Watershed

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Reframing the "DH Bust"

Gabi Kirilloff and Jonathan Cheng

Feb 20, 2018

Reframing the "DH Bust"

In October of 2017, The Chronicle of Higher Education published an article, “The Digital-Humanities Bust”, by Timothy Brennan, a professor of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature at the University of Minnesota. Brennan expresses skepticism that the Digital Humanities (DH) are producing valuable scholarship. Though Brennan does allow that there is value in some digital work, particularly archival work, his article strongly critiques text analysis (the study of broad pat

Resource Management Games and the Desire for Finite Systems of Knowledge (or, Where did all my time

Apr 12, 2016

Resource Management Games and the Desire for Finite Systems of Knowledge (or, Where did all my time

I’ve got a confession to make: I spent an embarrassing amount of time last week playing the recently-released PC game Stardew Valley. I now find myself humming snippets of the game’s delightful soundtrack while I wash the dishes. Yesterday, I became deeply confused about what season it was in the real world, since I had just finished harvesting my pumpkins amid the wondrous snow globe effect created by thousands of falling digital leaves . . . Stardew Valley is an RPG (Role P

Textual Possession: Some Thoughts on Materiality, Ownership, and the
Power of Books

Dec 1, 2015

Textual Possession: Some Thoughts on Materiality, Ownership, and the Power of Books

I am writing this post on my 11 inch MacBook air, which is significantly lighter than my previous MacBook, a chubby, white, rounded model that never seemed quite as officious as my newer device. My current laptop feels much different in my hands; the weight, size, and shape all contribute to decisions regarding my reading habits (laptop if reclining in bed, iPad when sitting up, etc.). The computer smells a bit like pizza because of my growing tendency to eat directly off of

The Trolls and Copypasta of Twitch Chat

Apr 21, 2015

The Trolls and Copypasta of Twitch Chat

Current discussions surrounding cyber bullying or the creation of communities via the World Wide Web are similar to those that occurred around its inception and subsequent exposure to the public. Anonymity, the argument goes, allows for anyone to behave however they wish in a space that is largely unmoderated, and to do so (in most cases) without penalty or physical retribution. In a similar way, such a sphere allows users from disparate physical realities to form and produce

Humanities on the Edge Book Review: Siva Vaidhyanathan

Chandler Warren

Mar 17, 2015

Humanities on the Edge Book Review: Siva Vaidhyanathan

Vaidhyanathan, Siva. The Googlization of Everything (And Why We Should Worry). Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011. I remember not too long ago when I was using a newly acquired iPad to find a recipe that I could glance at in the kitchen. Having found it on my desktop prior, I typed in the same list of ingredients in order to rediscover it and reap the benefits of my new mobile device. To my surprise, the search I made on my desktop instantly appeared on my iPad –

Oct 21, 2014

The Boundary and the Leak

No less than thirty years ago, Albert Borgmann introduced the influential “device paradigm” in his Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life: A Philosophical Inquiry. His suggestion was that a distinction can be made between “focal things” and technological devices and, in the transition towards more devices, society is not only further distanced from but also loses touch with what connects humans to reality. The classic example used by Borgmann is that of the wood fu

Humanities on the Edge Lecture Review: Ursula Heise

Oct 7, 2014

Humanities on the Edge Lecture Review: Ursula Heise

On Oct. 2, 2014, Ursula Heise [http://www.uheise.net/] spoke on “Biocities: Urban Futures and the Reinvention of Nature” to an attentive audience at UNL’s Sheldon Museum of Art. Heise, a professor of English and a faculty member of UCLA’s Institute of the Environment of the Sustainability, was the 17th invited guest of the Humanities on the Edge speaker series. Her lecture previewed ideas from her manuscript-in-progress, Where the Wild Things Used to Be: Narrative, Database,

Aug 15, 2014

2014 Overview: The World Wide Interwebs

My affinity for technology—and video games in particular—can be traced back to playing games like DOOM on MS-DOS on the family computer. A few years ago, I thought this childhood memory was cool because I saw it as the beginning of what had been a continuous passion into early adulthood. Now, however, I see it as an example of the first generation of a society that has become technologically dependent. And clearly, this technological attachment is found in our relationship to

Jul 19, 2014

Watershed

A watershed is a geographic feature that divides water into different systems. A watershed also represents the tributaries and gathering ground for a central body of water. As graduate students at the University of Nebraska, we acknowledge the significance of watersheds to the agricultural industry as well as the ecology of the Great Plains region. However and perhaps most popularly, a watershed is known to be a crucial event or occurrence recognized as causing a turning poin