MESSAGE FROM THE SENIOR DIRECTOR, OIS

Greetings from the Office of Interdisciplinary Studies, and Welcome to our Fall 2019 Newsletter!

As the trees begin to lose their leaves and the light deepens into its fall hues, I write to welcome you all—students, staff, and faculty-- back to the bustle of September and a cracking new academic year! 

OIS also delighted to welcome two new program directors and two new faculty members. Professor Jonathan Cohn is taking the helm for the Digital Humanities program while Professor Jocelyn Hendrickson runs the Religious Studies program and serves as its Graduate Coordinator. Both programs are very lucky to have them as leaders. Professor Deb Verhoeven joins us as Canada 150 Research Chair in Gender and Cultural Informatics (cross appointed to Digital Humanities) and Professor Jairan Gahan begins her tenure-track appointment in Islamic Studies (cross-appointed to Religious Studies). More details about all these faculty members can be found below.

Across the University of Alberta and within the Faculty of Arts, the 2019-20 academic year already promises many opportunities for members of the OIS community. The Digital Synergies Faculty of Arts Signature area (led by DH/MLCS Professor Astrid Ensslin) is getting its work off the ground; Writing Studies has received a grant to develop and launch a journal to publish student writing; the Religious Studies graduate student colloquium will be up and running again soon; and the September 27 Climate Strike on campus will no doubt be of great interest to anyone concerned with climate change, particularly perhaps our Environmental Studies majors. We also have many terrific courses for the Winter term that still have spaces available. 

We look forward to playing a key role as a hub of scholarly and pedagogical activity for the Faculty of Arts. Have a wonderful and stimulating year, everyone!

Nat Hurley

Jonathan Cohn

Jonathan is the new Program Director & Graduate Coordinator of the Digital Humanities program.  He teaches courses on video game analysis, digital culture, ideology and technology, surveillance and justice, and film history. He has published articles on the history of the World Wide Web, the cultural force of algorithms, feminism and anti-feminism on social networks, and sci-fi television. His book, The Burden of Choice: Recommendations, Subversion, and Algorithmic Culture (Rutgers, 2019) analyzes how websites recommend goods, entertainment, spouses and cosmetic surgery to users, and the surprising things users then do with them. Read a recent article by Jonathan from The Conversation.

Jairan Gahan

Jairan joined the Faculty of Arts in July as Assistant Professor in Islamic Studies. She is appointed 50% in History and Classics and 50% in Religious Studies. Jairan completed her PhD in Religion at the University of Toronto in 2017. Based on intensive archival research in Iran, her dissertation was entitled “Red-light Tehran: Prostitution, Intimately Public Islam, and Rule of the Sovereign.”

Jocelyn Hendrickson

Josie is the new Program Director & Graduate Coordinator for
Religious Studies. Her research focuses on Islamic legal history in medieval and early modern North Africa (the Maghrib) and al-Andalus (Islamic Iberia). She is particularly interested in the construction and maintenance of authoritative legal opinions, the relationships between legal and literary genres, and legal opinions (fatwas) regarding Christian-Muslim relations during and after the twelfth-to-fifteenth century Christian "Reconquest" of Iberia and expansion into North Africa. Her first book project, Beyond the Reconquest: Islamic Legal Resistance to Christian Rule in Northwest Africa, explores North African and Iberian legal discourses concerning Muslims living under Christian rule.

Diane McKen

Diane is happy to rejoin the OIS team as the Administrator. She comes (back) to us from the Departments of Linguistics, Philosophy, and Women's and Gender Studies as the Undergraduate Advisor. She was previously seconded to OIS for a one year term in 2018. When she is not on campus she enjoys being with her grandchildren, riding her horse and volunteering at the Edmonton Folk Fest (not all at the same time!).

Deb Verhoeven

Deb is the the Canada 150 Research Chair in Gender and Cultural Informatics. Described as Australia’s “most innovative academic,” she is a leading scholar in the emerging field of gender and cultural informatics – a field that combines digital technology, big data, cultural forms, and social justice. She joined the Faculty of Arts in April for a seven year joint-appointment with Women’s and Gender Studies and Digital Humanities.

