College News

Lobene Lecture to Focus on Digital World, Featuring David Lester ’07

03/06/2013

The 2013 Lobene Lecture in the Humanities will host St. John Fisher College alumnus David Lester ’07 who will present, “How Can the Humanities Play an Important Role in Today’s Digital World?” on Monday, March 18. His talk will begin at 7:00 p.m. in Basil 135. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Lester, a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley School of Information, will be speaking on issues related to the digital humanities. He has recently held key roles at several digital humanities research centers including: Assistant Director at the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH) at the University of Maryland; Co-Founder of THATCamp: The Humanities and Technology Camp Un-Conference at the Center for History and New Media (CHNM); and Crossroads Fellow at the Georgetown University’s Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship (CNDLS). He is a 2007 graduate of Fisher with a BA in American Studies.

As books and information transition from print to digital, and funding for the humanities declines, there has been increased scrutiny over the role of the humanities in today’s digital world. A community of scholars, librarians, and museum professionals has responded and are making the humanities more visible and relevant by using technology to share, research, create, and teach digital media. Lester will introduce the landscape of these digital humanities projects and initiatives, explaining how participant-driven conferences like THATCamp have played a role in fostering these collaborations. Additionally, he will advocate for increased engagement and partnerships with public and local communities in digital projects.

On March 19 during free period, Lester will offer a faculty workshop entitled, “Digital Humanities as Process.” The seminar will focus on the process of creating such work by presenting several online tools to build and manage research archives, and use examples to demonstrate various stages in the lifecycle of a digital humanities project.

As part of the lecture, the Digital Cultures and Technologies program and Lavery Library are co-sponsoring a public showing of the film, “Connected,” on March 20 at 7:00 p.m. The film explores the connections among technology, the environment, population growth, human rights, and the global economy. It will be shown in Basil 135.

This lecture is funded by the generous support of Mark P. Lobene '76, and is presented by the Office of the Dean of Arts and Sciences, and the Digital Cultures and Technologies Program.