Davidson Joins Humanities Council

This is reblogged from Duke Today, http://today.duke.edu/2011/07/davidsonnch

Duke professor joins national humanities panel

Cathy Davidson, far left, at the NEH swearing in ceremony. Photo by Lucy Cutrona/NEH

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Durham, NC - Duke professor Cathy Davidson has joined the National Council on the Humanities.

Davidson was one of five new members to join the council July 14, each appointed by President Barack Obama to serve on the 26-member advisory board within the National Institute for the Humanities.

Davidson is the Ruth F. DeVarney Professor of English and John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at Duke. She was also Duke's first vice provost for interdisciplinary studies.

She was sworn in by Jim Leach, NEH's chairman, along with fellow new members Albert J. Beveridge, Constance M. Carroll, Paula Barker Duffy and Martha Wagner Weinberg.

"It was an inspiring first meeting, and given that the National Council on the Humanities is divided between Bush appointees and Obama appointees I was pleasantly surprised that Chairman Jim Leach's nationwide pleas for more 'civility' in public discourse started at home," Davidson said. "It was a most civil, productive meeting, one with give and take, compromise and adjustment, and, in the end, excellent results.   I wish all of Washington and current party politics worked like that well."  

Davidson specializes in the social and cultural history of technology. She focuses on the impact of mass printing during the founding years of the U.S. nation, on the changing industrial landscape of the 20th century, and on the role of digital media in the 21st century. Among other books, she is author of "The Future of Learning Institutions in a Digital Age" and "Revolution and the Word: The Rise of the Novel in America." Her newest book, Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We live, Work, and Learn, (Viking) arrives in bookstores this week.  

She is co-founder of HASTAC ("Haystack"), the Humanities, Arts, Sciences, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory, a network of educators dedicated to new modes of learning for the digital age. She is also past president of the American Studies Association and former editor of the journal American Literature.

The National Council on the Humanities is a board of 26 private citizens who advise the chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). NEH is an independent federal agency that is one of the largest funders of humanities programs in the United States. Council members are nominated by the president and require confirmation by the U.S. Senate. If confirmed, they serve six-year terms.

For information about all members currently serving on the National Council on the Humanities, visit www.neh.gov/whoweare/council.html.