Digital Bridges for Humanistic Inquiry

Digital Bridges was a collaborative Mellon-funded project between the University of Iowa and Grinnell College to explore teaching, learning, and research in the digital liberal arts. Between 2015 and 2019, the grant supported a rich array of activities designed to encourage faculty and students to experiment with a variety of collaborative practices in the humanities. Led by Obermann Director Teresa Mangum and Grinnell English Professor Erik Simpson, Digital Bridges welcomed faculty and students into digital research and teaching. We hosted summer workshops, cross-campus collaborations, fellows in residence, visiting speakers, and workshops in a host of digital tools and pedagogical approaches, often in collaboration with the UI Digital Scholarship and Publishing Studio of the UI Libraries. We had the privilege of working with a wonderful group of postdoctoral fellows, graduate and undergraduate assistants, and SITAs (Student Instructional Teaching Assistants) from the UI Center for Teaching as well as with adventurous faculty and staff members. Digital Bridges culminated in a national symposium that brought some of the nation’s leading digital scholars to campus and featured the accomplishments of our own faculty. We cannot thank our many partners and especially The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation enough for this transformative opportunity.