Humanities News, Features, and Other Updates

Category: Humanities

Brown Bag Talk: The “High-Risk” Migrant: Re-Evaluating (Algorithmic) Automated Decision-Making in the Public Sector

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What:

Abstract:

For almost a decade, the Netherlands secretly used the variables of gender, nationality, and age, to profile migrants as “high-risk,” subjecting them to extensive investigations and eventual visa denial in many cases. Drawing from frameworks of algorithmic episteme, and algorithmic inclusion and exclusion, this presentation examines algorithmic deployment in the public sector.

Who:

Presented by PhD Student Genius Amaraizu

All are welcome to attend!

When:

Friday, January 19 2024

Where:

Petersen Library, Walker Arts & Humanities Center

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The “High-Risk” Migrant: Re-Evaluating (Algorithmic) Automated Decision-Making in the Public-Sector

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Brown Bag Talk: Redesigning an Automotive Feature from Gasoline to Electric, A User Experience Case Study

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What:

Abstract:

Join us for a case study of engineering and user experience design from the automotive industry. Tim and Vyas will describe how they designed the human-machine interface (HMI) for Ford’s award-winning Pro Power Onboard feature that provides home- sized levels of power in electrical outlets on Ford trucks and vans.

Who:

Presented by Assistant Teaching Professor Timothy Keirnan and Core Feature Owner at Ford Product Development, Vyas Shenoy

All are welcome to attend!

When:

Friday, January 12 2024

Where:

Petersen Library, Walker Arts & Humanities Center

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Congratulations to Humanities 2024 Graduates!

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Humanities undergraduates posed with department head Scott Maratto at spring commencement on Saturday. Back row: Scott Maratto, Michael Bunker (CCM), Daniel Ryan (STC), Austin McFarlane (STC), Elsie Burton (STC). Front Row: Charlotte Haanela (English), Karissa Sanders (English), Kara Laramore (English), Cameron Gorelick (English), Aspen Stampfler (English), Maddie Nass (STC), Grace Parsekian (STC), Mindy Pierre (STC).

A total of 21 graduate and undergraduate students crossed the stage on Friday and Saturday at Michigan Tech’s annual spring commencement ceremonies.

18 Undergraduates, one masters, and two PhD students were honored over the weekend for having completed, or nearly completed, their degrees across four humanities programs.

Our 2024 graduates will go on to a wide variety of pursuits, from careers in communications, media, and academia; to graduate study in fields like law & policy, and archival studies; to traveling and studying abroad. We are so proud to see our students representing the diversity a humanities degree has to offer!

The department would like to offer our heartfelt congratulations to the following students:

Communication, Culture, and Media: Melissa Dowler, Lyndsay Lagreid, Elijah Poirier, Cole Risko, Ashton Verduin.

English: Cameron Gorelick, Charlotte Haanela, Kara Laramore, Karissa Sanders, Aspen Stampfler.

Scientific and Technical Communication: Michael Bunker, Elsie Burton, Joshua Jongema, Austin McFarlane, Maddie Nass, Grace Parsekian, Mindy Pierre, Daniel Ryan.

Rhetoric, Theory & Culture: Genevieve Delali Antonio (MS), Samantha Quade (PhD), Tori Reeder (PhD).

2024 Commencement Photos

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Brown Bag Talk: Deconstructing Writing Pedagogy with LEGO: Exploring Methods of Engaging STEM Students Further in Writing Pedagogy Spaces with Tucker Nielsen

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What:

Abstract:

Writing centers and writing classrooms have tendencies to focus on a pure linguitic approach to teaching composition. This presentation will explore alternative methods for engaging with students of different disciplines outside of the humanities, including the use of Lego bricks to practice critical thinking, creative writing, and composing rhetoric effectively. Pulling from the concepts of metonymy and deconstruction, using Lego bricks enables students to translate familiar objects to subjects otherwise foreign or barely practiced. We will briefly examine a few exercises instructors or writing coaches can do with their students to see these principles in effect.

Who:

Presented by RTC Masters Student Tucker Nielsen

All are welcome to attend!

When:

Friday, October 6, 2023

Where:

Petersen Library, Walker Arts & Humanities Center

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Brown Bag Talk: Fetishization of Algorithms in Everyday Life with Stefka Hristova and Soonkwan Hong

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What:

Abstract:

The sheer presence of algorithms poses existential questions about how deeply computational mechanisms have come to permeate everyday life. Join the Director and Associate Director of the Institute for Policy, Ethics, and Culture in discussing biases and unintended consequences of algorithms and AI.

Who:

Presented by Associate Professor of Digital Media, and Director of IPEC Stefka Hristova, and Associate Professor of Marketing and Associate Director of IPEC Soonkwan Hong

All are welcome to attend!

