The Faculty of Humanities is embarking on a project to put Digital Humanities on the research agenda by means of a digital platform entitled DIGITatUP. 

As part of the project, the organisers are inviting all UP students and staff to upload their selfies to Instagram at #DIGITatUP. The idea is to engage with the selfies by employing Digital Humanities research methods by extracting uniquely UP traits.  You are invited to upload your selfies and to provide captions. Selfies taken on campus are preferred.

The symposium “All about ME: Digital Humanities and Representations of Self” scheduled for 17-18 June will showcase international scholars in Digital Humanities, as well as research on representations of the self (with a particular emphasis on selfies). On 17 June key speakers Tara McPherson (USC), the driving force behind the new authoring system Scalar, and Eduard Arriaga (UWO) will share their experiences with Digital Humanities. On Saturday 18 June Teresa Senft (NYU), author of Camgirls: Celebrity & Community in the Age of Social Networks (2008), and Adebayo Adegbembo (Genii games, Nigeria) are among the key speakers who will showcase selfie scholarship. One of the planned events is a media interview, “Selfies are more dangerous than sharks” to highlight the astonishing fact that more people died in 2015 while taking selfies than of shark attacks.

The planning committee is steered by Prof Amanda du Preez, who teaches Visual Culture Studies at the Department of Visual Arts, assisted by a team of Faculty members: Dr Nisa Paleker, Daniel Mosako, Rory du Plessis, Dr Jenni Lauwrens, Dr Chris Broodryk, Prof Alexander Johnson, Marinda Maree and postgraduate students, Cheree Swanepoel, Obakeng Kgongoane, Karli Brittz, Deneesher Pather and Martin Giebler.

For more info contact: [email protected] or visit the new webpage.