis focused on the role of news media in supporting and normalizing state surveillance programs following major criminal or terrorist events. He is interested in the development of the Internet as media, and would like to combine this idea with his previous research during his studies at the University of Oregon.

Laura Strait: PhD Candidate, Media Studies

About Laura: Laura is interested in Twitter, virtual communities, and digital safe spaces for female-identifying persons. She is also a feminist gamer and is interested in practicing code.

Chris Telomen: MA Candidate, Landscape Architecture

About Chris: Chris’s current research focuses on visual storytelling and rhetoric relating to issues of branding, identification, and community capability through quantitative and qualitative audience analysis.

Kris Wright: PhD Candidate, Media Studies

About Kris: Kris is interested in new media and technology in the classroom, convergence of new and old media, habitus, social fields, and “cultural capital.” Her dissertation is focused on the way that the iPad is being used in the classroom.

Erin Zysett: MA Candidate, Arts Management

About Erin: Erin is interested in creating opportunities for program collaboration and resource sharing to raise the profile of creative communities. She is especially focused on how new media and culture intersect with the arts and the challenges and opportunities digital media poses for artists and art administrators.

Ohio State University seeks tenured position in Computational Humanities

Posted on January 4, 2016 by Kaitie Garvin

“The College of Arts and Sciences at The Ohio State University invites nominations and applications for a tenured position in computational humanities, beginning autumn 2016. The designated rank is associate professor or professor; the departmental home is open. We conceive computational humanities broadly, as a field that uses computational methodologies to change or pursue research questions in the humanities, or creates human- and machine-readable databases to catalogue knowledge in the humanities. Research and teaching interests might include network theory and analysis, stylistic analysis, text mining, visualization and mapping, technologies of reading, or computational literary criticism. This position is partially funded by Ohio State’s Discovery Themes, a significant faculty hiring investment in key thematic areas in which the university can build on its culture of academic collaboration to make a global impact.

Review of applications will begin on January 15, 2016 and will continue until the position is filled.

Qualifications: Applicants are expected to have a Ph.D. and to present evidence of excellence in teaching and research. Preference will be given to candidates with a strong record of cross-disciplinary collaboration. Appointment is contingent on the university’s verification of credentials and other information required by law and/or university policies, including but not limited to a criminal background check.

Application Materials Required:

Cover Letter
Curriculum Vitae
Three References (no actual letters, just names and email addresses)
Anything else requested in the position description

For further information, see the job listing.

Andreas Ekström: The moral bias behind your search results

Posted on November 15, 2015 by Kaitie Garvin

Andreas Ekström The moral bias behind your search results

Filmed January 2015 at TEDxOslo

“Search engines have become our most trusted sources of information and arbiters of truth. But can we ever get a truly unbiased search result? Andreas Ekström believes that such a thing is a philosophical impossibility. In this thoughtful talk, he calls on us to strengthen the bonds between technology and the humanities, and he reminds us that behind every algorithm, somewhere, is a human.”

Alumni Update, October 2015

Posted on October 28, 2015 by Kaitie Garvin

Ryan Eanes:

Ryan Eanes is currently an assistant professor at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland in the Department of Business Management. Ryan focuses on digital marketing with special interests related to consumer consumption, smartphones, and the psychology of place.

Check out Ryan’s blog!

Emily McGinn:

Emily Mcginn is finishing her Postdoc at Lafayette College in Easton, PA. She will be moving to Atlanta in January to begin a new job as the Digital Humanities Coordinator for the University of Georgia’s DigiLab.

Check out the digital humanities website that Emily ran last summer!

Bryce Peake:

Bryce Peake has recently moved to the East Coast where he is now a tenure-track assistant professor in the Department of Media and Communication Studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. His research on Wikipedia’s misogyny was republished by Wikipedia signpost, and has become central to the discussion of sexism in the New York Times and The Atlantic. Bryce is continuing his work in new media with several forthcoming peer reviewed articles and a new teaching resource!

Check out Bryce’s website!

October Top 3 for NMCC

Posted on October 28, 2015 by Kaitie Garvin

Check out our October Top 3 for NMCC where we showcase some of our favorite new media resources and web content found over the last month:

1. The New Media’s coming of age | Dan Carlin | TedxMtHood

Dan Carlin breaks down the emergence of new media and what our ability to so easily connect with millions of people means for our future.

2. Digital Humanities on Twitter

@Digital Humanities provides ” Live Content Curated by top Digital Humanities Influencers.” Check them out for frequent updates on articles and people to follow in new media!

