American University of Beirut is opening the region's very first Digital Humanities Institute - Beirut (DHI-B), aiming to provide an environment where academic communities from the region can become active creators of new technology rather than just passive consumers. At this weeklong event, set to open March 2, participants are sure to walk away with some new skills.
Organized by Professor David Wrisley, who has been teaching digital humanities topics for the past several years, and MA candidate Randa El Khatib, of the same department, DHI-B will be teaching English students how to write code to analyze literature or working on incorporating gaming into the classroom pedagogy.
The institute is comprised of a series of workshops, keynote lectures by specialists in the field, a panel on the digital remediation of Lebanese heritage and what the organizers have called “lightning” talks. A set of disciplines, which have been studied in Europe and America, will be introduced to the Arab world for the first time. DHI-B will also introduce a number of courses that are taking on topics having to do with Arabic and local culture.
The eight workshops will run from March 2 to 6 for four hours a day, and the organizers are expecting about 90 participants. The lunchtime hour will have a series of activities open to the general public, with keynote lectures by specialists in the early evening. This amazing weeklong event will be live tweeted by yours truly, Wrisley and Khatib .
On March 7, the Arab world’s first ThatCamp will take place. Modeled around a format for academic meetings borrowed from the sciences known as the “unconference,” ThatCamp will cover topics voted on by members of the community the very same morning the event begins. We'll let you know what hot topics they're going to be talking about.