IRIS Center for Digital Humanities and Social Sciences

@siueiris.bsky.social

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The IRIS Center at SIUE is a place for students, faculty, staff, and community members to collaborate on research, teaching, and community engagement in the digital humanities. Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

Meg Smith (right) stands next to Mark Ruff, chair of the history department at Saint Louis University. Meg holds a glass award.
IRIS’s welcome wall, featuring a quilted rainbow banner, a quilted public library sign, an appliqur namer that reads i-r-i-s, and two letterpress prints. One print reads “HTML is the letterpress of the digital world,” and the other features an image of a Luddite throwing something (presumably a clog), with the text “Maybe it’s just vaporware. luddites pointing out the (tech) emperor has no clothes since (well before) 1811. Luddites didn’t “fear technology.” They broke the machines that allowed the rich to enshittify livelihoods. Who’s your tech for? No tech’s adoption is inevitable (lol blockchain). Glitch their cistems.”
A group of seven people stand outside in front of a garden. From left to right: Dr. Jacquie Shea, Colin Strasser, Mauri Johnson, Rayna Sims, Dr. Meg Smith, Kezia Miller, and Dan Schreiber
Kristine Hildebrandt poses wearing a VERY large medal awarded for her Distinguished Research Professor rank. She is smiling in front of a lovely background of green trees.
IRIS Center Morning Bytes Introducing Manifold Manifold is a web platform for publishing rich, interactive texts, ideal for OERs, open access research, and student projects. It facilitates engaged reading through social annotation and reading communities. Come learn about this new IRIS-supported resource! Friday, March 20, 10:00 AM CFDI (Lovejoy, 2nd floor)
A flyer for a workshop series in the IRIS Center at SIUE: Interactive Storytelling with the Scrolly Story Generator Meg Smith and Dan Schreiber (IRIS Center) Jan. 23, 10:00-11:00, Center for Faculty Development and Innovation (Lovejoy Library, 3rd floor) Teaching with Leaflet Storymaps Laura Fowler (History) Feb. 13, 10:00-11:00, Center for Faculty Development and Innovation Digital Publishing with Manifold Meg Smith and Dan Schreiber (IRIS Center) Mar. 20, 10:00-11:00, Center for Faculty Development and Innovation “Beautiful Dreams of the Past”: Building a Digital Edition Kezia Miller (English) Apr. 17, 10:00-11:00, Center for Faculty Development and Innovation
IRIS web developer Dan Schreiber and CODES community coordinator Andrea Barajas prep plush guinea pigs as a graduation gift for our CODES seniors. Dan is combing the guinea pigs to refluff them from their vacuum-sealed packaging, and Andrea is gluing CODES ribbons around their necks like graduation stoles.
IRIS Center Morning Bytes Jill Anderson, Ph.D. Department of English Friday, Nov. 14 10:00-11:00 AM IRIS Center (Peck 2226) Grappling with Contexts for an Archive of 19th-Century Letters In this Morning Bytes, Dr. Jill Anderson (English) will present her Spring 2025 sabbatical project, a series of contributions to the Catharine Maria Sedgwick Online Letters project contained within the Primary Source Cooperative at the Massachusetts Historical Society. The presentation will include a brief introduction to this influential early American writer and a discussion of Anderson's process in producing a biographical chronology connecting Sedgwick's early letters with 19th-century historical and personal contexts.
Poster for a lecture co-sponsored by African American Literary Studies, the IRIS Center, and the Black Lit Network Dr. Howard Rambsy "The Literary Navigator: Curation and Discovery on the Black Literature Network" Wednesday, October 29, 11:00 AM Redmond Center classroom, Lovejoy Library 2nd floor
A banner for an SIUE Foundation campaign targeting faculty and staff with the slogan “It’s a Cougar Thing, We Give Back”
A flyer for an IRIS donation drive. Text: THANKS, IT HAS POCKETS IRIS CENTER DONATION DRIVE: ADD POCKETS TO YOUR REGALIA Learn to DIY Inseam Pockets IRIS Center (Peck 2226) August 11, 1:30-3:00 Get Pockets Added for You Drop off: IRIS, Aug 6-12 Pickup: IRIS, Aug 13-15 SUGGESTED DONATION: $25 SIGN UP AT HTTPS:/ /IRIS.SIUE.EDU/POCKETS
A flyer for a workshop, “Crafting a Digital Humanities Assignment,” which will take place in the IRIS Center at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville on July 30 from 11:00-12:00. The flyer features cartoonish images of a laptop, megaphone, magnifying glass, and other objects.
