New director for Acadia’s digital research facility

Acadia’s Digital Culture Observatory (ADCO) will have a new director effective April 1, 2008.

Dr. Richard Cunningham, an associate professor of English, has been named to succeed Dr. Sonya Major, who served as director since its inception in 2004. “The observatory is a state-of-the-art facility unique in Canada that allows researchers to study how people interact with information and communications technologies,” says Dr. Tom Herman, Acadia’s acting Vice-President Academic. “Like his predecessor, Dr. Cunningham recognizes the potential of the observatory to greatly impact research on reading, the environment, and social concerns, as well as study of the technologies themselves.”

The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) recently awarded Cunningham more than $40,000. The Image, Text, Sound and Technology research grant will allow him to study collaborative research teams across disciplines and locations. Co-applicants include Lynne Siemens (University of Victoria, Faculty of Business), Claire Warwick (University College London, School of Library, Archive and Information Studies), and Wendy Duff (University of Toronto, Faculty of Information Studies).

The one-year project will focus on how people working on digital humanities projects have organized their teams, managed their projects, and used software or groupware to facilitate research. The goal is to identify needs and recommend best practices for effective team-based research in the field of digital humanities.

Cunningham is also the successful co-applicant for an Image, Text, Sound and Technology Summer Institute, Workshop and Conference grant at the University of Saskatchewan, which is hosting the Canadian Symposium for Text Analysis Research in 2008.

Acadia University, in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, has long been recognized as one of Canada’s premier undergraduate institutions. It is ranked Canada’s best overall primarily undergraduate university by Maclean’s magazine. With its nationally and internationally recognized research initiatives, small classes and technology-rich teaching and learning environment, Acadia offers students an experience that includes academic achievement combined with personal growth and development. For more information about Acadia, visit our website at http://www.acadiau.ca/.