ENGL 582 (B1): On Scale 

WINTER 2020, T 10:00-12:50, N. Hurley

This seminar takes up the question of what scale means and what it has meant for reading, for politics, and for cultural criticism more generally. Navigating matters of scale is central to scholarly conversations about big data, to debates about climate change and the anthropocene, to understanding the scope of global capitalism, debates about population, and the statistical and representational politics of diversity. And at a methodological level, it raises key questions about what constitutes evidence for large-scale claims and how concepts find their grounded articulations in everyday life.

Interested? Contact Instructor Nat Hurley

RELIG  111:  The Ends are Nigh: Apocalypses in Antiquity and the Modern world (B1)

Winter 2020, MWF, 10-10:50AM, ED N2 135, G. Fairen

Derived from the Greek word apokalypsis, meaning “uncovering” or “revelation,” the contemporary English usage of “Apocalypse” has become synonymous with various cataclysmic and “end of the world” scenarios. From ancient scribal writings like the Book of Revelation or various Dead Sea Scrolls, their modern religious interpretations (such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses or other Christian dispensationalists), and even secular or scientific “apocalyptic” narratives such as climate change, the idea that the “End is Nigh” has been a sporadic feature of western discourse, provoking a variety of responses depending on time, place and position of those who promote and receive them. By looking at various “apocalyptic” ideas from a range of materials, this class will contrast and compare what “the end” has meant, and does still mean, in a variety of contexts and to a variety of people.

Interested? Contact Instructor Glen Fairen

RELIG 309: Ancient Near Eastern and Israelite Religion and Mythology

WINTER 2020, MWF, 3-3:50PM, T 190, P. Sabo

This course will explore some of the greatest stories and mythologies of the ancient Near East. We will begin by looking at the earliest surviving great work of literature: The Epic of Gilgamesh. From there, we will explore other influential ancient texts, such as Enuma Elish, Atra-Hasis, and the Tale of Aqhat (all while we analyze their influence on texts of the Bible). Throughout the course, we will ask ourselves several important questions: What was the religion and culture of the ancient Near East and Israel like? What is mythology? And why does humanity find stories and mythology so important?

*Note: There is no background knowledge needed for this course and prerequisites will be waived with consent.

Interested? Contact Instructor Peter Sabo

RELIG 442/542: Advanced Studies in Buddhism: Visual and Material Culture in East Asia

WINTER 2020, TH, 3:30 to 6:20, HC 2-30, D. Quinter 

This course explores the ritual, aesthetic, and intellectual engagement with icons, visual imagery, and material objects in East Asian Buddhism. Readings are drawn from: 1) original sources in English translation; 2) secondary scholarship on icons, relics, and related contemplative practices; 3) studies of manga, anime, and popular culture; and 4) theoretical reflections on the study of visual and material culture. The course should provide rich opportunity for analysis of the interrelationships among images, “things,” and rituals in Buddhism and the study of religion more broadly. Comparative and theoretical exploration of the course topics relative to other religious and cultural traditions is encouraged.

Course Prerequisite: RELIG 240, EASIA 223, or Permission of Instructor

Note: This course is cross-counted for East Asian Studies credit.

Interested? Contact Instructor David Quinter

Changes to STS 351: Understanding Video Games

An 11-lesson course teaching a comprehensive overview of analytical theory pertaining to video game media. Students will learn how to study games and engage in informed discussions about them. What's new?

• A new lesson on eSports
• Updated readings to each lesson
• Two one-minute videos to each lesson that provide updated examples for the topics covered

Questions? Please contact Sean Gouglas

WRS 601 (B2): Composition Theory

WINTER 2020, W, 2:00 to 4:50, HC 4-78, A. Chilewska 

This course provides an introduction to composition theory and past and current scholarship in Writing Studies. It recognizes that composition and rhetoric since the mid 1960s have emerged as an important interdisciplinary body of scholarship that intersects communication, creative writing, education, linguistics, literary studies, and media studies.  

