IATH NEWS
IATH Fellow Deborah Parker has been awarded the NEH Daniels Family Distinguished Teaching Professorship, 2008-2011
April 2008
The
IATH Fellow Deborah Parker has been awarded the NEH Daniels Family Distinguished Teaching Professorship, 2008-2011. This is a three-year endowed chair, given to senior humanities faculty at the University of Virginia. It recognizes and rewards excellence in teaching and encourages development of projects that share unique faculty knowledge and expertise.
During the term of the fellowship, Prof. Parker will undertake a number activities related to her IATH project, the World of Dante. She will assess the effectiveness of the teaching materials generated by the November 2007 World of Dante Workshop in conjunction with a group teachers working in different disciplines at UVA and other institutions; identify ways in which visual material enhances reading comprehension; create new materials to clarify the astronomical allusions in the Comedy; and at the end of the grant period she will organize a symposium for the group of teachers who have used the site, each of whom will give presentations on their use of The World of Dante.
The program is funded by a National Endowment for the Humanities Special Challenge Grant and is run by the University of Virginia Teaching Resource Center. Visit their site for more information on the NEH Distinguished Teaching Professorship at the University of Virginia.
American Society of Architectural Illustrators Award of Excellence Goes to Chad Keller
February 5, 2008
The
American Society of Architectural Illustrators (www.asai.org)
announced that IATH 3D Modeler Chad Keller has won the Society's Award
of Excellence for his work in creating a 3D computer model illustrating
the late eighteenth-century phase of the Douglass Theater in Williamsburg,
Virginia. The theater was torn down by 1780 and was reconstructed digitally
by a team of archaeologists, architectural historians and 3D modelers
from the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (www.history.org)
and IATH. Chad was the project coordinator for IATH and was responsible
for converting the ideas of the team into a 3D digital model, which was
made using 3D Studio Max software. Chad's entry in this international
competition was selected from over 500 works submitted by illustrators
from around the world. [Click the image left: to view of the interior
of Chad Keller's award-winning 3D model of the eighteenth-century Douglass
Theater in Williamsburg, Virginia.] Read More
IATH Associate Director Invited to Join National Archive and Records Administration Advisory Committee
January 2008; [See UVa Today article April 2008]
Allen Weinstein, Archivist of the United States, has invited Daniel Pitti, Associate Director for the University of Virginia’s Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities (IATH), to serve on the National Archives and Records Administration’s (NARA) Advisory Committee on the Electronic Records Archives (ACERA). The membership of the committee is drawn from a mix of private companies, government groups, and universities
ACERA is charged with advising the Archivist of the United States on technical, mission, and service issues related to the Electronic Records Archive (ERA) system. This includes, but is not limited to, advising and making recommendations on issues related to the development, implementation, and use of the ERA system. “The digital age presents daunting challenges to the access and preservation of the records of the U.S. Government,” Pitti commented. “The purpose of a national archive in democratic societies is to preserve for use the records that are legally and historically vital to transparent and accountable governance. The advent of digital communication and electronic records has created technical, social, legal, and ethical challenges to fulfilling this mandated mission.”
The electronic records challenge is formidable, Weinstein says, but as an agency, NARA is committed to addressing this challenge head-on. “NARA's vision is to create a system that will authentically preserve and provide access to any kind of electronic record, free from dependency on any specific hardware or software, enabling NARA to carry out its mission into the future.”
IATH was established in 1992 to revolutionize the role of technology in humanities research and humanities education. Its mission is to explore ways that information technologies and digital media can be integrated into humanities scholarship. IATH has achieved an international reputation as a leader in the field of humanities computing, and its fellows have won several prestigious awards, including the first Lincoln Award for Electronic Media; the Mellon Foundation Distinguished Achievement Award; and the Richard W. Lyman Award from the National Humanities Center. For more on IATH, visit its web site at http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/.
2008 IATH Fellowship Opportunity Request For Proposals
December 2007
The mission of the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities (IATH) is to explore and expand the potential of information technology as a tool for humanities research. To that end, we offer a Fellowship Program to UVA faculty to support two distinct areas of research: (1) the development of tools, scholarly resources, or scholarly projects utilizing digital technology for analysis, investigation, modeling or other research activities; and (2) the study of the nature, ethics, history, or future of digital technology as applied to some aspect of the humanities. Download more about the Fellowship Program here: [ Word Doc | PDF ] Applications for fellowships in the 2008-2009 academic year are due by March 1, 2008.
Dante Project Brings on the Music
October 2007
"The
World of Dante," with
funding from The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation,
will add music to Italian professor Deborah W. Parker's Dante
research project. A selected few individuals from the musical group Zephyrus,
under the direction of Paul M. Walker, associate professor of music,
recorded approximately 20 musical pieces for the project. The recordings
for the Dante project are of chants or monophonic sacred music. Chant
encompasses all types of music, including psalms and hymns, and are distinguished
not by genre, but by musical texture, since they consist of only one
line of music. "The recordings by Zephyrus will help readers understand
the very different dynamics that prevail in the realm of the saved," said
Parker. Since most people pay little attention to the musical references
in Dante, the recordings "will allow readers to appreciate the care and
precision with which Dante makes musical references," she added.
[Read
Full Article] Article originally appears in UVa
Today.