3. ACLS Digital Extension Grant Program- Up to $150,000!

Made possible by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, ACLS Digital Extension Grants will “support teams of scholars as they enhance existing digital projects with the goal of engaging new audiences across a range of academic communities and institutions. ACLS has designed the Digital Extension Grant program so that it provides flexible support at the level of the digital research project as opposed to the individual scholar.” See our own blog post for more information

TEP: Call for First Teaching Excellence Fellow Applicants

Posted on October 8, 2015 by Kaitie Garvin

The Teaching Effectiveness Program is calling for applicants for their first Teaching Excellence Fellow. They will be accepting applications from senior members of the faculty, both tenured and senior instructors. “The position will release one of UO’s distinguished teachers from three courses during the 2016 calendar year (across winter, spring, and fall terms) and provide a $2500 dedicated programming budget.”

As a Teaching Excellence Fellow, you will:

“attend meetings of TEP’s professional staff and graduate students during which we talk about issues in teaching at UO and nationally and discuss how to make a positive impact on the campus teaching and learning culture.
have the opportunity to engage with one or more of TEP’s standing programs, such as its annual training for new faculty or its course revision cohort, depending on your interests.
Most importantly, we would develop programs with you to advance an issue or practice that is important to your teaching.For example, are you experimenting with compelling ways to teach climate change, or information literacy, or quantitative reasoning? Are you developing community-based assignments or experimenting with ways for students to find personal relevance and meaning within your course material? Are you responding to gaps in students’ essential skills—perhaps writing, speaking, analysis—in compelling ways? Are you attempting to somehow re-energize or re-personalize the lecture hall?”

Informal letters of interest (see below) are due Monday, October 19, 2015 to Lee Rumbarger.

Email TEP’s director, Lee Rumbarger (leona@uoregon.edu), with a one page, single-spaced informal letter of interest, which should include:

a specific issue in teaching that’s important to you and how you feel you’ve addressed it creatively;
a brief discussion of why this issue matters, in your view, to the UO community specifically or the higher education community more generally;
if you already have thoughts about this, an idea of how you might want to address your issue with the campus community;
your sense of what distinguishes your teaching career—you might have won a teaching award or been a leader in discussions about teaching in your own department; you might have a sense from student feedback about a specific way your teaching has mattered to them;
why you think you’d enjoy the position.

For more information, vist TEP’s website here.

September Shelfie: Tara Burke

Posted on October 7, 2015 by Kaitie Garvin

I currently help operate and construct visual designs and special productions for music festivals across the country. I recently came back from a summer working at Electric Forest Festival in Michigan, Forecastle in Kentucky and Summer Meltdown Festival in Washington. I ran the operations for special productions of electric forest, which involved participating for the world record group hug. In Forecastle, I was apart of the visual design production team and at Summer Meltdown Festival I was lead volunteer coordinator for 200 volunteers. Having an understanding of new media and culture is essential to the creative events management field and really gives the chance to showcase the multilayers and hats worn by arts managers.

Discovery of NMCC:

I discovered the New Media and Culture certificate when I was beginning my graduate degree through Arts Administration this past Fall. As an arts management student who is interested in community arts program, I felt that NMCC would allow for more diversification in my skillset through field of arts management and diversify my branding when curating event productions.

I was excited to collaborate and engage in discourse with students of all mediums. As an arts management students, I am particularly interested in arts programming and creative event curation, and the opportunity to hear all different students use media studies in their own concentrations was exciting. The New Media and Culture Certificate seemed like a great avenue to explore classes outside of my concentration of study while still being able to bridge connections and see crossovers of disciplines.

I was very attracted to the student group participations and dynamics in my certificate course of study thus far. I am interested in more counter culture forms of engagement through ritual and radical community gatherings, and to be able to offer a diverse perspective to those who have never been exposed to these forms of engagement was exciting and refreshing. One of my biggest achievements from last fall was getting my literary book review submitted to an academic journal that was accepted this summer and will be coming out later in the year through a virtual literary review site. I felt this was excellent experience I may not have been exposed to without being interested in the NMCC. Check out upcoming classes for the Fall 2015!

Useful Resource for new media students:

The Digital Scholarship Center:

The most useful resource for myself for NMCC is the research librarians. I recently discovered them when focusing on research for my fellowship in assisting an AAD faculty member and I couldn’t be happier. These librarians have full understanding and access to the capacity of the library, both on and off web. They are extremely helpful when navigating the complex search engines and helping to narrow down and decipher good content. I do not know how I survived this long without knowing about this resource! They are wealth and information and should be utilized as such when conducting your research methods and construction of your thesis.

What My Year Looks Like.

This year I am hoping to hone in more of my graphic design skills and branding as an arts manager. NMCC offers great course content on all of this and coupled with my classes from AAD focusing on Adobe Suite, I am excited to create enough content for future contracts and job opportunities in creative event design and curation.

