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Graduate Community of Digital Scholars


The Graduate Community of Digital Scholars—a joint program of the Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry, the Emory Center for Digital Scholarship, and the Digital Publishing in the Humanities initiative—offers structured support, connections to training opportunities, and access to funding for PhD students in the humanities and other humanistic fields who are developing digital and/or public-facing dissertations and research projects. The goal of the year-long seminar is to offer a community in which to refine research goals, build confidence in the use of digital methods, and further develop the communication skills needed for humanistic careers within and beyond the academy.

Participants meet monthly as a cohort as a cohort to share works in progress and to talk through research-related uncertainties in a supportive environment. Previous meetings have focused on topics such as: refining research abstracts for grant applications and conferences; describing and justifying research methods; and oral presentations of research for public audiences. Benefits include access to newly-developed ECDS training modules in digital skills and methods and eligibility for funding to support project development, including conference attendance.

Applications for the 2023-24 cohort are now closed. Applications for the 2024-25 cohort will open in May 2024.

For more information, please contact Dr. Alexander Cors (acors@emory.edu).

When applications are open, please send the following documents in a single PDF to Dr. Alexander Cors (acors@emory.edu):

  • cover sheet with name, email, year in program, department, advisor, and title of dissertation or research project;
  • brief description of dissertation or research project, including proposed digital and/or public-facing components (500 words);
  • personal statement explaining your interest in joining GCDS and how you expect it to support your professional development (300 words);
  • dissertation timeline with milestones (one-page outline);
  • short letter from your dissertation committee advisor expressing support for your participation in the program.

Announcements are typically made by the end of June.

  • Keith Anthony (krantho@emory.edu) is the executive director of the Fox Center and has extensive experience working with researchers across the humanities as they hone the presentation of their research and seek to engage broader audiences.
  • Alexander Cors (alexander.maximilian.cors@emory.edu) is a senior program coordinator at the Emory Center for Digital Scholarship, where he oversees the graduate training program. He has a PhD in History and expertise in digital mapping.
  • Mae Velloso-Lyons (m.velloso-lyons@emory.edu) is the director of the digital publishing program at the Fox Center and previously co-directed the digital humanities graduate fellowship at Stanford University. She has a PhD in Comparative Literature and expertise in text mining.

2023-24 Cohort

Diana Duarte Salinas
Hispanic Studies
"Mapping Latin American Women’s Intellectual Networks"
Cheng Liu
Anthropology
"Homo Faber in the making: Towards an interdisciplinary understanding of human toolmaking skill acquisition"
Em Nordling
English
"Ciphering the 'World Chimera': Crowds and the Racial Imagination in Britain’s Long 19th Century"
Ninon Vessier
French

"Voicing Mediterranean Ecologies"

Lucy Wallitsch
English
"Caregivers, Caretakers: Sociocognitive Disability and Nineteenth-Century American Literature"

2023 Cohort (Jan-Dec)

Margy Adams
English
"Masters of Ceremony: Subverting the Sonic in Afro-Caribbean and Black American Literature"
Deepak Agrawal
Information Systems and Operations Management
"Global Supply Network: Does Diversification Help or Hurt?"
Dez Miller
Comparative Literature
"Rivers, Literature, and the Ontology of Polluted Waters"
Joshua Winston
English
Speculative fiction and the future of urban design (title TBD)
Victor Ultra Omni
Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
"The Love Ball: A History of New York City's House-Structured Ballroom Culture"

Digital Dissertation Scholars (2018-22)

The Digital Dissertation Scholars' Program (DDSP) was the predecessor of the GCDS. It provided mentorship, guidance, and research funding to students working on digitally-enhanced dissertation projects. It was supported by the Digital Publishing in the Humanities program.

2021-22

Faiza Rahman
Islamic Civilizations Studies

"Menstruation in Pakistan: Texts, Experience, and Vernacular Islam"

2021-22

Alexis Mayfield
English

"'I feel therefore I am free': Black Femme Interiority, Sensuality, and Worldmaking"

2020-21

William (Robert) Billups
History

"Spatial Patterns of White Supremacist Bombings and Arson in the United States, 1940–2000"

2020-21

Aalekhya Malladi
Religion

"Many Lives of a Female Saint: Unravelling the Works and Mythologies of Tarigonda Vengamamba"

2020-21

Dimitri Zaras
Sociology

"Precarious Work and Adaptability in Creative Industries: The Case of Film Critics"

2020-21

Hannah Griggs
English

"'They tried to fortify their fear with booze': Legacies of Pleasure, Leisure, and Debauchery in 20th-Century American Literature"

2020-21

Jiajun Zou
History

"The Imperial Examination System and the Birth of Chinese Identity, 1368-1644"

2019-20

Alicia (Lily) Rodriguez
French and Italian

"Exile, Migration and the Concept of Home in the Context of the Caribbean Landscape"

2019-20

Camille Goldmon
History

"African-American Land Retention in the US South, 1929–1981"

2019-20

Norah Elmagraby
Islamic Civilizations Studies
"Environmentalism in Saudi Arabia: Islam, Politics, and Society"

2019-20

Yusuf Ünal
Islamic Civilizations Studies
"Connected Histories of the Early Modern Shi’i States: Conversions, Religious Migrations, and Polemical Exchanges, 1500-1800"

2018-19

Kayla Shipp Kamibayashi
English
"The Secret Lives of Poems: Digital Inhabitations of Nineteenth-Century American Literature"

2018-19

Alexander Cors
History

"Newcomers and New Borders: Migration, Settlement, and Conflict over Land along the Mississippi River, 1750-1820"