Digital Humanities Collaborative Hosts Kick-Off Event, 'DHC Open House and Lightning Talks'

On Tuesday, April 15, the Digital Humanities Collaborative and World Languages & Digital Humanities Studio held "The Digital Humanities Collaborative: Open House & Lightning Talks" in the newly remodeled space, JBHT 255. The DHC is a mixed-use space for teaching, student-led research and workshops which foster the creative application of digital technology in the service of the humanities. The departments of English, History and WLLC have combined resources to renovate JBHT 255 thus far. 

The DHC is outfitted with technology and teaching equipment—including dozens of Oculus headsets and mobile power stations—that encourage a spectrum of flexible classroom and research scenarios, from hands-on workshops to student game jams. Located in the former Tesseract Center for Immersive Environment and Game Design, the DHC continues a tradition of innovative humanities education and student success. 

The long-term vision of the DHC is to include all departments and student groups who are interested in the meaningful integration of digital technology to enhance and expand student success. Ideally, the DHC will host classes, research projects and collaborative workshops that bring together faculty and students from all U of A disciplines.   

The DHC's "Open House & Lightning Talks" event showcased exciting student projects from the departments of English, African & African American Studies, Classical Studies, Game Design, History and World Languages, Literatures & Cultures. Each project showed how digital technology, innovative teaching modules and research projects integrate and/or interrogate the digital. The DHC Open House & Lightning Talks also showed how the space will serve as a hub for exploring the exciting potential of teaching, research and student success at the intersection of the humanities and digital technology. 

Several of the approximately five-minute talks highlighted the classes currently held in the DHC, including "Black Digital Storytelling" (Chy'Na Nellon, Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies Ph.D. candidate), "Pentiment: Immersive Illuminated Manuscripts" (professor Dave Fredrick, Classical Studies and Game Design), "Intro to the Digital Humanities" (TAP Curtis Maughan, Digital Humanities and World Languages, Literatures & Cultures). 

The complete list of presenters and titles of their presentations is below:   

• Maggie Fernandes (English), Generative AI Refusal in Writing Studies  

• David Fredrick (World Languages, Classical Studies), Pentiment: Immersive Illuminated Manuscripts 

• Curtis Maughan (World Languages, Digital Humanities), DH Curriculum and Community  

• Chy'Na Nellon (Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies), Black Digital Storytelling  

• Brian McGowan (History), Voices of Grambling  

• Lissette Lopez Szwydky (English), M.A. Portfolio Curriculum  

The final WLDH Studio event of the spring semester will be held from 5-7 p.m. Thursday, May 1. This event will be a roundtable of WLLC authors who have contributed to the Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) 2026 Volume. WLLC contributors will share their research and collaborations both within and beyond the department. Speakers include co-editors Linda Jones, David Fredrick and Curtis Maughan; faculty and grad students from Spanish, Italian, Classics and French; and guest speaker Jake Abell (French, Baylor University). Dinner will be served at 6 p.m.