CALL FOR PROPOSALS:

RHETORIC AND THE DIGITAL HUMANITIES

 

The topic of digital humanities (DH) and rhetoric/computers and writing has generated considerable research activity in the last three years  as evidenced by the number of DH panels at the 2011 Conference on College Composition and Communication in Atlanta, a 2011 DH workshop at the Rhetoric Society of America Summer Institute in Boulder, and a town hall meeting on DH at the 2011 Computers and Writing conference in Ann Arbor. Moreover, scholars working in either rhetorical studies or computers and writing have received a small number of National Endowment for the Humanities Office of Digital Humanities Digital Humanities Start-Up grants (e.g. Hart-Davidson & Ridolfo 2008; Ball, Eyman & Gossett 2010; Carter 2011) and a NEH Digging into Data grant (Rehberger 2010). Despite this burst in activity,  there has been relatively little published work examining the past, present, or future relationship between rhetorical studies/computers and writing and the emerging field of digital humanities.

This edited collection will consist of an editors’ introduction and three sections. The first section will  consist of eight to twelve chapters that define field connections between rhetoric and the digital humanities. The second section will consist of eight to twelve chapters focused on research methodology. The third section will include  eight to twelve short vision statements, modeled after the NEH white paper genre, which offer several paths for exploring interdisciplinary trajectories between rhetorical studies and the digital humanities. We are particularly interested in manuscripts that explore one or several of the following questions:

PART ONE: DEFINING FIELD CONNECTIONS

* What is the relationship between rhetoric/cultural rhetorics/computers and writing/computational rhetorics/digital rhetoric and the digital humanities?
* What are some of the disciplinary/funding/collaborative challenges for scholars of rhetoric working in the digital humanities or for digital humanities scholars using rhetorical methods? What is at stake in claiming one disciplinary identity over another?
* How might the digital humanities shape and redefine the relationship of rhetorical studies to English studies?

PART TWO: RESEARCH AND METHODOLOGY

* What are some of the emerging digital research and methodological connections common to rhetorical studies/computers and writing and the digital humanities?
* What research methods in rhetorical studies/computers and writing complement the work that’s currently underway in the digital humanities? How might the digital humanities as a field benefit from qualitative approaches to rhetoric research? How might rhetorical scholars working with computers benefit from the disciplinary identity of digital humanities?
* What are the opportunities for research collaboration between scholars of rhetorical studies and other disciplines now working under the umbrella of the digital humanities?
* What rhetorical questions/studies are possible through “big data” and computational rhetorics?
* How might collaboration in the digital humanities prompt scholars in rhetorical studies to rethink their model for doing research?
* How do various project funding and labor models in the digital humanities speak to the experiences of scholars in rhetorical studies/computers and writing?

PART THREE: INTERDISCIPLINARY TRAJECTORIES
(Short position pieces of no more than five to eight pages)

* How will the digital humanities change the way scholars in rhetorical studies/computers and writing approach research/collaboration/interdisciplinary conversations/teaching?
* How might collaboration within the digital humanities shape/impact/change specific field conversations in rhetorical studies?
* How might the intersection of digital humanities and rhetorical studies influence English studies at the department and institutional levels?
* What is at stake, as a discipline, in not being a part of these larger interdisciplinary field conversations?
* How might the digital humanities challenge and shape existing notions of disciplinarity and/or the job market?

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Deadline for 500-750 word chapter proposals: April 1, 2012
(Notification by June 1, 2012)
Deadline for full manuscripts: January, 2013
(Responses to manuscripts by April, 2013)

Inquiries and questions are welcome.

Jim Ridolfo .  University of Cincinnati . ridolfo@gmail.com . rid.olfo.org
William Hart-Davidson . Michigan State University . hartdav2@msu.edu . www.wide.msu.edu

 

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