Siemens to deliver Distinguished Professors Lecture

Do you enjoy paging through hardcovers? Are books dead? What form of reading are readers most comfortable with? Dr. Ray Siemens, a specialist in Early Modern texts and a distinguished professor in UVic's Department of English, is helping turn the page on reading in the modern era. Siemens is UVic's 12th Distinguished Professor, a Canada Research Chair in Humanities Computing, and leads the Electronic Textual Cultures Laboratory (ETCL) at UVic. He is giving a Distinguished Professors Lecture on March 7 at 7 p.m.

The lecture is part of UVic's inaugural IdeaFest, which runs from March 5 to 10 at UVic to celebrate the creativity and inventiveness in every corner of our campus. There are over 30 events in the schedule. Siemens will present his talk, "Humanities 2.0? Considering New Ways of Engagement with Those Outside the Ivory Tower," at 7 p.m. in room A102 of UVic's Social Sciences and Math building, and will use examples ranging from WikiMedia to electronic books and remixed music. More about IdeaFest

Siemens points out that literature made available online continues to attract keen interest. For instance, thousands of people a day visit UVic's online Shakespeare project (an exceptional meeting point online for Shakespearean study, launched in the 1990s by UVic's Dr. Michael Best, a former chair of the English department). Siemens is also affiliated with UVic's computer science department.

The ETCL itself is a SSHRC-funded digital humanities research group that seeks to investigate the many questions about the role computers can play in the humanities. The Devonshire Manuscript - Social Edition is a current ETCL project and the lab is also partnered with UVic's Modernist Versions Project.

Siemens was named a UVic Distinguished Professor in 2011. It is the highest academic honour the university can bestow on a faculty member. The title is awarded to individuals who have achieved great distinction in teaching and research, whose scholarly work is of exceptionally high international calibre and whose teaching and student supervision is outstanding as judged by peers and students.

To read more about Siemens and digital humanities, click on the earlier Ring article (July 2011) or UVic's EDGE column (July 2007).

More info about UVic's Distinguished Professor program