IATH Announces New Fellows for 2007-2009
June 22, 2007
IATH has announced a new Resident Fellow and three new Associate Fellows
for the 2007-2009 period. Kurtis Schaeffer, Associate Professor of Tibetan
Buddhist Studies in the Department of Religious Studies, is the new Resident
Fellow. His project, Mapping the Dalai Lamas, integrates digital texts
of classical Tibetan-language biograpies of the lives of the Dalai Lamas
with digital animated maps, timelines, and images. The project will illustrate
both the Dalai Lamas and the manner in which their biographers helped
invent the tradition of the Dalai Lamas over the centuries. His tenure
will include funding and departmental support, partial support for a
graduate research assistant, use of computer equipment and software,
and intensive technical support from the IATH staff. Read More
Rome Reborn: IATH Team Rebuilds Ancient Rome Digitally
June 11, 2007
Bernard
Frischer, director of the "Rome
Reborn" project
and director of the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities
at the University of Virginia, stated, "'Rome Reborn 1.0' is the continuation
of five centuries of research by scholars, architects and artists since
the Renaissance who have attempted to restore the ruins of the ancient
city with words, maps and images. "Rome
Reborn 1.0" is a true 3D model that runs in real time. Users can navigate
through the model with complete freedom, moving up, down, left and right
at will. They can enter important public buildings such as the Roman Senate
House, the Colosseum, or the Temple of Venus and Rome, the ancient city’s
largest place of worship. Read More or
go to UVa
Today | Visit "Rome
Reborn"
Image caption: Long shot of the new digital model of Rome in which many
of the city's 7,000 buildings can be seen. In the foreground is the spur
of the Claudian aqueduct bringing water to the imperial palace on the
Palatine Hill. Just behind the aqueduct, in the middle, is the Temple
of the Divine Claudius on the Caelian Hill. In the middle ground, center,
is the Flavian Amphitheater (also known as the Colosseum). To the right is
the Ludus Magnus, a training facility for the gladiators who fought in the
nearby amphitheater, to which it was linked by a (still extant) tunnel. To
the left is the Temple of Venus and Rome, the largest temple of the state
cult in the city. Next to it is seen the Basilica of Maxentius, the last
civic building constructed in the ancient city. Behind the Flavian Amphitheater
is the Bath of Trajan on the Oppian Hill.
Copyright of The Regents of the University of California 2007.
Click image to see full view.
IATH Awarded NEH Challenge Grant
May 25, 2007
IATH Director Bernard Frischer is pleased to announce that the Institute's application to the National Endowment for the Humanities for a challenge grant has been approved. The grant, which totals $3.0 million, will enable IATH to create an endowment fund in support of its cyberinfrastructure. The term "cyberinfrastructure" refers to research environments in which high-performance computing tools are made available to researchers in a shared network environment. The term is recent, but the need for institutional-level commitment to providing and supporting cyberinfrastructure for humanities computing scholars has become apparent within the last few years. Frischer said, "We are delighted and honored to have been chosen by the NEH for this challenge grant. The grant comes at an opportune time when IATH is in the early stages of its $15 million capital campaign. Being selected by the NEH in a rigorous, peer-reviewed process puts the 'Good Housekeeping seal of approval' on our central campaign goal of building IATH's human and material resources through new endowment funds."
U.Va. Archaeologist Stephen Plog Elected to National Academy of Sciences
May 4, 2007
IATH Fellow, Stephen Plog, Commonwealth Professor in the University of
Virginia’s department of anthropology, has been elected to the National
Academy of Sciences. Election to the academy is among the highest distinctions
for a scientist, and is based on outstanding and ongoing achievements
in original research. Read
UVa News Release | [ local version]
Reseller Advocate Magazine features Professor Bernard Frischer
SFF Rises Again: Small Form Factor Just May Save the Desktop
By William Van Winkle (Cover Story )
Read Full Article (local) | [See original article]
Prof. Frischer interviewed for German Public Radio
Google
Earth instead of Trowel and Brush: Archaeologists Discover the
Appeal of
Computer Tools
IATH Director, Professor Bernard Frischer was interviewed for Deutschlandfunk
Radio. Listen
to the interview. (Original broadcast in German, English
translation available [pdf] )
Apr.5, 2007
IATH's work on Williamsburg Playhouse presented at Theater Conference and Recognized in New York Times
March 11, 2007
Attendees of the The Williamsburg Playhouse of 1760 and
the World of 18th-Century Theater Confernce were shown a "virtual reconstruction" of
the 1760 theater. The computer-based architectual reconstruction of the
theater is a collaborative effort teaming IATH and the Colonial Williamsburg
Foundation.
"We designed everything on computer," Mr. Graham [Colonial Williamsburg
Foundation] said, "down to the nails." Plans for an actual full-scale reconstruction
remain on the table. Want more info? Read
the full article.
IATH to Partner with ACLS History E-Book Project
[Spring 2007]
ACLS Humanities E-Book and
The Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities of the University
of Virginia are happy to announce their new partnership aimed at producing,
hosting, and distributing new born-digital scholarship in the humanities.The
first fruits of their alliance, The Horace Villa Project and Beyond
Illustration. The
partnership relies on the strenghts of each organization. IATH’s ground-breaking
collaborations joins with HEB’s modular workflows, sustainability, and widespread
recognition. Bernard Frischer, IATH Director says “this is more than
a natural alliance between a digital production unit and a digital distributor.
IATH’s
relationship with HEB is a crucial step forward in making innovative digital
scholarship sustainable and as normal a feature of the academic landscape as
print publication has long been.”
New title from ACLS Humanities E-Book
[Spring 2007]
THE SCULPTED WORD: EPICUREANISM AND PHILOSOPHICAL RECRUITMENT IN ANCIENT
GREECE
Bernard
Frischer University of California Press, 1982.
Print. ACLS
Humanities E-Book, 2006. E-Book.
This XML edition uses new archaeological and visual evidence that substantially vindicates Frischer’s original thesis
that the Epicureans used the visual arts as markers and visible symbols
of their philosophical approach. High-resolution image viewing and new
3D virtual reconstructions advance the possibilities for digital scholarship.