Digital and Computational Studies Blog

Bowdoin College - Brunswick, Maine

Social Media, Film, Gender Identity in Final Project by Sophie Washington ’19

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In Spring 2019, Sophie Washington completed an Independent Study with Professor Erin Johnson (DCS and Visual Arts). Here is the final product:

This short film is a visual essay and research documentary exploring the ways that recent filmic media from the early to late 2000s produced in Hollywood and online media (social media, online games and chat rooms) has shaped a cultural understanding of media-induced femininity. These notions of femininity are internalized by young women growing up in the 2000s and reproduced via the 21st century modes of identity through online profiles and social media accounts. Digital identity in millennial and Gen Z young women is a result of mixing both technology and social media with iconic cult films from the past two decades. Young women are both cognizant of and shape their identity based on a perceived, shared identity that has seeped through layers of media culture specifically since the advent of online and social media, with Hollywood’s help during the golden age of the “chick flick.” Cultural and historical influence in Hollywood films of the 2000s created distinct ideas of femininity and a combined digital experience of early online games and chatrooms shows distinct ties to contemporary shared and mass online identity in millennial young women, seen again through another wave of Hollywood films about young women’s self-expression online.

Tariffs and Contextualized Data Science: Independent Study by Liz Schilling ’19

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In Spring 2019, Elizabeth Schilling completed an Independent Study titled “Chinese-American Trade 1970-2018.”

Her work builds on DCS 1200 “Data Driven Societies” and research in History and Economics. Liz had to digitize much of the early data related to trade between the two countries, and she examined the place of tariffs in economic shifts. She wrote a thorough data biography and analyzed the quantitative information from multiple perspectives. Here is a link to her site:
https://sites.google.com/view/lizschilling

‘Love and Information’ by Award-Winning Playwright Caryl Churchill

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March 2nd and 3rd, 2018 | 7:30 PM – 9:00 PM | Memorial Hall, Pickard Theater

Love and Information, a fast-moving kaleidoscope of intimate whispers, philosophical exchanges, and life-changing revelations, is Memorial Hall Award-winning playwright Caryl Churchill’s meditation on relationships in digital culture. Mirroring today’s miniscule attention spans, the play features more than 100 characters in 57 vignettes to explore how we process knowledge and each other. Some are just a few lines of fragmented dialogue, others are a few pages – age, gender, race, class, and sexual orientation aren’t specified, so the identity of the speaker and the nature of the situations must be surmised from the language – but buffeted as they are by screen communication and more news, gossip, an trivia than they can digest, all are somehow our stand-ins.

Directed by Professor of Theater and Dance Sarah Bay Chen, this production features media designed in collaboration with students in Media Arts and Digital and Computational Studies.

Advance Tickets are free and available at Smith Union. Tickets will also be available at the door.

Sponsored by: The Alice Cooper Morse Fund for the Performing Arts

Karofsky Common Hour–Sarah Bay-Cheng: Love and Information: Contemporary Performance in Digital Culture

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March 2, 2018 | 12:30 PM – 1:30 PM | Visual Arts Center, Kresge Auditorium

Each semester, the Common Hour program asks members of the student body to nominate a faculty member to present the Karofsky Faculty Encore lecture, honoring that faculty member as a teacher and role model. This semester’s presenter is Sarah Bay-Cheng, Professor and Chair of Theater and Dance.

In a world saturated with digital media and technology, what is the role of live performance? When you can live-stream the world in your phone, why should anyone attend a live show? And, what does ‘live’ mean anymore? Connecting popular culture, critical theory, and new technologies, this talk considers current trends among international theatre and performance artists who focus their work on emerging digital technologies with particular attention to British playwright Caryl Churchill’s Love and Information (2012). This talk further serves as an introduction to the working process and ideas behind the upcoming production of Churchill’s play in Bowdoin’s Department of Theater and Dance, March 2-4, 2018.

This lecture will be streamed live at Bowdoin Live Webcasts

Trump as Manager: Reflections on the President’s First Year with David E. Lewis, Vanderbilt University

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February 12, 2018 | 4:15 PM – 5:30 PM | Hubbard Hall, Thomas F. Shannon Room [208]

The Trump White House promised “deconstruction of the administrative state”. But what does that mean? Is it happening? In this talk, Professor David E. Lewis of Vanderbilt University will assess President Trump’s approach to managing the executive branch during his first year in office, including his appointments (and vacancies); his organizational initiatives; and the interaction of political appointees and civil servants as the White House seeks to control the wider bureaucracy.

Lewis is the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science at Vanderbilt University. An expert on the presidency, executive branch organization, and the US civil service, Lewis is the author, most recently, of The Politics of Presidential Appointments: Political Control and Bureaucratic Performance (Princeton University Press) and winner of the Herbert Simon Award for contributions to the scientific study of the bureaucracy. Before joining Vanderbilt, he taught at Princeton University and the College of William and Mary. Lewis currently serves as the president of the Southern Political Science Association and of the Midwest Public Administration Caucus.

Sponsored by the Department of Government & Legal Studies with support from the John C. Donovan Lecture Fund.

Free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be provided.