Political Science
graduate student Matt Corran was one of three graduate students recently
honored by IUP’s Center for the Digital Humanities and Culture (DHC). Corran was selected by the DHC to be a 2014
HASTAC Scholar.
As a HASTAC scholar,
Corran will develop a graduate research project in concert with fellow scholars
from across the U.S. and the world. In addition to networking and mentoring, the
HASTAC scholars will have the opportunity to participate in IUP DHC initiatives
and receive a monetary award to assist in their research. The awards are
funded by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Department of
English.
HASTAC, or
Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Alliance and
Collaboratory, was created to promote “research that extends across traditional
disciplines, across the boundaries of academe and community, across the ‘two
cultures’ of humanism and technology, across the divide of thinking versus
making, and across social strata and national borders,” according to the
DHC’s website.
Corran, a
graduate student in the Master’s in Public Affairs program, has been building
computers since he was a kid. He’s
particularly interested in the open-source movement to empower the underserved,
and in using social media to give agency to people in Mexico in combating crime.
His research includes connected learning, community, and open-access. He is
participating in the IUP DHC initiative to create an “open source
toolkit.” Corran was nominated by Political Science Professor Sarah
Wheeler.
The DHC Mission
includes “facilitat[ion of] conversation, collaboration, and resource
sharing amongst specialists within the disciplines ... [and making] connections
between new technologies and traditional knowledge areas, as the academy
navigates the ‘print-to-digital’ paradigm shift.”