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IRIS Center for Digital Humanities and Social Sciences
@siueiris.bsky.social
920 followers 640 following 84 posts
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
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This Friday! Join us for our next Morning Bytes, where Dr. Jill Anderson (English) will present on her work producing a biographical chronology for the Catharine Maria Sedgwick Online Letters project.

#DigitalHumanities @mhs1791.bsky.social
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.
November 10, 2025 at 11:41 PM
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This Wednesday! @hrambsy.bsky.social will share his work on the Black Lit Network, a #DigitalHumanities project that brings scholarship on African American literary studies to public audiences and provides innovative discovery tools that link people to books based on their interests.
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
October 27, 2025 at 10:39 PM
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📣Calling all SIUE faculty and staff📣

Join the SIUE Faculty and Staff Fundraising Campaign and make a direct impact on the programs and projects that inspire you most. If that inspiration includes digital humanities, experiential learning, and community-engaged pedagogy, keep reading!
A banner for an SIUE Foundation campaign targeting faculty and staff with the slogan “It’s a Cougar Thing, We Give Back”
October 21, 2025 at 1:48 PM
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You know what regalia needs? Pockets. IRIS can help, and in return, you can help IRIS!

Learn to add them yourself or have us do it for you for a suggested donation of $25.

Sign up at iris.siue.edu/pockets. Space is limited!

#DHMakes
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
July 30, 2025 at 12:54 PM
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Ope, it’s syllabus season. Join us for an in-person workshop on how to incorporate meaningful digital assignments and activities into your course, in ways that both enhance students’ engagement with the course content and encourage them to think critically about technology. #DigitalHumanities
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.
July 25, 2025 at 2:55 PM
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This Wednesday, join us at the Wedge in Alton to chat about data representation, learn some spreadsheet and mapping technologies, and share your experiences of the Metro East as a cultural center. Free and no experience needed!

July 16, 3:00-4:30

#DigitalHumanities #STL #StLouis #MetroEast
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/
July 14, 2025 at 1:03 PM
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New course alert! This fall we’re offering the brand new HUM430: Digital Storytelling and Curation! It’s linked with ENG482: Technology and Literature, and we’ll engage with both science fiction and history of tech as we learn a variety of tools for digital storytelling. #DigitalHumanities
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
April 25, 2025 at 1:05 PM
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Summer feels both around the corner and eons away, but we're already planning. Check out our new AI Fictions Reading Group! We'll use AI fiction -- tv, novels, short stories -- as a tool for exploring and developing AI ethics. More details: iris.siue.edu/ai-fictions/
#DigitalHumanities #CriticalAI
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
April 23, 2025 at 10:36 PM
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Today! Join us this morning in the IRIS Center for a presentation from @mark3000.bsky.social on a mid-century radio show and how it connects to its rural southern Illinois context. #DigitalHumanities
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
April 18, 2025 at 1:05 PM
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Thanks and congrats to our students who presented at the STL #DigitalHumanities Showcase! From legacies of redlining in Rockford, to analysis of Kendrick’s fusion of East and West Coast rap, to PSAs about data privacy and accessibility, they produced thoughtful and creative engagements with tech.
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.
April 15, 2025 at 9:51 PM
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Hey #SIUE / IRIS folks! If you'll be on campus, join us in the IRIS Center to take part together. This is a great opportunity to explore avenues for advocacy and organizing at the local as well as the national levels. #DigitalHumanities
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.
April 8, 2025 at 7:46 PM
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There's more snow coming, but we are ready to be out of the house and back on campus!
✔️ Office hours updated
✔️ Project check-in meetings scheduled
✔️ Intro to DH syllabus revised
✔️ Grant application ready to submit
✔️ Fresh coffee purchased
Come find us next week! #DigitalHumanities
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
January 9, 2025 at 7:36 PM
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This Giving Tuesday, CODE Scholars kick off 3 days of presentations. From climate justice to histories of enslavement, these scholars have explored wicked problems alongside their community partners. If you’d like to support CODES, you can give at connect.siue.edu/g/donate. Search for fund 4251!
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 photo of several CODE Scholars speaking with legislators and staffers in the Illinois Capitol. Behind them are posters displaying their research on wicked problems. A banner at the bottom of the photo reads “CODE Scholars are advocates.” Three CODE Scholars pore over archival documents relating to Henry Shaw’s ownership of enslaved people in the archives of the Missouri Botanical Garden. A banner at the bottom of the photo reads “CODE Scholars are researchers.” Five muddy CODE Scholars pose in the woods wearing waders and hats in the midst of research on river ecologies. A banner at the bottom of the photo reads “CODE Scholars are active learners.”
December 3, 2024 at 2:21 PM
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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
December 2, 2024 at 8:30 PM
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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."
December 2, 2024 at 8:30 PM
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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. FOUR NOTATIONS ON AFROFUTURISM & DH Howard Rambsy, English Literature 3. An interdisciplinary endeavor, my online notebook focusing on Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Black Panther merges Afrofuturism, Digital Humanities, African American literary, and comic book studies. 4. Re-reading Ta-Nehisi Coates’s “The Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda” Black Panther story arc and drafting a data visualization on the series reminded me that all kinds of exciting possibilities emerge at the intersection of Afrofuturism and Digital Humanities.
December 2, 2024 at 8:30 PM
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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!
December 2, 2024 at 8:30 PM
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This Friday! Join us in for a workshop on "Teaching Data Literacies with Maps." This hands-on workshop will explore how creating digital maps can help to teach key data and info literacies. This is an intro workshop that speaks to multiple disciplines. If possible, bring a laptop! #DigitalHumanities
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!
October 8, 2024 at 1:47 PM
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Congratulations again to @jessicadespain.bsky.social, who’s currently in CA receiving her DEI award from IARSLCE! The award honors her tremendous efforts to build equitable #DigitalHumanities infrastructures through programs like CODES and the Recovery Hub.
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.
October 3, 2024 at 8:10 PM
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We know the semester’s only just begun, but it’s already time to think about spring schedules! This spring, we’re offering our Intro to Digital Humanities and Social Sciences with @megsmith.bsky.social.
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.
September 4, 2024 at 6:10 PM
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Congratulations to IRIS co-director Dr. Jessica DeSpain! She's received the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award from the International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement for her work with CODES, RISE-DH, the Recovery Hub, and more.
Images of the 2024 IARSLCE Award winners. Jessica DeSpain is in the bottom right corner.
July 24, 2024 at 2:06 PM
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It’s a busy week in IRIS! Today, you can find us at the History Department’s research-in-progress speaker series, where @megsmith.bsky.social will present on her digital project Litigating Irishness. #DigitalHumanities #IrishHistory #MedievalSky #EarlyModern
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.
March 29, 2024 at 2:03 PM
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52 hours and 15 minutes! That's the amount of time students have volunteered in IRIS this semester on crowdsourcing projects like Douglass Day and Mapping for Rapid Response. We appreciate you!
A pink, white, and gold graphic with the text 52:15
March 27, 2024 at 3:36 PM
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Our Mapping for Rapid Response participants are hard at work, putting a core digital humanities skill to work to support relief efforts in areas impacted by natural disasters. #DigitalHumanities
Several students sit around a conference table working on their laptops. On the projector screen behind them is a Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team project.
March 26, 2024 at 8:36 PM
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Happening this Friday! If you’re in the area, join us for a roundtable on Creative and Critical Approaches to AI, featuring perspectives from digital humanities, English, instructional technology, and computer science.

#DigitalHumanities
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.
March 19, 2024 at 3:46 PM