Jen Serventi sent us a few materials for her grant writing bootcamp. First is a sample narrative from a successful grant application submitted to the NEH’s Office of Digital Humanities. Participants will also review materials from the NEH website and review the guidelines for Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants.

Thanks to Rudof Ammann at the UCL Centre for Digital Humanities, we have a spiffy new logo.

We think it looks pretty great, and will look even better on our t-shirts and other swag. If you want one of those t-shirts, apply today!

We’re pleased to announce our second bootcamp for THATCamp LAC. Jennifer Serventi, Senior Program Officer at the NEH’s Office of Digital Humanities will teach participants about applying for grant funding to support digital humanities projects. More information will be available soon on the bootcamps page. To apply to THATCamp LAC, fill out our application form.

I’m thrilled to announce the first bootcamp for THATCamp LAC:

Bootcamp 1: Integrating Digital Humanities Projects into the Undergraduate Curriculum

Presenters:

• Rebecca Frost Davis, Program Officer for the Humanities, National Institute for Technology and Liberal Education (NITLE)
• Kathryn Tomasek, Associate Professor of History, Wheaton College, Massachusetts

Digital methods of analysis exert growing influence on the practice of many disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, yet students majoring in non-science disciplines often have little exposure to computational thinking and working with computer code. At the same time, in the curriculum, the Digital Humanities promises significant learning benefits for undergraduates, who need a measure of digital literacy to function well as citizens in the twenty-first century. This bootcamp will present strategies for effectively integrating digital projects into undergraduate courses. By examining effective cases of assignments linked to digital projects, participants will consider how to make room for such assignments in a syllabus, how to tie digital projects to a course’s learning outcomes, and how to scaffold both technological and content learning to allow students to make positive contributions to a project external to the course. Participants will leave with a set of proven examples of effective assignments, preliminary plans for assignments for their own courses, and suggestions for how to find collaborative partners in library and technology services for such projects on their home campuses.

St. Norbert College students only—here’s your first chance to get involved with THATCamp LAC!

———-

THATCamp LAC Logo Contest
Prize: Eternal glory (and $100)

In June 2011, St. Norbert College will host THATCamp LAC—The Humanities and Technology Camp for Liberal Arts Colleges. THATCamp LAC will focus on digital humanities research at Liberal Arts Colleges, as well as on issues surrounding technology and teaching.

If you’re still wondering what the heck THATCamp or “digital humanities” are, check out our FAQ.

When you visit the site, you’ll notice that our logo really isn’t that pretty. We need a better one. We need something that evokes the idea of the “liberal arts college.” Our logo will end up on flyers, on mugs, on t-shirts—it needs to be good.

So we’re holding a contest. Here are the rules:

1. You must use the THATCamp logo as the base of your design. Here are the files for THATCamp’s logo (in a number of formats).
2. Your logo must fit easily on the website’s masthead (lac2011.thatcamp.org). A very tall logo, for example, would be awkward. Wide is the new tall.
3. Your logo should be simple, but invoke the ideas of “the Liberal Arts College” and “technology”: ivy twined with circuits, a Greek statue wearing white headphones, a graph depicting small student-to-faculty ratios. It’s your call (but probably not the graph)!
4. Undergrads only, please!

For inspiration, browse the logos for THATCamp New England, THATCamp Virginia, or THATCamp Chicago.

Logos should be submitted to Ryan Cordell via email.

All submissions are due by January 28th.

Participants will be able to fly into the Austin Straubel International Airport, which is a few miles from the St. Norbert College campus.

Both hotel and dorm-style lodging will be available. A block of rooms has been reserved at the ‐which is right across the street from campus—at a rate of $84.99 per night. Dorm-room accommodations will be available in the Dale and Ruth Michels Hall. Single occupancy in the dorms will cost $27.00 per night; double occupancy will cost $30.00 per person per night. Details about reserving those rooms will be available shortly.

THATCamp Liberal Arts Colleges will focus on a particular academic setting—the liberal arts college—rather than a particular geographic region. We envision two main tracks in the unconference. One will focus on doing digital humanities work at an LAC, where one is more likely to be the lone DHer on campus and must build stronger off-campus networks. The other track will focus on technology and pedagogy. We also hope to encourage undergraduates to apply for THATCamp LAC. We hope to get undergrads, grad students, professors, librarians, and other academics talking productively about the intersections of digital humanities, technology, and pedagogy at liberal arts colleges.

A few early details:

• Where: St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin.
• When: June 4-5, 2011
• Who: 75 professors, librarians, technical specialists, and undergraduates interested in the intersection of technology and the liberal arts
• Info: the best source will be our Twitter stream @thatcamplac

More details will be posted here as soon as they’re available. If you’re interested in helping with the planning, contact Ryan Cordell. We’re looking forward to seeing you in Wisconsin this May!