Faculty
Erika Gault- Organizer
Erika Gault is an Assistant Professor in the Africana Studies Program in the College of Humanities at the University of Arizona. Erika Gault’s scholarly work focuses on the intersection of religious history, technology, and urban black life in post-industrial America. On the topic of hip hop, religion, and digital ethnography she has delivered and published a number of papers regionally, nationally, and internationally. Additionally, she is the co-editor of the volume Beyond Christian Hip Hop: A Move Towards Christians and Hip Hop due out Fall of 2019. She is an ordained elder at Elim Christian Fellowship and an award-winning slam poet.
Given her digital humanities work on the religious lives of Christian black millennials, Gault was recently selected to participate in the 2018 Digital Humanities Research Institute Program at the CUNY Graduate Center. She is the recipient of a 2018 Faculty Research grant in the College of Humanities at the University of Arizona for her current digital project. Erika also received Louisville Institute's First Book Grant for Minority Scholars.
Her most recent presentations and publications focus on the digital-religious cultures of young adult blacks. Centering her ethnographic work around social media and hip hop, Erika's go-to tools include Voyant, TAGs, and YouTube Data Tools at the moment. A digital tools enthusiast, Erika is always excited about learning new methods and finding new tools for doing + sharing digital ethnography.
Bryan Carter - Director of the Center for Digital Humanities
Dr. Bryan Carter received his Ph.D. at the University of Missouri-Columbia and is currently an Associate Professor in Africana Studies, at the University of Arizona specializing in African American literature of the 20th Century with a primary focus on the Harlem Renaissance and a secondary emphasis on digital culture. Dr. Carter is also the Director of the Center for Digital Humanities for the College of Humanities.
"Recognizing that the Digital Humanities are of ever-increasing importance in the development of any culture, the question now becomes, how to nurture, develop and encourage COH faculty to naturally incorporate Digital Humanities into nearly all that we do as Humanists. Through this Center, we will explore the most effective ways to accomplish this task”.
Most recently, Dr. Carter was the Keynote Speaker at the International Conference on Language, Linguistics and Literature (L3) in Singapore and has been invited again as a Visiting Professor at the University of Paris IV-Sorbonne.
He has published numerous articles on his doctoral project, Virtual Harlem and has presented it at locations around the world. His research focuses on advanced visualization and how sustained and varied digital communication affects student retention and engagement in literature courses taught both online and face-to-face.
Dr. Carter's experience with virtual environments began with his dissertation project on which he began work in 1997; a representation of a portion of Harlem, NY as it existed during the 1920s Jazz Age and Harlem Renaissance. This project, Virtual Harlem, was one of the earliest full virtual reality environments created for use in the humanities and certainly one of the first for use in an African American literature course. Virtual Harlem has been presented at venues in Paris, The Netherlands, Sweden, Hungary, and multiple sites in the US. In 2004, the University of Paris IV- Sorbonne, funded the development of Virtual Montmartre. Dr. Carter was asked to be the project leader and was awarded the prestigious "Professeur Invite" from the Sorbonne to spend 6 months in Paris. This project realized itself in the development of an interactive Web Site and a small 3D representation of the Lapin Agile, the oldest surviving cabaret in Montmartre which is still in operation. The evolution of Virtual Harlem was funded in 2006 by the National Black Programming Consortium and the Government of Norway with the development of Virtual Harlem and Virtual Montmartre in Second Life. These sites were two of the most important locations during the Jazz Age/Harlem Renaissance. Dr. Carter began teaching classes that met totally in Second Life in 2005 where his students have participated in role play, developed content and have collaborated with students from around the world.
In addition to these activities, Dr. Carter is very active with faculty development nationally and internationally. He has conducted workshops for faculty on Digital Humanities as well as specialized topics such as "Generational Learning Styles", "Podcasting", "Blogging", "Internet Broadcasting" and Second Life. He has done summer workshops for the National Council for Teachers of English on Digital Humanities, led a workshop session for the Digital Africana Studies Conference at the University of Maryland-College Park, conducted workshops on Technology in the Classroom at Alabama A&M, and at international venues such as Vaxjo University in Sweden and the University of Paris IV-Sorbonne. Dr. Carter is regularly invited to venues around the world to offer keynote addresses or to serve on panels on Digital Humanities. Most recently, Dr. Carter presented several talks at the HumLab at Umea University in Sweden and conducted a several day technology workshop at the African American Literatures and Cultures Institute at the University of Texas, San Antonio.
Dr. Carter has completed his first book entitled Digital Humanities: Current Perspectives, Practice and Research through Emerald Publishing.
Kalle Westerling- Technical Support
Kalle Westerling is a Ph.D. Candidate in Theatre and Performance, working on a dissertation about the history and aesthetics of male-identified bodies in 20th-century burlesque and 21st-century boylesque. He is currently an Instructional Technology Fellow at Macaulay Honors College, CUNY. He also coordinates the NEH-funded project “Expanding Communities of Practice,” aimed at helping to create infrastructure for digital humanities across several higher education institutions across the U.S.
For the past four years, Kalle was the Director of HASTAC Scholars, leading a vibrant student network within The Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory (HASTAC).
Kalle has taught courses at New York University, Villanova University, Baruch College, Hunter College, and Stockholm University, and has guest lectured at Yale University, The New School, Carleton University, and Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts. He regularly presents on the topics of queer and LGBT studies, the digital humanities, the public humanities, and on how to leverage digital technology for effective pedagogy.
His monograph, La Dolce Vita (Normal 2006) treats the history of the Swedish drag company After Dark. He regularly delivers scholarly papers at the annual conferences for the American Society for Theatre Researchers (ASTR) and the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE). His performance-related theatre work has included an English translation and dramaturgy of August Strindberg’s The Pelican for the Voyage Theatre Company’s 2016 production in New York City.
As part of his service to the academic profession, Kalle frequently blogs and employs social media to connect others and build communities. He has organized many conferences, including contributions to HASTAC’s annual international conferences 2015–2017, and the After Marriage Conference in New York City. Kalle has also held board appointments with CLAGS: Center for LGBTQ Studies (Chair of Programming), the open-source publishing platform OpenCUNY, and the CUNY Doctoral Theatre Students’ Association.