The Grant
In 2013, the University of Rochester received a $1 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation aimed at promoting the development of digital humanities. Developed by University of Rochester faculty, the new program will train humanities students to integrate digital technologies into innovative research programs.
The grant also supported a series of recent university investments in the digital humanities, including the hiring of digital media faculty and the newly opened Ronald Rettner Hall for Media Arts and Innovation, dedicated Oct. 11, 2013. Rettner Hall was designed to facilitate multidisciplinary collaboration through technology. It serves as a home to the undergraduate Digital Media Studies program.
The Fellowship
The Meliora Digital & Interdisciplinary graduate program provides two years of support to select Ph.D. students from among the humanities departments in English, Visual and Cultural Studies, History, Philosophy, and the ESM departments of Musicology, Music Theory, and Music Composition.
The program is designed to develop students’ familiarity with technology in service of the humanities through intersecting approaches:
- Students will learn both about and through technology in the context of their own humanistic research.
- They will learn through theory (coursework, seminars, speakers), practice (technology training, project building), and combinations of the two (workshops, critical and creative making). Graduate students in the program can pursue individual project and also opt to serve as humanities apprentices and mentors, both within their fellowship cohort and in communities of undergraduates and faculty members
Program activity:
- Participate in Digital Media Studies 501, “The Meliora Digital & Interisciplinary Graduate Seminar.”
- Train in various technologies related to humanistic research, including textual markup and web construction; Global Information Systems technologies; data visualization; reading and writing code.
- Plan and coordinate guest speakers who present on digital scholarship and pedagogy.
- Ideally, produce a research portfolio that reflects their fellowship experience (this can take the form of a research blog or website.
- Pursue individual research-related digital projects.
- Conclude their fellowship term (two years) by presenting their fellowship-related research and/or progress on individual projects
Questions should be directed to Program Director Joanne Bernardi (joanne.bernardi@rochester.edu)