Tom Scheinfeldt, associate professor of digital media at the University of Connecticut (Peter Morenus/UConn Photo)
On Monday, February 5, 2018 at 12 p.m. in the Digital Scholarship Lab at the Rockefeller Library, Tom Scheinfeldt, Director of Greenhouse Studies at the University of Connecticut, will give a talk, “Radical Collaboration and Emergent Knowledge at Greenhouse Studios UConn.” This event is free and open to the public. A light reception will follow the talk.
Radical Collaboration and Emergent Knowledge at Greenhouse Studios UConn
Experienced digital humanists know that the best projects aren’t those that draw technology, library, and other expertise together in service to a faculty member’s idea, but rather those that are born from the prior collaboration of developers, designers, librarians, students and faculty members. The reasons for this can be explained in part with reference to the concept of “emergence,” which has been used in disciplines as diverse as philosophy and biology to explain how complex structures can result from a combination of components, none of which on their own exhibit the salient properties of the new structure. Emergence describes the phenomenon by which new patterns arise as systems self-organize, such as the growth of crystalline structures in a snowflake or the complex ebb and flow of a rush hour traffic jam. The concept of emergence can also be used to understand how new ideas arise in the course of an academic collaboration, ideas that weren’t brought to the table by any one team member or from any one discipline. This talk will draw on the concept of emergence to argue against an additive model of collaboration that draws resources to faculty-led projects and in favor of an inquiry driven, collaboration-first model of project development that embraces the emergent qualities of collaboration itself. It will do so with reference to Tom’s work with the University of Connecticut’s new scholarly communications design lab, Greenhouse Studios, and its model of radical, transdisciplinary, campus-wide collaboration.
Tom Scheinfeldt
Tom Scheinfeldt is Associate Professor of Digital Humanities at the University of Connecticut where he holds a joint appointment in the Department of Digital Media & Design and the Department of History. He is also Director of Greenhouse Studios, a transdisciplinary research unit that solves the problems and explores the opportunities of scholarship in the “digital age.” Formerly Managing Director of the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University, Tom has directed several award-winning digital humanities projects, including THATCamp, Omeka, and the September 11 Digital Archive. You can follow Tom on Twitter at @foundhistory.
This event is part of the Library’s series, The Future of Scholarly Publishing, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Date: Monday, February 5, 2018
Time: 12 p.m.
Location: Patrick Ma Digital Scholarship Lab, Rockefeller Library, 10 Prospect Street, Providence