2024 ILiADS Steering Committee Nominations

Read the full position descriptions here.

I am currently the digital scholarship librarian at Hamilton College, where I support faculty and students in their explorations of digital tools and scholarly communication. I came to Hamilton with years of experience in digital scholarship, which started in the course of obtaining my PhD. I served as a liaison to a wonderful team from Davidson College in 2023, and I’m looking forward to bringing Hamilton back into the ILiADS fold. If selected to be your ILiADS Vice-Chair, I would bring my years of DH experience as well as my refined project planning and conference planning tools. I saw first hand how inspiring and community-driven a place ILiADS can be, and I’m looking forward to the opportunity to contribute to building that space.

Liz is the Coordinator of Digital Initiatives at Pitts Theology Library at Emory University. With a background in religious studies and information studies, she manages digital projects at the library, including a website overhaul, creating workflows for digital exhibitions, and editing digital publications. Liz specializes in multimedia projects, databases, and project management.

Bio
Michael Downs is a Project Administrator in the James Madison College at Michigan State University. Downs has a M.A. in Media and Information from Michigan State University, and a BA in International Relations from James Madison College (MSU). He is the Project Manager for Science, Art, and Faith: Architectural Heritage and Islam, and for Collapse and Rebirth: A Living Archive on the Collapse of the Soviet Union. His research and writing have focused on post-Soviet Eurasia, and he has made a number of conference presentations on the intersection of these issues with Digital Humanities priorities. In addition, Downs has broad training in methodological questions, especially as they relate User Experience and Survey Design, and he serves on a variety of professional committees related to these topics.

Candidate Statement
My name is Michael Downs, I am a Project Administrator at the James Madison College at Michigan State University where I oversee two digital humanities-oriented projects. The first of these projects, The Living Archive has become an undergraduate-driven research project. Overseeing this project for the past 5 years has given me the opportunity to interact with undergraduate students, and to better understand how research projects can prioritize student research experiences. The second of these projects Science, Art, and Faith examines the interfaith history of Islamic architecture. This project uses architecture to explore instances of both collaboration and contestation between Muslim and non-Muslim groups throughout the chronologic, and geographic span of Islam. In my role as Project Administrator, I am responsible for overseeing nearly $1.5M in funds to meet project objectives. This includes working with scholars in Europe, Central / South Asia, North Africa, the Middle East, and Pacific Asia to map, catalog, and examine architectural sites and structures. We also work with academic institutions around the world to host hybrid and in-person conferences and workshops, as well as COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning) courses with partnering institutions. Working on these projects together has uniquely prepared me for the role of Academic Partnership and Fiscal Partner Coordinator. It is my job to oversee the finances and coordinate the engagement with partner instructions on both projects. Managing funds and creating avenues for cooperation are not only aspects of my job, they are the core functions. I am excited to bring this skillset to ILiADS!

Bio
Rebekah is the Digital Humanities & Social Sciences Librarian at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in Rochester, New York. Walker advises RIT’s students, staff, and faculty on methods of digital pedagogy and project implementation. She leads instruction sessions, provides consultations, and supports digital project development for the undergraduate digital humanities program, RIT Libraries, and faculty. She has a forthcoming chapter in Print Culture in the Americas: Materialism in the Archives (with Daniel Worden) and one in Comic Books, Special Collections, and the Academic Library (with Elizabeth Call). She has an MLIS from the University of Iowa with a certificate in Public Digital Humanities and is a current student in the Science, Technology, and Public Policy MS program at RIT.

Candidate Statement
Documentation and assessment are two of the most important factors to keeping any organization or group on track. They’re not the most exciting features, but as professionals working on digital scholarship, we know they are vital to sustainability. Managing the knowledge of a project, group, or organization requires methodical attention, the ability to implement, and clear communication skills. These are all skills that I possess and would be happy to put to use as a member of the ILiADS steering committee.

In my role as a digital humanities librarian I am a member of multiple long-term project-based teams, on which I am often the only information professional. As such I often serve as the team knowledge manager. I am adept at working with a group of people, setting a strategy, and following through to retain information in a way that it is findable and understandable. I have experience collating feedback and providing suggestions to shape outcomes in the case of the undergraduate digital humanities curriculum at RIT and I execute assessments and discuss with others in response to my workshop series. Something about this position that appeals to me is the opportunity to work on shaping policies based on community feedback.

I participated in ILiADS as a liaison in 2021 and was drawn into the electric, yet practical energy of collaboration, support, and exploration. I am very happy to continue serving as the Documentarian & Assessment Coordinator.