The World Languages & Digital Humanities Studio hosted The DH Meet-Up: "World Cultures & DH Futures — Project Pitches" on Sept. 28. Pitches centered on future digital humanities projects or projects that are still in the planning phase or early stages.  

Presenters were limited to one PowerPoint slide and a three-minute project pitch that was reviewed by a committee focusing on three criteria (innovation and collaboration, feasibility, and applicability to world languages & cultures) to determine the top three pitches, which were awarded start-up funding. Each presentation was followed by a round of lively Q&A with more than 30 people in attendance.  

The three-minute pitches were followed by a lunch reception and conversation, with the winners announced later that day (Thursday). In addition to the three criteria listed above, the committee took into consideration what the funding demands of each project would be. 

Below is the full line-up of project pitches: 

1. "Visualizing Four Centuries of French Theater," presented by Maria Comsa (teaching assistant professor, French) 

2. "Basic Spanish Program Strategy: Extending f-2-f Communication via Padlet," presented by Brenda Magnetti (teaching assistant professor, Spanish)  

3. "Hunger Heroes: A Community Service/Food Exchange App," presented by Chy'Na Nellon (Ph.D. student, CLCS), Carter Buckner (Ph.D. student, computer science) and Terrius Bruce (Ph.D. student, environmental agriculture) 

4. "Using AI in Roleplay Activities," presented by Brenda Magnetti 

5. "Spanish Transmedia Strategy," presented by Angela Cruz (Ph.D. student, CLCS), Guillermo Pupo (Ph.D. student, CLCS), Isidoro Villa Ligero (Ph.D. student, CLCS) and Liz Villamizar (Ph.D. student, CLCS) 

6. "Visualizing 'Voices of Ukraine' with Omeka," presented by Nadja Berkovich (associate professor, Russian) and Nikhil Pai (undergraduate, physics and mathematics) 

7. "ChatGPT: Expanding Tutoring Services," presented by Guillermo Pupo 

8. "izi.Travel: Travel Guides in Italian Conversation," presented by Daniela D'Eugenio (assistant professor, Italian), Yosr Mehri (FLTA, WLLC) and Alena Shestopalova (FLTA, WLLC) 

9. "Narco Fantasy Land," presented by Angela Cruz

The winning presentations were: 

First Place: "Spanish Transmedia Strategy" 
Angela Cruz, Guillermo Pupo Pernet, Liz Villamizar, Isidoro Villa Ligero 

Second Place: "Visualizing Four Centuries of French Theater"
Maria Comsa 

Third Place: "izi.travel: Travel Guides in an Italian Conversation Class" 
Daniela D'Eugenio, Alyona Shestopalova, Yosr Mehri 

Curtis Maughan, director of the WLDH Studio and one of the committee members, had the following to say: "On behalf of the judging committee, which consisted of Dave Fredrick, associate professor of Classical studies; Larissa Rocha, digital humanities researcher, WLDH Studio; and myself, I need to emphasize that we had a very tough job picking the top three project pitches because we had such an impressive collection of promising and thought-provoking presentations from faculty and graduate students in WLLC, CLCS and beyond. These project pitches map out truly exciting and interdisciplinary pathways for the Digital Humanities at UARK." 

Congratulations to the winning pitches, and thank you, all who participated!