Critical Digital Humanities talk at MMU

PUBLIC LECTURE Monday 18th February 2013
Presented in the 'Digital Humanities' strand of the Institute of Humanities and Social Science Annual Research programme at Manchester Metropolitan University

Dr David Berry (University of Swansea):
'Critical Digital Humanities'
Digital Humanities have been criticised, perhaps unfairly, for being narrow and lacking cultural critique, most notably by Geert Lovink and Alan Liu. In this paper I want to look at the way in which digital humanities as a field of research can address these critiques. This ranges from the particular research agendas that have become prominent within digital humanities itself, and which are strongly related to prior research interests drawn (or not) from the humanities themselves, and to the new research agenda that is driven primarily in relation to big data, gamification, MOOCs, and the so-called “industrialised” digital humanities. Whilst digital humanities have created critical versions of archives, tools, platforms, etc. and have begun to explore approaches to the use of the computational, how should digital humanities respond to the issues raised by the computational in society, economics, politics, or culture. Does the call for "more hack, less yack", calling for digital humanists to "do" rather than "talk", imply a reluctance to engage critically, or can discussions informed by the hashtag #transformDH, for example, help us to develop a more critical digital humanities. In what ways can hacking and "building" be undertaken in a critical vein and how can these "critical" practices inform theoretical discussions of digital humanities?

David M. Berry is Associate Professor in Digital Media in the Department of Political and Cultural Studies at Swansea University and affiliated researcher at Institutt for Medier og Kommunikasjon (IMK), University of Oslo. He is author of Critical Theory and the Digital (2013), The Philosophy of Software: Code and Mediation in the Digital Age (2011), Copy, Rip Burn: The Politics of Copyleft and Open Source (2008), co-author of New Aesthetic, New Anxieties (2012), he is also editor of Understanding Digital Humanities (2012) and Life in Code and Software (2012). He tweets at @berrydm on Twitter. http://www.swan.ac.uk/staff/academic/artshumanities/berryd/

The lecture will be preceded by an informal reception in Geoffrey Manton Building atrium at 5.30pm.
Seminar in lecture theatre 5 at 6.00pm.
This event is free to attend and all are welcome, however registration on Eventbrite is required and for security, entry to the building for non-staff /students will be restricted to those listed as registered.
So, please do register at Eventbrite here:
http://davidberry-arp-es2003.eventbrite.com

If you have any questions, please contact ihssresearch@mmu.ac.uk