This Is Scholarship
Tuesday, May 27th, 2008We’re taking a bit of a summer hiatus around these parts, partly so that we can catch up on some ongoing projects, and partly so that we can really dive into the major infrastructural overhaul that our recent NEH grant is funding.
There’s lots going on around us, though, and so I’ll use some of this downtime to point toward important work on digital scholarship around the web. Today, I want to point to the Summer 2008 issue of Kairos, guest edited by Scott Lloyd DeWitt and Cheryl Ball, entitled “The Manifesto Issue.” The manifesto as a form is near and dear to my heart, and particularly those that have to do with new media composition and publishing, so I was thrilled to find a reference to MediaCommons in Catherine C. Braun and Kenneth L. Gilbert’s fantastic video, “This Is Scholarship,” which should be required viewing for every tenure and promotion committee. The entire issue, however, is filled with compelling pieces that do not simply make arguments on behalf of new digital modalities but that enact those arguments in their form as well. This, indeed, is the most important kind of scholarship, both rigorous and experimental, clearing the way for others to follow.
