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Irish journalist, literary critic and political commentator Fintan O’Toole will be the keynote speaker at an April 20 conference in Higgins Hall that will explore how recent trends in James Joyce scholarship show the promise of digital technology’s role in the humanities.
Sponsored by the Institute for the Liberal Arts, “Joyce and the Digital Humanities” also will feature talks by Adjunct Associate Professor of English Joseph Nugent, who designed the iPhone app JoyceWays; University of Tulsa English Professor Sean Latham, editor of the James Joyce Quarterly; and broadcast journalist Ed Mulhall, who planned and coordinated Radio Telefis Eireann’s Bloomsday centenary coverage in 2004.
In addition to delivering the keynote, “Digital Humanities Tomorrow,” O’Toole will present the app based on his project and related book “A History of Ireland in 100 Objects” that uses various artifacts to illustrate key events and periods in Irish history.
The event also will include a roundtable discussion with Northeastern University English faculty members Ryan Cordell and Patrick Mullen and University of Buffalo Professor Joe Valente. A reception will follow with a performance by Ciaran Nagle of The Three Irish Tenors and readings of Joyce by actor Cathal Stephens, and an introduction by WGBH-FM radio announcer Brian O’Donovan.
“Joyce has always been particularly suitable for the digital humanities, because his texts are so multi-layered and full of ‘links’ to people, places, literary references and so on,” said Nugent, who will give a presentation on his soon-to-be-launched “Digital Dubliners” project [digitaldubliners.com].
“Joyce himself was fascinated by technology — movies, photography, radio, even the idea of television, which was just beginning when he died. So it’s very appropriate for us to gather and see how the innovations that have emerged through Joyce scholarship are leading the way for the digital humanities.”
“Joyce and the Digital Humanities” is free and open to the public but requires registration. See http://www.bc.edu/content/bc/centers/ila/events/joyce.html.