Scholars

The HASTAC Scholars program is a collective of graduate and undergraduate students who are engaged with innovative projects and research at the intersection of digital media & learning, 21st century education, the digital humanities, and technology in the arts, humanities and sciences. We blog, host forums, organize events and discuss new ideas, projects, experiments, and technologies that reconceive teaching, learning, research, writing and structuring knowledge.

Meet the 2011 - 2012 HASTAC Scholars!

The HASTAC Scholars Program was initiated in 2008 with the dual goal of recognizing graduate and undergraduate students working across the areas of technology, the arts, the humanities, and the social sciences, while also using their expertise and collaborative energy to develop HASTAC into a more dynamic and interactive virtual institution.  HASTAC was created to look toward the future of higher education in a digital age, and it is in keeping with that vision that we turn to students todaythose who are most engaged in participatory learningto be the eyes and ears of HASTAC.  In the wake of the crisis facing traditional news media, the HASTAC Scholars are "Citizen Journalists" exploring the next-generation possibilities for intellectual dialogue imaginable through digital technology.

The HASTAC Scholars are nominated by HASTAC members who are faculty or staff at institutions of higher education.  Each scholar receives a small fellowship for their contribution, funded by their home institution.  

Some Stats on the HASTAC Scholars:

• last year there were over 200 Scholars, from over 75 universities and 5 countries, including the US, Canada, Spain, Korea, England, Australia and New Zealand.
• this will be the 4th annual HASTAC Scholars cohort
• In the last two years, our forums have generated well over 1000 comments -- many of which are mini-essays!
• Not to mention hundreds of blog entries, comments and further conversations
• 350,000 visitors to the ten HASTAC Scholars Forums since September of 2009

Results of the Scholars program. Many Scholars have reported good news such as:

• generating conference panels from their participation in blogs and forums
• being invited to speak at other workshops, conferences and classes
• class readings generated from the forums and blogs
• forums and conversations used to justify preliminary exam fields and the scope of a dissertation
• being invited to collaborate with digital humanities projects, civic advocacy groups, public policy advisories, university technology consulting
• involvement with Scholars was frequently identified as the tipping point in the job search
• success on the #alt-ac job market (i.e. jobs at university centers, non-profits, museums, and other jobs outside of the tenure-track market)
• benefited from creating a community beyond traditional departments - many Scholars have expressed excitement at finding other students like them!
• useful practice of working through conference paper drafts as blogs
• beneficial practice explaining their own research and interests to a wider audience
• keeping up with interesting news, policies, academic trends, technology applications for both teaching & research
• meeting other like-minded folks on their own campuses, and meeting good contacts on campus & in their local city

For inquiries or more information about the HASTAC Scholar Program, please contact the program director, Fiona Barnett.