In the opening keynote address A.D. Carson, Assistant Professor of Hip Hop and the Global South, set the tone for the conference demonstrating the power of digital scholarship to highlight voices not always given space in the academy. Kalev Leetaru, Senior Fellow at the George Washington University Center for Cyber & Homeland Security, demonstrated the power of big data during his address Saturday morning. And Stephen Cartwright, associate professor in the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois, inspired attendees by demonstrating how his sculptures exist at the confluence science and art, where hard data intersects with the intangible complexities of human experience.
Between these talks attendees participated in twenty-three presentation sessions (including ten student presentations) and twelve digital poster exhibits. Our preconference workshop, composed of a range of digital scholarship practitioners, focused on the question of how to engage in creating innovative and meaningful opportunities to familiarize students with digital methods and tools in order to facilitate learning, collaborate with faculty, and expand their own research interests.