Sunday, June 21, 2015

The New Digital Humanities w/ Derek Newman-Stille


"Realist fiction is often seen as 
the only ‘truly’ Canadian fiction, 
but even realist fiction speculates, 
postulates and creates a fantastic idea"

Speculating Canada

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In honor of ThingsTransform.com reaching 100,000 readers
I am hosting a digital humanities forum
showcasing the work of other fantastic young DH scholars
who inform and inspire me with their innovative projects.

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Accessibility and representation are important to me. As a disabled person who identifies as queer, I think it is important to be visible and to insert myself into spaces that are largely claimed by hegemonically empowered groups. My website, Speculating Canada (speculatingcanada.ca), became a place for inserting a voice into the public and encouraging critical questions from readers. Nominally set as a review site, Speculating Canada produces reviews which are miniature critical examinations of works of fiction, encouraging readers to examine popular fiction with a critical eye. This is coupled with author interviews that challenge the typical author interview (which tend to focus on "how did you get published?", "what inspires you?", "when did you write your first book?", and "which writers inspire you?" ), but rather examines the author's ability to critically analyze their society and look at things considered 'normal' and 'taken-for-granted' from an askance angle that allows them to reveal what is being left out of hegemonically defined 'reality'. I also like to write occasional editorial pieces that raise larger questions about the power of speculative literature, and highlight ideas that I hope readers will interrogate.

Speculating Canada's posts examine speculative fiction because I generally feel that speculative fiction has the potential (though this potential is used too infrequently) to disrupt normalcy by creating a world that is NOT normal and this can allow for a space where ideas that are considered 'real', 'normal', 'true' (with connotations of 'the only way they can be', 'unchallengeable', and 'proven'), are opened to speculation, open to a permeability that conventions of reality don't normally permit.

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I try to write posts on Speculating Canada that are accessible and try to avoid writing in language that is alienating. When I do feel that I need use difficult language, I try to explain it using more accessible language. My hope in doing so is that I can encourage audiences to feel that they can access this space of critical questions and feel welcomed. My radio show and associated podcasts for Speculating Canada further enforce this, and when interviewing authors, I tend to ask them to be relaxed and feel as though they are having a dinner time conversation with all of the "ums", "likes", "you knows", and other pauses part of that conversation. I don't like to edit these moments of pause out because I feel as though listeners who hear them will feel included - as though they have been invited to a dinnertime conversation where ideas are brought up in a relaxed, exciting, open environment. Online platforms have the capacity to invite our readers or listeners into a conversation, bring them to the dinner table of discussion where they can feel at home and welcome without the insecurities of a paywall or other alienating format. We can invite readers to think of themselves as participants in a chat about a particular issue, idea, theory, or thought and feel as though they are included in a way that they may not when they hear the title "academic".

I feel that, as an academic, my job (not in the employment sense, but rather in the life-path orientation sense) is to provide opportunities for education in public spaces, opportunities for the public to critique different ideas and think about things from a new angle, perspective, critical position, or just generally to encourage them to ask questions. I view any space as imbued with pedagogical potential, and by this I don't mean the proselytizing of our own views, which I often hear people referring to as teaching, assuming that the 'student' is an empty vessel, but rather hope that I can open up spaces where questions can be asked and ideas can be challenged. I see speculative fiction, itself a manifestation of the idea of The Question, the hypothetical, the idea, as a manifestation of the possibility and potential to question everything and destabilize hegemonic reality.


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Derek Newman-Stille has a Masters Degree in Anthropology from Trent University. His Masters Degree involved an analysis of ancient Minoan and Mycenaean Art and his interest in the archaeology of ancient societies has had a great deal of impact on his own artistic trends. Many of Derek’s paintings are heavily influenced by the artistic trends of the ancient world and one can see in his art imagery revolving around Palaeolithic goddesses or cave paintings from the past. As a classicist, Derek is particularly influenced by the ancient Greek and Roman worlds, deriving a lot of the themes of his artistic works from classical myth. His interest in anthropology and archaeology has influenced his work, showing an overall love of the rich depth of diversity in the human experience and the wide range of methods people have used to express themselves over the course of human history.

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