Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 15, No. 342.
Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
<http://www.princeton.edu/~mccarty/humanist/>
<http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/>
[1] From: Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty@kcl.ac.uk> (49)
Subject: how things have changed
[2] From: Patrick Durusau <pdurusau@emory.edu> (27)
Subject: Browse before you Buy! (ASOR books)
--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2001 08:51:11 +0000
From: Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty@kcl.ac.uk>
Subject: how things have changed
Dear colleagues:
This morning my pleasure was to receive an application for membership in
this group from someone who introduces him- or herself by saying, "I am a
Ph.D. student at the University of Georgia. My areas of concentration are
Rhetoric and Composition, Literary Theory, and Humanities Computing...." We
are amazed and delighted, those of us who can remember back to the time
when that last area of concentration would have provoked blank
incomprehension -- or even back to the time when it would have been
comprehended but provoked career-fatal hostility from all but a beleaguered
minority. I'm old enough to remember both -- and to be able to quote
certain individuals still looking upon the light who declared that
humanities computing was not an academic subject because it had no subject
matter of its own, and various silly nonsense along those lines. And now we
have declarations such as the above, which raise eyebrows because they
raise no eyebrows.
Thus the curriculum of humanities computing at the undergraduate and
(post-)graduate levels becomes an urgent matter at those institutions
currently with none, as it is the daily concern at the still too few places
with programmes in place or on the desks of senior administrators. In about
a week's time various of us will be gathering at Malaspina University
College, Nanaimo, British Columbia, to spend two days talking about "The
Humanities Computing Curriculum / The Computing Curriculum in the Arts and
Humanities" (9-10/11), for which see
<http://web.mala.bc.ca/siemensr/HCCurriculum/>. I hope we will disagree
vigorously about all matters of detail, but a fundamental agreement makes
the conference possible in the first place, in a time when travel is not
quite as carefree as it used to be.
In any case we can celebrate fulfilment of the prophecy that, as some of us
once hoped, "...the loser now / Will be later to win" -- especially since
"to win" means to be given the opportunity to do such intellectually
challenging work. Yes, yes -- :-) --
>Come mothers and fathers
>Throughout the land
>And don't criticize
>What you can't understand
>Your sons and your daughters
>Are beyond your command
>Your old road is
>Rapidly agin'.
>Please get out of the new one
>If you can't lend your hand
>For the times they are a-changin'.
Yours,
WM
-----
Dr Willard McCarty / Senior Lecturer /
Centre for Computing in the Humanities / King's College London /
Strand / London WC2R 2LS / U.K. /
+44 (0)20 7848-2784 / ilex.cc.kcl.ac.uk/wlm/
--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2001 08:56:48 +0000
From: Patrick Durusau <pdurusau@emory.edu>
Subject: Browse before you Buy! (ASOR books)
Greetings,
Rather than waiting for formal notice that the world of scholarly
publishing has changed, the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR)
has placed three of their most recent titles up for public access.
Anyone, a member of ASOR, other scholars, or even a member of the public
can view these items before purchasing them. These are not teaser
versions but the full texts of these volumes.
Desire, Discord and Death: Approaches to Near Eastern Myth, Neal Walls;
Archaeology and the Religions of Canaan and Israel, Beth Alpert Nakhai;
and, East of the Jordan: Territories and Sites of the Hebrew Scriptures,
Burton MacDonald, can been seen (and ordered) at:
http://www.asor.org/ebooks.htm
If you are interested in any of these topics, please visit the site and
by all means, order a print copy if after reviewing the work it is
something you want to add to your library. Even if you are not
particularly interested in these subjects, a note supporting this sort
of effort I suspect would be most welcome.
The experience that ASOR and other forward looking organizations have
with this sort of effort will define the changing shape of scholarly
publishing. This is a model that gets information into the hands of
scholars, preserves a revenue stream and opens access to scholarly
materials to a broader audience. Sounds like a good one to me.
Patrick
-- Patrick Durusau Director of Research and Development Society of Biblical Literature pdurusau@emory.edu
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