African Studies in the Digital Age
All events take place in the Erlicher Room, North Quad (unless otherwise noted), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Monday, 10 November
9-10 Opening Session
with: Daniel Herwitz, Comparative Literature, U-M
Derek Peterson, History, U-M
10-12 A Seminar with Isabel Hofmeyr
on: Gandhi’s Printing Press: Experiments with Slow Reading (Harvard, 2013)
The Portable Bunyan: A Transnational History of The Pilgrim’s Progress (Princeton, 2003), selections
1:30-3:30 Tour of the Digital Media Commons
4-6 Lecture from Isabel Hofmeyr: ‘Mandela's Copyright: Intellectual Property and the Postcolonial World’
Tuesday, 11 November
10-12 The Digital Humanities: A Short Introduction
with: Julie Klein, Digital Humanities Collaboratory, Wayne State University
Paul Conway, School of Information, U-M
1:30-4:00 Whither the Archive?
with: Keith Breckenridge (Wits), on the Aluka Project
Michele Pickover (Wits), on the digitization of the Wits Historical papers
Derek Peterson (U-M), on the digitization of archives in Uganda
4-6 Lecture from Keith Breckenridge: ‘The Political Virtues of the Imperial Archive: Burke, Milner and the Scandal of Empire’ (in 4701 Haven Hall)
Wednesday, 12 November (in the Rackham Amphitheater)
9-10:15 The Infrastructure of Hathi Trust
with: Mike Furlough, Executive Director, Hathi Trust
10:45-12 Fair Use and the Law
with: Melissa Levine, Lead Copyright Officer, U-M Library
Jessica Litman, U-M School of Law
2-4 Google Books
with: Paul Courant, formerly University Librarian, U-M
Thursday, 13 November
10-12 New Media
with: Sharon Leon, Director of Public Projects at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University
2-4 Platforms
with: Dean Rehberger or Kurt Dewhurst (MSU), in MATRIX’s Africa projects
Grant McNulty (Archives and Public Culture, UCT), on the Five Hundred Year Archive project
Friday, 14 November
10-12 Teaching and Research
with: Angel Nieves, Co-Director of the Digital Humanities Initiative at Hamilton College
Bruce Janz, Director of the Center for Humanities and Digital Research at University of Central Florida
2-4 The News
with: Dinesh Balliah (Wits), on the digital work of journalism at Wits
Peter Limb (MSU), on the African newspaper archive
Monday, 17 November
10-12 Architecture
with: Tara McPherson, Cinematic Arts, USC
2-5 Access, Intellectual Property, and Teaching (in the Henderson Room, Michigan League)
with: Martha Jones (U-M), on the Law in Slavery and Freedom Project
Kelly Askew, Paul Conway, and David Wallace (U-M), on the Leo Sarkisian music archive
Akosua Adomako Ampofo and Judith Opoku-Boateng (Uni. of Ghana), on digital archiving at the Institute of African Studies.
Tuesday, 18 November
10-12 A Discussion of Paths Forward
4-6 Publishing In and About Africa
with: Gillian Berchowitz, Director, Ohio University Press
James Tumusiime, founder and publisher, Fountain Publishers
Alexander Bangirana, Head of Publications and Dissemination, CODESRIA
Charles Watkinson, Director, University of Michigan Press
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This workshop is part of a five-year program of academic exchange joining the African Studies Center at the University of Michigan with the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. The program, entitled ‘Joining Theory and Empiricism in the Remaking of the African Humanities: A Transcontinental Collaboration,’ is generously funded by the Mellon Foundation.