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SILS Students Named HASTAC Scholars
Sept. 28, 2009 - SILS students, Laura Christopherson, Adam Rogers, Matthew Wood and Mike Nutt have been named 2009-2010 HASTAC Scholars.
The Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory (HASTAC, pronounced “haystack”) was founded by researchers committed to inter-disciplinary information sharing. HASTAC is a meta-consortium of thinkers and doers that uses technology as a means of disseminating and appropriating new forms of knowledge on the Web and elsewhere.
Laura Christopherson is a doctoral student in the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research is in the areas of computational linguistics and knowledge representation. Christopherson is most interested in the way people communicate via electronic media such as chat, instant messaging, text messaging, forums and online games. Prior to becoming a doctoral student, she received her master’s degree in Information Science from SILS—and also worked in the private sector for more than ten years as a Web developer. Christopherson currently teaches INLS 382: Information Systems Analysis and Design, one of her favorite subjects.
An MSLS student, Adam Rogers’ primary research focus is library innovation and the future of libraries. In particular, Rogers is interested in library use of emerging technologies—especially ways in which new media can be used to enrich local communities through social activity. One of his recent projects is the YouTube Tournament, which brings people together to competitively share, watch, and judge their favorite online videos. Active in the local chapters of ASIS&T and the Progressive Librarians Guild, Rogers also works on campus in the Southern Folklife Collection, as well as in the UNC School of Journalism’s Park Library. He is currently completing a field experience with Davis Reference.
An MSIS student, Mike Nutt received his B.A. in communications studies from UNC at Chapel Hill in 2004, and in 2005 was hired as the Multimedia Technician for the Communication Studies' undergraduate Media Production program. While working for the Communication Studies Department, Nutt also took part-time classes to complete the School of Social Work’s Nonprofit Leadership Certificate Program. He grew up in Jackson, Mississippi, but has lived in Carrboro since 2000. His current research interests include digital storytelling for community economic development and exploring the idea of “wikumentary,” which is the intersection of wikis and documentary. Nutt invites anyone interested in wikumentaries to join the Web site he runs, wikumentary.net.
Matthew Z. Wood is a second year student in the Library Science program at UNC at Chapel Hill. He has a Masters degree in English literature from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. His thesis, “The Mask of Composite Art,” dealt with the use of combined words and images as a court jester style license for lowering audience resistance to difficult social and political arguments. He worked in Access and Delivery Services and Acquisitions from 2001 to 2007 at North Carolina State University’s D.H. Hill Library. Wood is the co-creator of such Web comics as “The Dada Detective,” “Chocolypse Now!” and the upcoming “Unreal City Tales.” He was a Susan Grey Akers Fellow at UNC for 2008-2009, and a Margaret Kalp Fellow for 2009-2010. His academic interests include composite art, games for learning and pop culture studies.
During the upcoming year, Christopherson, Rogers, Wood and Nutt will work closely with other students and professors already in the HASTAC program to further the online consortium’s primary goal: to promote expansive models for thinking, teaching, and research through blogging, micro-blogging, grant-writing, seminars and forums.
Congratulations to each of them for this impressive honor.