In January 2025 I presented on a panel called "Alt-Text, Alt-Image: Multimodal Scholarship" at the annual Modern Language Association conference. My talk wasn't so much about multimodal scholarship, but it did take the Alt Text part of the title quite literally. Here's that talk, along with key slides. I want to talk today about alt… Continue reading The Ghosts of ClipartFlash Fiction, Alt Text, and Steganographic Narrative
Tag: MLA
The Ghosts of Clipart
Four Points about the Infrastructures of Professional Development
On Thursday, January 5, I participated on a round table at the 2023 MLA convention, organized by the MLA itself. The panel was called “Infrastructures of Professional Development.” Here's the panel description: This roundtable includes leaders who have developed technical, pedagogical, administrative, and organizational structures with potential to serve as sites for professional development. Brief… Continue reading Four Points about the Infrastructures of Professional Development
AI Dungeon and Creativity
In early January I joined a group of AI researchers from Microsoft and my fellow humanist Kathleen Fitzpatrick to talk at the Modern Language Association convention about the implications of artificial intelligence. Our panel was called Being Human, Seeming Human. Each participant came to this question of "seeming human" from a different angle. My own focus… Continue reading AI Dungeon and Creativity
Digital Humanities at MLA 2016
January 7-10, Austin
In anticipation of the upcoming Modern Language Association annual convention, here's a crowdsourced list of digital humanities sessions at the conference: MLA 2016 Digital Humanities Sessions. Jump to specific days: Thursday, January 7 Friday, January 8 Saturday, January 9 Sunday, January 10 This community-authored work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Use, add,… Continue reading Digital Humanities at MLA 2016January 7-10, Austin
Digital Humanities at MLA 2015
Vancouver, January 8-10
Here is a list of more or less digitally-oriented sessions at the upcoming Modern Language Association convention. These sessions address digital culture, digital tools, and digital methodology, played out across the domains of research, pedagogy, and scholarly communication. If I've overlooked a session, let me know in the comments. You might also be interested in my… Continue reading Digital Humanities at MLA 2015Vancouver, January 8-10
Digital Humanities and the MLA
On the state of the field at the MLA
Since 2009 I've been compiling an annual list of more or less digitally-oriented sessions at the Modern Language Association convention. This is the list for 2015. These sessions address digital culture, digital tools, and digital methodology, played out across the domains of research, teaching, and scholarly communication. For the purposes of my annual lists I… Continue reading Digital Humanities and the MLAOn the state of the field at the MLA
Digital Humanities at MLA 2014
This is a list of digitally-inflected sessions at the 2014 Modern Language Association Convention (Chicago, January 9-12). These sessions in some way address digital tools, objects, and practices in language, literary, textual, cultural, and media studies. The list also includes sessions about digital pedagogy and scholarly communication. The list stands at 78 entries, making up… Continue reading Digital Humanities at MLA 2014
Electronic Literature after Flash (MLA14 Proposal)
I recently proposed a sequence of lightning talks for the next Modern Language Association convention in Chicago (January 2014). The participants are tackling a literary issue that is not at all theoretical: the future of electronic literature. I’ve also built in a substantial amount of time for an open discussion between the audience and my… Continue reading Electronic Literature after Flash (MLA14 Proposal)
CFP: Electronic Literature after Flash (MLA 2014, Chicago)
Attention artists, creators, theorists, teachers, curators, and archivists of electronic literature! I’m putting together an e-lit roundtable for the Modern Language Association Convention in Chicago next January. The panel will be “Electronic Literature after Flash” and I’m hoping to have a wide range of voices represented. See the full CFP for more details. Abstracts due… Continue reading CFP: Electronic Literature after Flash (MLA 2014, Chicago)
An Account of Randomness in Literary Computing
Below is the text of my presentation at the 2013 MLA Convention in Boston. The panel was Reading the Invisible and Unwanted in Old and New Media, and it was assembled by Lori Emerson, Paul Benzon, Zach Whalen, and myself. Seeking to have a rich discussion period—which we did indeed have—we limited our talks to… Continue reading An Account of Randomness in Literary Computing
Digital Humanities at MLA 2013
What follows is a comprehensive list of digital humanities sessions at the 2013 Modern Language Association Conference in Boston. These are sessions that in some way address the influence and impact of digital materials and tools upon language, literary, textual, and media studies, as well as upon online pedagogy and scholarly communication. The 2013 list… Continue reading Digital Humanities at MLA 2013
Strange Rain and the Poetics of Motion and Touch
Here (finally) is the talk I gave at the 2012 MLA Convention in Seattle. I was on Lori Emerson's Reading Writing Interfaces: E-Literature's Past and Present panel, along with Dene Grigar, Stephanie Strickland, and Marjorie Luesebrink. Lori's talk on e-lit's stand against the interface-free aesthetic worked particularly well with my own talk, which focused on Erik Loyer's Strange Rain. I don't offer a reading of Strange Rain so much as I use the piece as an entry point to think about interfaces---and my larger goal of reframing our concept of interfaces.
Digital Humanities Sessions at the 2012 MLA Conference in Seattle
This is a comprehensive list of digital humanities sessions scheduled for the 2012 Modern Language Association Conference in Seattle, Washington. The 2012 list stands at 58 sessions, up from 44 last year (and 27 the year before). If the trend continues, within the decade it will no longer make sense to compile this list; it'll… Continue reading Digital Humanities Sessions at the 2012 MLA Conference in Seattle
The digital humanities is not about building, it’s about sharing
Every scholarly community has its disagreements, its tensions, its divides. One tension in the digital humanities that has received considerable attention is between those who build digital tools and media and those who study traditional humanities questions using digital tools and media. Variously framed as do vs. think, practice vs. theory, or hack vs. yack,… Continue reading The digital humanities is not about building, it’s about sharing
Close Playing: Literary Methods and Videogame Studies (MLA 2012 Roundtable)
I recently received word that my proposal for a roundtable on videogame studies was accepted for the annual Modern Language Association Convention, to be held next January in Seattle, Washington. I'm very excited for myself and my fellow participants: Ed Chang, Steve Jones, Jason Rhody, Anastasia Salter, Tim Welsh, and Zach Whalen. (Updated with links… Continue reading Close Playing: Literary Methods and Videogame Studies (MLA 2012 Roundtable)