Training & peer support for DH and digital liberal arts projects: What’s working? What’s needed next?

This session is aimed in particular at colleagues whose course-integrated digital humanities initiatives have been supported by one of the following:

1. AMICAL’s DH cohort programs (2018 and 2019)
2. Small Grants
3. Other training or support (from AMICAL or elsewhere)

The session is also open to anyone interested in discussing how AMICAL can best help members to lead successful DH or digital liberal arts (DLA) initiatives at our institutions.

We’ll create discussion groups according to the above categories, and we’ll be looking in particular at members’ recent initiatives in order to draw out recommendations for future AMICAL programs and peer cooperation supporting DH/DLA.

The session will be adapted according to participants’ sign-up form responses but may include one of the following:

What’s working – and what’s next

Groups will discuss in three stages:

1. What happened during your activity, focusing on training/learning/peer support?
2. So what? – Why were those things important for building your skills or supporting your project?
3. Now what? – How can AMICAL and your AMICAL peers help your initiative going forward?

Fishbowl – sharing out experience/expertise

A subgroup of participants, who have had substantial experience with DH/DLA initiatives, will be invited into the “fishbowl”, an inner active discussion circle surrounded by the other groups mentioned above. The fishbowl group will describe their experience with their initiative, in terms of training/learning/peer support that was facilitated by AMICAL or other sources: What was useful/inspiring/etc.? What was unhelpful/challenging/etc.? The outer groups then discuss and formulate questions to bring to the fishbowl group. The discussion wraps up with “Now What?” (suggestions for future programs, peer support/collaboration, etc.).