The SIU System Office of Community Engagement Putting Ourselves on the Map: Data, Bias, and the Stories We Tell Learn how everyday tools like maps and spreadsheets shape public memory-and take part in telling your own story The Wedge 620 E Broadway, Alton, IL Wednesday, July 16, 2025 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM Free and Open to the Public The July Community Collaboration Lab, co-hosted with the SIUE IRIS Center, will explore how data shapes what we see, who gets represented, and how communities like the Metro East are too often left out of digital spaces. Dr. Meg Smith, Interim Director of the IRIS Center, will lead participants through real-world examples of data bias and introduce digital storytelling as a powerful tool for reclaiming narrative control. As part of the session, attendees will contribute their own stories and insights to a collaborative community map that highlights the Metro East as a vibrant cultural space. The map will remain open for future Lab participants to build on, creating an evolving record of local knowledge, identity, and place. For more Information, contact Dr. Connie Frey-Spurlock at connie.freyspurlock@slu.edu https://siusystem.edu/community-engagement/
DIGITAL CURATION & STORYTELLING TECHNOLOGY AND LITERATURE HUM430/ENG482 Tues/Thurs 11:00-12:15 Will Al save the world? Will it doom it? What is technology without the humanities? Is the internet really forever? In this class, we'll use literature about science and technology to engage critically with our own technologies. As we experiment with digital theory, electronic environments, and texts (both analog and born-digital, we'll explore our relationships to technology, to one another, and to our pasts, presents, and futures. Along the way, we'll work with a variety of tools for digital humanities scholarship and storytelling. TOPICS INCLUDE... • Al fictions • Games as texts • Electronic literature • Digital storytelling • Data storytelling • Digital archives and exhibits
Flyer for an AI Fictions Reading Group, summer 2025, hosted by the IRIS Center How do we define our relationship to technology and each other? What do we owe to one another in the evolving technological landscape? In this “reading” group, we’ll explore AI ethics through AI fictions: books, short stories, and television that explore the possibilities and limits of AI. More details: https://iris.siue.edu/ai-fictions Schedule: June 4, 2:00-3:30: Mrs. Davis (tv show) June 19, 2:00-3:30: Kazuo Ishiguro, Klara and the Sun (novel) July 9, 2:00-3:30: Mary Doria Russell, The Sparrow (novel) July 23, 2:00-3:30: Annalee Newitz, "When Robot and Crow Saved East St. Louis" and Cat Rambo, "Red in Tooth and Cog" (short stories + podcast) Questions? Contact Dr. Meg Smith at margars@siue.edu
A flyer for a talk with a photo of a recording microphone and a graphic of sound waves. The text reads: Left Unsaid: Historical Context for a Southern Illinois News and Info Radio Show Mark Poepsel, PhD Mass Communications IRIS Center Morning Bytes Friday, April 18, 10:00 AM Peck Hall 2226
Nine people stand in a row on a second floor balcony overlooking a cathedral-style room with lots of wrought iron and stained glass. The people include seven students and two faculty members.
A flyer advertising a workshop: Advocate for the Humanities Join us in the IRIS Center for a webinar (hosted by the Association for Computers and the Humanities) on advocating for the National Endowment for the Humanities and Institute of Museum and Library Services to your elected officials. Wednesday, April 9, 10:00-11:00 AM IRIS Center, Peck Hall 2226 Can’t join us in person? You can still register for the webinar! Visit https://members.ach.org/civicrm/event/info/?id=34 Contact Dr. Meg Smith with questions at margars@siue.edu.
A flyer for the IRIS Center for Digital Humanities and Social Sciences at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Digital Humanities & Social Sciences The field of digital humanities and social sciences comprises a wide variety of methods that use technology to further our understanding of fields like history, literature, linguistics, geography, and more. It also turns a critical, humanistic eye on technology itself, considering the social and ethical implications of our tools, platforms, and data practices. DH practitioners put digital tools to work in the classroom, in their research, and in the community through methods like data analysis, data visualization and mapping, digital archives, and digital storytelling. Services and Resources Teaching - Classroom visits - Teaching consultations - Digital humanities office hours Research - Grant-writing support - Technical consultations - Faculty fellowships - Skill workshops Equipment - Computers and scanners - Digital platforms - Software for GIS, AV editing, and more IRIS Faculty Fellowships The IRIS Center offers annual fellowships to support tenure-track and tenured faculty (particularly junior faculty) who wish to pursue digital humanities research or creative work. Supported by a course release, access to IRIS resources, and guidance from IRIS faculty, each fellow will develop a digital humanities project over the course of a year. Watch for a call for applications in February 2025. Contact Us Email: iriscenter@siue.edu Website: https://iris.siue.edu IRIS Office Hours (SP25): Wednesdays, 12:00-1:00, Peck 2226
A graphic that reads: This Giving Tuesday, please support CODES. CODES equips students to tackle wicked problems in their communities. CODE Scholars are supported by a full scholarship, peer mentorship, and a dedicated team of faculty and staff. To give, visit https://connect.siue.edu/g/donate and search for Fund 4251
A Day in a DH Research Center Meg Smith, IRIS Center I always say that DH suits my magpie brain, because I hop from one task to the next, grabbing all the shiny little things I encounter. Here are a few of today’s tasks: Designing social media content Researching high impact practices for a new program Revising my spring Intro to DH syllabus Troubleshooting WordPress issues for students Soliciting DH project reviewers (could that be you??) Working on a couple of grant narratives Maintenance of digital platforms
DH in the Classroom Kristine Hildebrandt, English What DH means to me: opportunities to let students take the creative lead on interpreting and analyzing vast and varied cultural, linguistic, historical and geographic digital collections. Below the text is a picture of four students presenting. On the screen behind them is a powerpoint that reads "Legacies of the Missouri Botanical Garden in relation to injustice."
