4.0801 UT Austin Ctr / Humanities & Language Computing (1/55)
Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Mon, 3 Dec 90 22:05:17 EST
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 4, No. 0801. Monday, 3 Dec 1990.
Date: Monday, 3 December 1990 2:55pm CT
From: John Slatin <EIEB360@UTXVM.BITNET>
Subject: Center for Humanities and Language Computing, UT Austin
I am pleased to announce that the English Department's Computer Research
Lab has received an allocation of $300,000 from UT Austin's campus-wide
Faculty Computer Committee to support upgrade and expansion of our
existing instructional computing facilities. The funds are expressly
dedicated to expanding the instructional use of computers in the teaching
of writing, literature, language, and the humanities generally.
We will use the money to establish a new, interdepartmental Center for
Humanities and Language Computing (CHALC). CHALC will incorporate the
existing Computer Research Lab, and extend services for
computer-assisted instruction and scholarship to students and faculty in
Classics and the modern languages and, in time, to other humanities
departments as well.
Computer-Based Classrooms
At present, we plan to add a second, Macintosh-baed computer classroom
to our existing IBM classroom. We'll replace the ageing equipment in
the latter with newer, more powerful, and more versatile equipment. We
also plan to purchase a number of more advanced workstations for the
Computer Research Lab itself, to support development of innovative
software for instructional use in English and other language and
humanities courses.
In addition to the purchases outlined above, we plan to install a
complement of Macintoshes in the Batts Hall Language Laboratories; these
will make it possible for students in modern language courses to take
advantage of new strategies for computer-assisted language learning
(CALL) developed by faculty and graduate students at UT Austin and
elsewhere. The Classics Department will also gain new equipment,
enabling their students to explore ancient Greek literature and
civilization by using the combination of CD- ROM, videodisk, and
HyperCard software developed by Project Perseus at Harvard. Future
plans call for attaching each of these facilities to the campus-wide
broadband network and continued expansion of instructional computing
services.
Solicitation
The new equipment should be in place in time for classes to begin next
fall. Please inform students interested in doing graduate work in
humanities computing about the new facilities at UT Austin. Letters of
inquiry should be addressed to me at either of the addresses below:
John Slatin
Director
Center for Humanities and Language Computing
Department of English
University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX 78712
USA
email: EIEB360@UTXVM.bitnet, or SLATIN@UTXVM.CC.UTEXAS.EDU
phone: (512) 471-4991 (English Department), 471-9293
(Computer Research Lab)