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Playing with digital humanites

It’s such a delight to have Alex Gil back with us this month, to talk about digital humanities! Last year, as part of his visit to Duke to work on a project related to the Francophone Digital Humanities Initiative, Alex stopped by the Libraries to lead a conversation around the Developing Librarian Project at Columbia University Libraries and related questions of librarians’ role in digital projects. His was a remarkably well attended and animated discussion. Through his answers to very practical questions, Alex demonstrated the value of a Johannes Factotum in the Libraries – a spirit of air, someone who is a jack of all trades and master of none, a wise knave, who, like Puck, provokes us into doing what is right by our character though perplexing and contradictory to our reason (formed as it is by past experience and traditional practice).

Essentially, Alex admonished us on the inadvisability of trying to become experts in any one tool, since tools are ephemeral and continually evolving. Instead, he cajoled his audience to embrace ephemerality as part of learning, and prototyping as part of new ways of thinking about method and engaging real questions.

To that point, we are inviting Alex back this spring to talk to the Duke community more generally about the value of pursuing play in their work – specifically, engaging in the playgrounds of digital humanities. Alex has written extensively about the lessons digital humanities can teach us, regarding our limited (nay, limiting) conceptions of time. Join us and Alex as he carries that lesson further on Wednesday, March 18, 4:30 PM in The Edge / Workshop Room, in a talk about “Setting up Playgrounds for the Digital Humanities.” All are welcome!

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