Faculty and librarians of Iowa State and the University of Iowa will discuss creative examples of developing digital literacy skills in the classroom, as well as using digital methods to open research to a broader audience. 

The Digital Scholarship Symposium will take place Wednesday, April 10, and registration closes Monday at 5 p.m. 

“There hasn’t been an event like this on the Iowa State campus yet,” Olivia Wikle, head of digital scholarship and initiatives at Iowa State, said. “I hope it brings together the digital scholarship community and allows students to know it exists.”

The symposium will feature two panel discussions including the Digital Scholarship Pedagog, which will discuss expanding digital literacy and creativity in the classroom. The panel will be held from 10:30 a.m. to noon. Panelists include:

• Teaching Art History with Generative AI, by Björn Anderson, an associate professor at the University of Iowa School of Art and Art History.
  • The use and misuse of AI through the teaching of art history with an emphasis on image analysis and historical context. 
• The World at Their Fingertips: ArcGIS StoryMaps in the Spanish Classroom by Megan Jeanette Myers, an associate professor of Spanish at Iowa State.
  • Students in Spanish for Global Professions will introduce their group projects, show student examples and discuss how digital projects benefit students in Languages for Specific Purposes courses. 
• Iterative Design of Digital Exhibit Instruction by Nikki JD White, a digital humanities librarian at the University of Iowa.
  • The journey of collaborating with Jen Sterling to find the balance between primary source research, managing metadata and integrating media in software. 
• Storytelling with Digital Maps: Introducing Honors Students to Geospatial Humanities by Erin Ridnour, a digital scholarship librarian at Iowa State.
  • Introduces honors seminar students to mapping as a method of storytelling and project planning skills. 

The second session is Public Digital Scholarship which raises awareness for community impact through digital projects. The second panel will be held from 2:30 . to 4:00 p.m. Panelists include:

• Beyond Carver and Trice: The Importance of Recognizing Black Students at Iowa State College by Gloria Betcher, a teaching professor of English at Iowa State.
  • The project “The Black ISC Student Experience to 1950” explores the names “Carver” and “Trice,” as they were well-known African American students at Iowa State. 
• Mechanisms for Actualizing Speculative Soundscapes: making nature sound accessible and data experiential through collective listening experiences by Alex Braidwood, an associate professor and DoGE of graphic design at Iowa State and the president of the World Listening Project. 
  • The project presents the use of field recordings of nature and high-frequency noises to remind us that we are a part of nature, not separated from it. 
• Iowa’s Covenants Project: Preliminary Findings on Race Restrictions in Linn and Polk Counties by Colin Gordon, a professor of history and Ashley Howard, an assistant professor of history and African American studies, both at the University of Iowa.
  • An overview of their project including advantages and disadvantages to each county’s research method. 
• Creating Community in Digital Scholarship: Leveraging CollectionBuilder for Multilingual Collaboration by Olivia Wikle, the head of digital scholarship and initiatives at Iowa State.
  • Present the use of static web digital exhibit framework as an accessible tool for building a free multilingual website. 

“There are so many great, diverse speakers,” Wikle said. “I am most looking forward to the scheduled time to talk at the closing reception, where people can meet and conversate more casually.” 

The closing reception will be held from 4 to 5:30 p.m. for further conversation and collaborative exploration over appetizers.

The event is co-hosted by Iowa State University Library Digital Scholarship and Initiatives Department and the Center for Excellence in the Arts and Humanities. The event is also cosponsored by the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies at the University of Iowa. 

The event is welcome to anyone, specifically Iowa State and University of Iowa faculty, staff, graduate and undergraduate students interested in learning about digital scholarship and connecting with the growing community. 

The Digital Scholarship Symposium will be located in The Catalyst, which is dedicated to digital research in Parks Library [701 Morrill Road]. The event will take place from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Symposium attendees will have the opportunity throughout the day to connect with others interested in digital scholarship and celebrate the panelists. Hors d’oeuvres and refreshments will be served.

Students can register here.