Connecting humanities research and digital technology

Building on a successful history of hiring co-op students and graduates from the Department of English Language and Literature, in 2010 Research in Motion (RIM) further recognized the department by committing $50,000 annually for graduate scholarships.

“The scholarships are a great vote of confidence in the department,” comments Fraser Easton, chair of English, “and a sure sign, I think, that it is a rather unusual English department, fully engaged with technology and new media, as well as the analytic and cultural traditions of literature and rhetoric.”

Now approaching its third year of enhancing graduate potential with individual awards of $5000 to $15,000, the scholarships have helped to attract top students, as well as promote by association the department’s growing strengths in digital communications. One of the recipients this year is Kent Aardse, a PhD candidate and holder of the prestigious SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier Graduate Scholarship who transferred to Waterloo’s English department this year seeking a larger, more established intellectual home to continue his research on new media narrative in alternate reality games. “Kent was a very attractive candidate for our doctoral program,” says Randy Harris, associate chair for English graduate studies, “and two things helped to secure his recruitment: the Critical Media Lab, which affords him the analytical and physical space to do the research, and the RIM award, which made us very competitive against other universities.” 

Open to candidates in any of the four English graduate programs (MA streams in Literary Studies, Rhetoric & Communication Design, and Experimental Digital Media, and the PhD program integrating literary, rhetorical, and digital studies), the RIM donation supports the broad disciplinary reach of these programs. “Ultimately, RIM is rewarding talent above all, without insisting on an immediate fit with their sector” adds Fraser Easton. And yet, for years firms in this area, including Open Text, Sybase, and AGFA, have hired students from all English program streams. Together with RIM, these leaders of the high-technology sector seem to increasingly recognize the value and scope of contributions offered by humanities researchers in designing, supporting and marketing their products.

“I think it's very prescient of any tech firm to make connections with grad students in English,” says Heidi Ebert, Experimental Digital Media student and recipient of a RIM scholarship, “not only because of the good work done here, but also because many of us are probably headed for positions in the tech sector that don't even exist yet, and which our research in humanities may help invent.” With her interest in studying the growing phenomenon of online memorials, specifically Facebook profiles after the subject dies, Waterloo English certainly offered Ebert the right fit. Significantly, though, she adds that the offer of the RIM scholarship made a big difference in her decision to leave the workforce and return to university.

Stephanie Jorgensen, a masters student in the Literary Studies program and holder of a RIM scholarship, sees the company’s support as also reflective of an enduring demand for people with communications ability: “studying Literature is a way to study to the world and develop advanced communication skills, which is something that high-tech firms will always require.” And Jonathan Doering of the Rhetoric and Communication Design program affirms his appreciation for the scholarship by its implicit “interdisciplinary gesture towards the human and technological practice of communication.”

Along with facilitating better knowledge transfer between academia and industry, and ultimately improved products, an important outcome of close ties between tech firms and researchers of digital communications is employability. “In today's academic landscape with tenure-track professor positions becoming less and less prevalent,” observes Kent Aardse, “this link between English programs and high-tech firms is crucial. Graduate students should be open to non-academic careers, and establishing relationships with a company such as RIM can hopefully ensure continued success for English grads.”

by Wendy Philpott
Arts Communications