Jentery Sayers and Sheila Brennan awarded University of Michigan Press/HASTAC prize
The University of Michigan Press and HASTAC (the Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advance Collaboratory) are pleased to announce the selection of Jentery Sayers and Sheila Brennan as recipients of the UM Press/HASTAC Digital Humanities Publication Prize. Each Prize carries $5,000 in subvention funds and an advance contract with the Press series DigitalHumanities@digitalculturebooks.
Jentery Sayers, Assistant Professor of English at the University of Victoria, is working on a hybrid print and digital long-form transmedia work How Text Lost Its Source: Magnetic Recording Cultures. It integrates critical theories of technologies and media with knowledge of materials and historical particulars in the neglected cultural history of magnetic recordings. “The final product will be a unique and pioneering contribution to an understudied area, the technocultural history of magnetic recording,” HASTAC Executive Board member and Digital Humanities@digitalculturebooks series co-editor Julie Thompson Klein said in recommending Professor Sayers’ project for the award, speaking on behalf of the conference prize committee, co-editors of the series, and Editor-in-Chief of the Press.
Sheila Brennan, Associate Director of Public Projects Division and Research Assistant Professor in the Department of History and Art History at George Mason University, is working on a hybrid print and digital project entitled Stamping American Memory, investigating how the post office shaped American cultural memory in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century through its commemorative stamp program. “This project addresses a neglected aspect of American cultural history that will appeal not only to academic scholars across disciplines and fields but also the general public, including the dedicated community of philatelists,” Dr. Klein said of Stamping American Memory. “It sits at the intersection of vernacular and official interests, bringing to light the role that historical artifacts play in carrying political messages while simultaneously serving the needs and interests of small groups and individuals.”
Funded by the University of Michigan’s Institute for the Humanities, the UM Press/HASTAC Digital Humanities Publication Prize launched this year in conjunction with the HASTAC V conference hosted on the Michigan campus. Professors Brennan and Sayers were selected for their innovative and important projects advancing the field of Digital Humanities.