By the end of the course, participants will be expected to articulate their own epistemology, their own theory of composition, and their own philosophy of teaching writing as informed by the following: recent research and theory in the field, in-class activities, outside of class observations, and an analysis of their own writing processes. 

Interested? Contact Instructor Anna Chilewska

Writing Studies wins TLEF Grant to develop Journal for Student Writing

Writing Studies has won a $9000 grant from the Teaching and Leaning Enhancement Fund to establish an online journal to showcase student writing at the University of Alberta. The grant will enable us to build the necessary infrastructure and visual identity for this new journal, which we hope will be up and running next year (2020-21).

Religious Studies Colloquium Series 2019-2020

Join us for the RELIG 675 Speaker Schedule monthly on Fridays, 1:00 to 2:30PM, location TBA.

SAVE THE DATES! October 25, November 29, January 24, February 28, March 27 

Questions? Please contact Josie Hendrickson, Director and Graduate Coordinator, Program in Religious Studies

Digital Scholarship Centre

Exciting times at UAlberta Libraries! We’ve opened the new Digital Scholarship Centre. Located on the second floor of Cameron Library, the DSC is a bright space that we created to inspire collaboration, interdisciplinary exploration, and the use of digital tools to share research. Check out our website to learn more about the services, equipment, and spaces that are available to you.

Community Outreach

As part of his role as Belzberg Lecturer in Jewish Studies, Peter Sabo participates in community outreach. He has brought in guest speaker, Aaron Gross, from the University of San Diego, who gave a talk on "Jews, Ethical Omnivores, Vegans, and Other Curious Animals" as part of the graduate student symposium; gave a series of talks at Beth Shalom and Beth Ora synagogue, as well as a presentation at the Jewish Senior Citizens' Centre; and spoke at the Wirth Institute Jewish Studies week.

Critical Media Production Pedagogy 

Dr. Lauren Berliner (University of Washington - Bothell)
Thursday, Oct 3, 2019, 3-4:30pm
Humanities L-3

The sentiment that "anyone with a smart phone" can teach media production in their courses seems to reflect a radical pedagogy, but in application has the potential to sink a syllabus. As a scholar/practitioner situated in a Media and Communication Studies major, I have found that the most effective way to teach media production is by implementing through low-skills, low-tech, low-stakes assignments that adhere to three principles. First, the teaching method and use of production technologies must be in line with the desired learning outcomes. Second, students must be given the instructional handles and technological access to fully participate. Third, assessment must require students to be simultaneously reflective about form and content in their work. This talk illuminates these proposed best practices, with examples drawn from my classes and research.

Do I Belong Here?: Teaching Inclusively in Media Classrooms 

Professor Jennifer Proctor (University of Michigan - Dearborn)
Friday, Oct 4, 2019, 3-4:30pm                                                            Humanities L-3

Drawing upon research conducted by the initiative EDITMedia (Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Teaching Media), this talk will share common reasons students identify for not feeling included - or, worse, feeling ostracized - from media classrooms and discuss strategies for ensuring that all students feel a sense of belonging and engagement. The
presentation will include approaches that apply broadly to all types of pedagogy as well as strategies specific to film and media studies and point attendees to specific resources for expanding their own teaching toolkits.

DHSU: The Digital Humanities Students' Association is thrilled to welcome you to the 2019/20 school year! We are Cate Peter (President), Schyler Palm (VP Internal), Jennifer McDevitt (VP Finance), and Holly Pickering (SLIS Liaison), and we're here to provide you with fun opportunities to socialize throughout the year, to advocate for the DH program at Graduate Students' Association meetings, and to generally meme it up for your enjoyment. Watch the DH listserv for information about our upcoming by-election, where we'll be looking for a VP External Affairs and a Conference Organizer. Feel free to email us any questions and like us on Facebook. 

RSUA: Religious Studies Undergraduate Association is a group of Religious Studies majors, minors, enthusiasts, and friends who come together with the common interest of thinking critically about Religion. Some examples of our up and coming activities include: Build your own religion night, write your own scripture night, movie screenings, and our regular “pintification” discussions where we hang out (often with drinks) and discuss a general topic. To get involved, follow us on Facebook.