When:

Friday, October 6, 2023

Where:

Petersen Library, Walker Arts & Humanities Center

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Brown Bag Talk: Disability Justice and (In)Visbility in Long Covid and ME Activism with Jennifer Nish

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What:

Abstract:

This presentation explores how chronic disease activists with Long Covid and myalgic encephalomyelitis, or ME, have mobilized embodied rhetorics in the context of a transnational crisis: the rapid rise in post-infections disease caused by COVID-19. I use (in)visibility as a conceptual framework for understanding the rhetorical and political problems that people with these post-infectious diseases face as well as the tactics with which activists respond.

Who:

Presented by Associate Professor of Rhetoric and Composition Jennifer Nish

All are welcome to attend!

When:

Friday, November 10, 2023

Where:

Petersen Library, Walker Arts & Humanities Center

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Guest Presentation: Beyond the Tenure Track: Alternative Careers & Scholarship with Angela Gibson and Janine M. Utell

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What:

Join us for a presentation via Zoom with Dr. Angela Gibson, Director of Scholarly Communication at MLA and Dr. Janine Utell, Program Manager of Professional Development at MLA (Modern Language Association) to discuss “Beyond the Tenure Track: Alternative Careers & Scholarship.” The Peterson Library will be open, so you can join there but obviously you can join from anywhere. 

 This is a great opportunity to talk with two people who navigated into fulfilling academic-adjacent careers while maintaining active connections with the academy and a research agenda. 

Who:

Presented by Angela Gibson, Director of Scholarly Communication at MLA and Janine M. Utell, Program Manger of Professional Development at MLA

All are welcome to attend!

When:

Monday, November 13, 2023

Where:

Presented via Zoom.

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Brown Bag Talk: The Self-ish Gene: Retroactive Tropes in Richard Dawkins’s Evolutionary Rhetoric with Oren Abeles

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What:

Abstract:

Building on recent developments in Lacanian rhetorical cricicism, this presentation demonstrates how contemporary evolutionary theory posits genetic determinism without a clear definition of the gene. It makes this case through close readings of Richard Dawkins’ The Selfish Gene, the landmark text of neo-Darwinian genetics. It demonstrates how Dawkins uses metaphors to substitute a single determinate agent in place of the genome’s interactive complexity. Despite Dawkins’ admission that he could not define the gene, his metaphors give his “selfish gene” a sense of unity and coherence that allows him to describe all other levels of life (organisms, species, ecosystems) as reducible to it.

Who:

Presented by Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Composition Oren Abeles.

All are welcome to attend!

When:

Wednesday, October 13, 2023.

Where:

Petersen Library, Walker Arts & Humanities Center.

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Academic Job Market Roundtable Discussion, Humanities Brown Bag Series

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Richard Canevez, Jennifer Nish, Jason Archer, James Hammond, and Holly Hassell participated in a panel discussion on the academic job market.

What:

A panel discussion featuring new tenure-track faculty hired in 2022/2023 to discuss the academic job market within the humanities, and their individual experiences with the academic job search that led them to Michigan Tech. Featuring Jason Archer, Richard Canevez, James Hammond, Holly Hassell, and Jennifer Nish.

Who:

Recent tenure-track faculty Jason Archer, Richard Canevez, James Hammond, Holly Hassell, and Jennifer Nish.

All are welcome to attend!

When:

Friday, September 22, 2023

Where:

Petersen Library, Walker Arts & Humanities Center

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CinOptic Media Enterprise Competes at Design Expo

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Cole Risko (CCM ’24) and Charlotte Haanela (English ’24) in front of the multimedia display of their work with the Cinoptic Media Enterprise Team

The CinOptic communication and media enterprise team presented their work on Tuesday at Michigan Tech’s 24th annual Design Expo. The team, which develops film and multimedia projects for a range of clients, developed a video discussing their work on two recent projects, one for the National Park Service, and the Enterprise Podcast.

The video, presented in a podcast-like format, featured host Lyndsay Lagreid (CCM ’24) interviewing team leads Cole Risko (CCM ’24) and Vanessa Dulong (Sound Design ’25) about their respective projects.

The Isle Royal National Park project, commissioned by the National Park Service, includes a flagship promotional video, as well as orientation materials all written, filmed, and edited by CinOptic team members. The footage for these videos was taken by team members on a trip to Isle Royal in 2021.

The Enterprise Podcast develops episodes centered around interviewing and presenting the work of other Michigan Tech enterprise teams, and is available to listen to on Spotify.

In addition to presenting their work, the team won an award for their image submission, which featured the process of filming their video.

See below to watch the video in full, and don’t forget to checkout the Enterprise Podcast on Spotify! If you’d like to read more about the CinOptic enterprise team and the work that they’ve done, check out their web site!

Play 106: CinOptic Enterprise video
Preview image for 106: CinOptic Enterprise video

106: CinOptic Enterprise

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