I’m looking forward to our upcoming THATCamp Feminisms, hosted at Scripps College, March 15th and 16th. Normally I’d link to our site so that you could check out our planned workshops, suggest a session, or register. Unfortunately, the THATCamp sites have been hacked and are down. While I’m generally not prone to conspiracy theories – this is the second time that the THATCamp Feminisms sites have been down and I’m beginning to feel a bit like someone wants to stand in the way. Happy to report that all THATCamp sites are back up and running. Visit THATCamp Feminisms West to register, suggest sessions, etc
For those who are new to the THATCamp phenomenon – these events are “The Humanities and Technology Camps.” Designed as “unconferences,” these events are more free form, collaborative, and production-oriented than traditional academic conferences. No papers being read from lecterns here. THATCamps are also either low-cost or free – THATCamp Feminisms West (the one here at Scripps) is FREE!! Thanks to the generosity of the Scripps College Office of the President, Scripps English Department, Intercollegiate Media Studies, Intercollegiate Science, Technology, and Society, and Scripps Gender and Women’s Studies. We also have support from MSN Research.
I am particularly excited about the coordinated national effort of THATCamp Feminisms, what began as a west coast event will now also be a southern (@Emory) and eastern (@Barnard) event. We are also going to be participating in an exciting national Wikipedia editing event on Friday morning from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. You can visit our wiki page for more information, or check out Moya Bailey’s great write up of the event. This is both a virtual and in-person event. Here at Scripps we’ll be working at the Honnold-Mudd library in the future CCDH space and we’ll be joined by the fabulous Adrianne Wadewitz, who has helped host other recent WikiStorm events.
We currently plan to host two workshops:
Mia Ridge’s “Data visualisations as gateway to programming,” in which participants will be thinking about how to structure data for use in software, learning basic programming concepts, and moving towards tinkering with scripts. This is a great workshop for humanists who want a friendly intro to the world of programming.
Miriam Posner’s “Building Online Exhibits with Omeka,” in which participants will learn how to use Omeka to develop exhibits for classroom, research, and project use.
If we have enough interest, I will also be hosting an “Intro to DH” workshop for those who are attending their first THATCamp or who are new to the Digital Humanities field; we’ll discuss the origins of DH, it’s many different instantiations, and develop a common vocabulary for use during the rest of the THATCamp.
As with all THATCamps, the sessions will be decided upon during a welcome event and will be designed to focus on productive and collaborative work (feel free to suggest sessions in the comments below). Want to set an agenda for transnational feminisms in DH? -great, write that up. Want to design a syllabus or assignment for a feminist DH course? Wonderful! Have the skills to work with a group to build a lightweight mobile app? Get it done!
While most of the planning is going smoothly, the malicious attack on the THATCamp sites means that we have to hack our work flow just a bit – so please, spread the word that this site is here as a temporary substitute and that questions are most welcome. I’m looking forward to seeing what collective feminist engagement will yield!