FOUR NOTATIONS ON AFROFUTURISM & DH Howard Rambsy, English Literature 1. Afrofuturism and Digital Humanities constitute a kind of double consciousness for me, not necessarily two warring ideals, but still a duality of unreconciled strivings. 2. Afrofuturism (AF) primed my entry into Digital Humanities (DH), which in turn expanded my production capabilities, which then enhanced my AF approaches to analyzing and creating DH projects.
AI and data wrangling for radio history Mark Poepsel, Mass Communications Today, I am using AI enhance my humanist capabilities. I'm working with a radio archive and using language recognition tools to extract transcripts from hundreds of episodes of a radio news and commentary program archived by SIU-Carbondale and the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois. This is for my IRIS Center Faculty Fellowship at SIUE, which is providing a course release next semester so that I can truly dig deeply into this research!
A flyer for a workshop, “Teaching Data Literacies with Maps,” led by Dr. Meg Smith. It will take place at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in Peck Hall 2226 on October 11 from 10:00-11:00 AM. Session description: This hands-on workshop will explore how digital maps can help to teach key data literacies. We’ll walk through the practical steps of how to create a spatial data set and visualize it on a map. We’ll also talk about how those tasks can prompt students to consider how data sets are constructed and shaped by the choices and priorities of the researcher. If possible, bring a laptop!
An image of a smiling Dr. Jessica DeSpain standing in front of a screen that shows her Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion award, and holding a glass award in her hands.
A flyer for HUM230, Introduction to Digital Humanities and Social Sciences. The text reads: Will AI save the world? Will it doom it? Where does all our data go? Who gets to write history? Who gets to read it? Is the internet really forever? What is digital humanities, anyway? Learn how technology transforms fields like history, literature, geography, and sociology. Look critically at technology and evaluate how it shapes our lives for better and for worse. Learn skills like data visualization, digital storytelling, digital archives and exhibits, and digital editing. The course fulfills humanities breadth, lab experience, interdisciplinary studies, and a digital humanities minor requirement. It meets Monday/Wednesday from 1:30 to 2:45 and is taught by Dr. Margaret Smith.
Images of the 2024 IARSLCE Award winners. Jessica DeSpain is in the bottom right corner.
A flyer for the History Department at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s research-in-progress speaker series. The event today features Meg Smith, research assistant professor of digital humanities, with a talk called “Litigating Irishness: Digital Approaches to Early Modern Legal History.” The talk is today, March 29, from 12:00 to 1:00 in Peck Hall 3117.
A pink, white, and gold graphic with the text 52:15
Several students sit around a conference table working on their laptops. On the projector screen behind them is a Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team project.
Flyer for a roundtable titled “Critical and Creative Approaches to AI.” The talk description reads: “Teaching strategies and resources for leveraging AI’s potential, interrogating its biases, and weighing its costs.” Panelists include Jessica DeSpain (IRIS and English), Steve Klein (Computer Science), David Knowlton (Instructional Technology), Donavan Ramon (English), and Margaret Smith (IRIS). The event will be on March 22 from 12:00 to 1:00 in Lovejoy Library’s 3rd floor conference room.
A flyer for a roundtable on Creative and Critical Approaches to AI, which will take place on March 22 from 12:00 to 1:00 in the 3rd floor conference room of Lovejoy Library at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
A flyer advertising a roundtable on Digital Storytelling and Pedagogy, featuring Carrie Mott (University of Louisville), Jessica DeSpain (Southern Illinois University Edwardsville), and Andrew Hurley and Lauren Obermark (both of University of Missouri St. Louis). The roundtable is on Friday, Feb. 23, at 1:00 pm in UMSL’s Lucas Hall, room 302.
A pink post-it that reads: “I was wild to think that I am transcribing words that were written by people living so long ago”
A white frosted cake decorated with balloons, sprinkles, and text reading Happy Birthday Frederick Douglass
A flyer for the IRIS Center’s Douglass Day celebration. The event is co-sponsored by the IRIS Center, the African American Literary Studies program at SIUE, and the Community-Oriented Digital Engagement Scholars program. It will take place on February 14 from 10:30 to 1:30 in the IRIS Center, which is Peck Hall 2226. The national event is presented by the Library of Congress and the Center for Black Digital Research.
Four CODE Scholars present on “Legacies of the Missouri Botanical Garden in relation to injustice.”
A graphic with the IRIS Center’s scheduled office hours on Tuesdays from 1:00-3:00 or by appointment, along with a bitly link to zoom: https://bit.ly/meg-smith
A calendar post with three workshop titles. On October 27, Jessica DeSpain, Nicole Klein, and Meg Smith will lead “Setting Expectations for AI Usage with Your Students.” On December 1, Jessica Hutchins will lead “Texaco Wiki: Teaching with Wordpress.” On December 6, the IRIS Center will host its annual Digital Humanities Student Showcase.