Five Notre Dame graduate students, including two from the College of Arts & Letters, have been accepted into the inaugural cohort of the Navari Family Center for Digital Scholarship Pedagogy Fellows for the 2021-2022 academic year.
The Navari Family Center for Digital Scholarship (NFCDS), located within the Hesburgh Library, provides digital and emerging technologies expertise, technology-enriched spaces, and specialized hardware and software access for Notre Dame faculty and students in every academic discipline, at critical points throughout their research process and coursework. NFCDS fellows will join over 14 faculty and staff in the Center who offer workshops, consultations, embedded instruction, credit courses, and research collaboration campus-wide.
The new fellowship program is an opportunity for Notre Dame Ph.D. students from Arts & Letters and the College of Science to build their teaching expertise, gain instructional experience, and engage in a life-long community of practice. The program is designed for hands-on learning and the fellows are not required to have previous digital scholarship expertise or teaching experience.
“Computers have mediated our lives for decades, but COVID-19 both shines a light on and hastens that trend. In our rapidly changing digital landscape, it is imperative that scholars across all disciplines gain expertise teaching digital scholarship,” said Scott B. Weingart, director of the Navari Family Center for Digital Scholarship. “Through the instruction of campus and local community members, our remarkable cohort of graduate fellows will prepare others to face and succeed in a digital world.”
Kenya Lee is a third-year graduate student in the Department of Sociology. Her advisor is William Carbonaro. Lee is excited to learn new pedagogical techniques and ways to incorporate them into lesson plans and student learning assessments.
“I’m interested in teaching students how to ask and answer complex questions about the social world. I see myself incorporating data analysis and visual story-telling in my courses,” she said. “Training in digital scholarship would also open doors to alternative academic careers of interest in government and research non-profits.”
Jacob Swisher is a second-year graduate student in the Department of History. His advisor is Jon Coleman. Through this program, Swisher hopes to become a more effective instructor for students interested in learning about the digital humanities.
“This will be an excellent opportunity for me to experiment with a different mode of content delivery and would allow me to add to my skill set as an instructor,” he said. “One of my primary goals is to diversify my instructional style and develop a classroom environment that engages an array of majors.”
In addition to devising and delivering digital scholarship learning opportunities, fellows will gain experience in evidence-based and innovative instructional methods, collaborative teamwork, and communicating their research and scholarly interests outside of their discipline.
The fellowship program goals ensure that each fellow will be able to understand, apply, analyze, and reflect on evidence-based practices and principles related to the teaching and learning of computational, technological, methodological skills. In addition, they will engage in teaching observation activities and serve as a member of both the Fellowship Community of Practice and the NFCDS team.
“Digital fluency has been a focus area of the Center since its inception. I deeply appreciate the Navari family for supporting our advancements in teaching, learning and research,” added John Wang, associate university librarian for Hesburgh Libraries. “We plan to further our programming by expanding opportunities and avenues for broader participation of Notre Dame scholars and researchers.”
The 2021-2022 NFCDS Pedagogy Fellowships are sponsored by the Hesburgh Libraries NFCDS and the College of Science. Ben Chiewphasa, economics and data librarian, is the program lead. Arnaud Zimmern, postdoctoral fellow, is the program facilitator.