I am currently working with an AAD faculty member as a publication coordinator and research for two upcoming book projects. One book will focus on a case studies of performing arts venues and management styles, and the other will focus more on topics surrounding megaregionalism and public planning, policy and management surrounding the cultural policies of these regions. You will be able to find me at the following places: the library, the yoga studio or at home with my cat Bagherra.

Influential Reads

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (Harper Perennial Modern Classics)

Disconnected: Youth, New Media, and the Ethics Gap (The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning)

Media Industries, Work and Life-Mark Deuz– from the European Journal of Communication

: What’s on your shelf? Interested in being the next NMCC shelfie feature? Contact us!

September Prof Picks Feature: Michael Allan

Posted on October 6, 2015 by Kaitie Garvin

Dr. Michael Allan is currently an Assistant Professor in the Comparative Literature department at the University of Oregon, and an associated faculty member of the New Media and Culture Certificate. He received his PhD from the Department of Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley in 2008. Dr. Allan primarily focuses on topics such as world literature, film and visual culture, and the history of reading for his research. His book, In the Shadows of World Literature, examines how traditions and practices in world literature affect the very act of reading and is to be published by Princeton University in April.

Dr. Allan will be teaching a course this fall in the Comparative Literature department titled “Transmedial Aesthetics,” which will explore how we read in relation to different forms of media. Students will read works from different nations, traditions, and languages in order to gain a better understanding of key problems in the field and the ability to critically analyze different types of media through various writing assignments. Authors read for the course will include Roland Barthes, André Bazin, Jonathan Crary, Guy Debord, Sergei Eisenstein, Alexander Galloway, Martin Heidegger, Friedrich Kittler, and Marshall McLuhan. The following is a description of the course, courtesy of Dr. Allan:

“Common as it is to think of textual form in relation to language, history and culture, in what ways does attention to media transform how we read? This course takes seriously what it means to compare across media and expands critical methods beyond textual form. With explorations ranging from discourse analysis and phenomenology to structuralism and objected-oriented-ontology, we will draw together media historians, cultural theorists and new media scholars to consider a number of key questions: How does an image differ from a picture? What is the relation between text and world? How does perspective relate to frame? How does the interface relate to phenomenology? Each week takes a key aspect of media aesthetics to move beyond analysis based on language and culture towards a consideration of networks, reflexivity and the senses. The course will pair together readings with films, photographs and videos, all with the goal of collapsing the boundaries of theory and practice. Reading back and forth across history, we will consider media’s past and future in an effort to enact comparativism not only as a translational and transnational model of inquiry, but as the groundwork for transmedial aesthetics.”

You can find more information about Dr. Allan, his research, and his recently offered courses here.

Are you a UO faculty member interested in getting involved with NMCC and/or being our next Prof Picks feature? If so, please contact us!

Welcome to the 2015-2016 NMCC Blog!

Posted on September 28, 2015 by Kaitie Garvin

Welcome to the 2015-2016 New Media and Culture Certificate blog! We are excited to start a new media-filled year!

Are you interested in digital technology, collaboration, or new approaches to scholarship? If so, consider adding the New Media and Culture certificate to your degree! The certificate can be pursued by any graduate student in any department. It is a flexible program that offers a way to diversify yourself within your field without adding additional time to your degree.

For those interested in learning more about the certificate, please see our website for the director’s welcome and the answer to “Why NMCC?”. On our site, you can also find an FAQ, associated faculty, a list of new media classes offered Fall 2015, and application materials should you wish to apply.

If you have additional questions about the program, do not hesitate to email us at nmcc@uoregon.edu. You can also follow our other social media accounts for updates about events and opportunities!

Twitter

Facebook

Instagram

Stay tuned to our blog for more information. In the meantime, we look forward to welcoming you to the program!

The NMCC blog is on vacation until September!

Posted on June 16, 2015 by cparry@uoregon.edu

Congratulations to all our 2015 graduates!
It has been our pleasure to watch your research evolve, and to see many of you proudly march across the stage yesterday to receive your diplomas. We look forward to seeing where your passion for new media takes you next!

The NMCC blog will be on summer vacation for the next couple months, but we will be back in the fall and excited to kick off the 2015-16 school year! We wish you all a safe and relaxing summer, and to all of our graduates we send our sincerest congratulations on a job well done.

See you all back in September for another new-media packed year!

Looking for opportunities to continue to develop your new media skills over the summer? Check out the links below:

7 New Media Opportunities to Take Advantage of This Summer

DSC Summer Arduino Workshop

NMCC Blog

Updates from the New Media & Culture Certificate at the University of Oregon

Category Archives: University of Oregon