Research Publications (Arts and Design)
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Item The challenge of designing a collaborative reference source for Southern African Literature(Taylor & Francis, 2012-10-08) Stewart, Graham Douglas JamesFinding the right balance between editorial control and the widest possible participation by contributors is a critical challenge for the editors of the ESAACH Wiki. The Wiki is the online collaborative reference repository of the Encyclopaedia of South African Arts, Culture and Heritage (ESAACH). The Verbal Arts section of the ESAACH Wiki was developed in the first phase of the project, and now comprises an extensive set of reference entries, compiled over a twelve year period. With its roots in a Southern African literary history project started in the 1990s, over four thousand entries have now been published on the Wiki, with the intention of utilising commons-based peer production to continue its development as a one-stop reference website of Southern African literature. User analysis shows that the ESAACH Wiki is extensively searched by Internet users looking for information on Southern African literature. This article considers how best to open up the resource to a wider group of contributors. Participation may range from a traditional print editorial model at one extreme to an open, un- moderated model at the other. Selected South African literary and biographical reference sources were compared to determine the most appropriate guidelines for an ESAACH entry.Item Here Comes Everybody: humanities computing meets the era of social media(Centre for the Study of Southern African Literature and Languages, UKZN, 2014) Stewart, Graham Douglas JamesThis article sets out to re-evaluate some of the themes raised in the Alternation number on humanities computing that I guest edited in 2002, and to trace their subsequent evolution. To what degree can the meeting of literature and technology, however tentative, influence social transformation? We reflect on the themes of cyberspace and ‘collective intelligence’, ICTs and creative writing; virtual classrooms as open forums for discussion and dialogue; digital libraries to support research in the humanities; the Internet as a platform for promoting development, the advent of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and their implications for education in developing countries; making the information society accessible to all. The effects of the mobile Internet are wide-ranging and this article explores the extent to which knowledge production in the humanities may be able to harness the potential of the new digital ecosystem to effect social transformation.Item Sharing our Stories : using an online encyclopaedia as the basis for a general education module on local history, creative writing and social justice(LIASA, 2012) Stewart, Graham Douglas JamesConventional wisdom suggests that the best way of equipping first-year university students with the skills to cope with the rigorous demands of discipline-specific discourse is through an “academic literacies” approach. In other words, by developing their abilities to discern different disciplinary contexts and settings, students may more confidently adopt appropriate linguistic practices in their studies (Archer 2010: 497). I would suggest that where the approach frequently falls short, is in the narrow range of discipline-specific materials provided for student consumption. To achieve the desired levels of linguistic agility for university study, students need a mental gymnasium with a truly challenging set of apparatus. It is not only students of literature who need exposure to creative writing. Reading of creative fiction can ignite the narrative imagination of the first-year university student, provoking an exploration of cultural diversity, social justice and identity. Novels, plays, poetry and short stories can engage the reader more deeply than factual studies, and engender a thoughtful, responsive and responsible attitude towards society. A sense of social justice is fundamental to the development of good citizenship, and it has been argued that the study of creative writing, especially that which is embedded in local and regional history, provides a sound scaffolding for student learning experiences through related writing activities and debate. Online literary and historical encyclopaedias can provide an ideal information landscape for the development of learning modules that focus on local literature. A structured e-learning module may build on such online sources by assisting the student to navigate the abundant references and discover materials that may be probed more deeply through reading assignments, writing tasks and discussion. This paper presents a case study of the design and development of a general education learning module – “Sharing our stories” – intended to provide students with enriching encounters with local literature while advancing their academic reading and writing skills. The module draws on the content of the Encyclopaedia of South African Arts, Culture and Heritage (ESAACH) which plays an integral part as a springboard to the exploration of local writing. While students encounter a variety of short stories, extracts from novels and biographical writing, a blog feature ensures that the students’ own contributions are lodged within the bigger story – what Ngugi wa Thiong’o calls the “collective history” - of our region (Wa Thiong’o 1986: xi).Item Tribe of colours - reclaiming identity via the Web(Faculty of Arts and Design and Art for Humanity, Durban University of Technology, 2010) Stewart, Graham Douglas James; McNulty, NiallNow in the second year of its development, the Encyclopaedia of South African Arts, Culture and Heritage (ESAACH) is both traditional encyclopaedia and hypertext web. Published volumes will emerge from the collaborative writing space provided within the wiki database. “You and I a tribe of colours” - by tapping into the collaborative spirit of social networking, ESAACH is emerging as a communal knowledge base that is far more than the sum of its parts. ESAACH is intended as a work of reclamation scholarship to address the dearth of reference material in South African arts, culture and heritage studies, and flights a number of concepts of importance in knowledge production for social transformation - notions that represent a fundamental shift in perspective: “panoramic, inclusive, democratic, and non-canonical”. An encyclopaedia, by its very nature, can never be complete. An online encyclopaedia never needs to be complete. Users can continually add entries or edit existing ones while an open-source community, (e.g. Media wiki) is continually improving and developing the management framework. An active community that has bought into ownership of the encyclopaedia, and has an interest in maintaining and growing its content, ensures its sustainability. This paper reports on work in progress, outlining the founding principles of the encyclopaedia and presenting the current state of the development and usage of the Verbal Arts section of the wiki. Later phases of the project include the Performing Arts, Visual Arts and Heritage.Item Introduction(Alternation. International Journal for the Study of Southern African Literature and Languages, 2002) Stewart, Graham Douglas JamesHumanities Computing is a new discipline unfamiliar to the South African literary community. This special number of Alternation is intended to bring some perspective to the practice of humanities computing in South Africa by publishing a divergent set of reflections and approaches to the introduction of computers into the contemporary study of literature, and in particular the study of South African literature. The papers in this issue may also be viewed against a backdrop of a curriculum for humanities computing. The wide range of approaches reflected by the contributors suggests that there is no such curriculum as yet in South Africa, but the quality and innovativeness of the articles represents a first attempt to find a coherent conceptual framework to accommodate a humanities computing research agenda and provide a springboard for further development. Because the field of humanities computing is as yet ill-defined, the articles in this edition are inevitably eclectic - indeed, the primary purpose of this edition is to range as widely as possible over an emerging discipline to identify focus areas and expose areas of contention and also future research directions. One dispute which emerges here is between enthusiastic converts to digital technologies and skeptics. The former tend to dwell on the benefits that the systematic exploitation of lCTs can offer the humanities, and the latter -who are more apprehensive about the contribution computers can make on the humanities--on its limitations and disadvantages.Item Mirage of us. A reflection on the role of the Web in widening access to references on Southern African arts, culture and heritage(Tydskrif Vir Letterkunde, 2010) Stewart, Graham Douglas JamesThis article outlines the broad aims of the Encyclopaedia of South African Arts, Culture and Heritage (ESAACH) Project then goes on to consider the ESAACH Website as a networked resource that speaks to the project’s vision of accessibility and participation. The wiki architecture is highly accessible to users and contributors alike. In addition to its robust structure as a reference work, a wiki encyclopaedia facilitates networked social collaboration uniquely suited to the co-operative principles of the project. Subject area specialists will exercise editorial control over the content of the wiki, and work with the Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editors and peer reviewers to assess contributions, recommend editorial corrections, and select articles, essays and entries for inclusion in the printed volumes of the encyclopaedia. The paper surveys existing Web-based reference sources on Southern African literature, arts and culture; provides an account of the evolution of the Verbal Arts section of the ESAACH wiki; and discusses the prototype ESAACH wiki.