DARC and Centre for Critical Data Studies have two distinguished guests in Oct-Dec. 2023 from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign:

Dr. Kate McDowell, Associate Professor, School of Information Sciences. https://ischool.illinois.edu/people/kate-mcdowell,  https://www.katemcdowell.com/

Dr. Kate McDowell focuses on storytelling as information research, social justice storytelling, and how the history of library storytelling can enhance contemporary data storytelling. Her writing appears in Library Quarterly, College and Research Libraries, and JASIST, where her article Storytelling wisdom: Story, information, and DIKW theorizes storytelling as a fundamental information form. She advises regional, national, and international nonprofits, including work with the World Health Organization on storytelling responses to online health misinformation. McDowell leads the nationally-funded Data Storytelling Toolkit for Librarians, currently in development to equip public libraries with the narrative tools they need to thrive in the data-driven era. McDowell is an associate professor at the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA. Her teaching on both storytelling and data storytelling was internationally celebrated with the ASIS&T Outstanding Information Science Teacher Award in 2022. 

Professor of New Media and artist Ben Grosser

Ben Grosser creates interactive experiences, machines, and systems that examine the cultural, social, and political effects of software. Recent exhibitions include Centre Pompidou in Paris, The Barbican Centre and Somerset House in London, Hebbel am Ufer in Berlin, SXSW in Austin, and the Japan Media Arts Festival in Tokyo. His projects have been featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Wired, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Le Monde, Der Spiegel, El País, and Folha. His artworks are regularly cited in books investigating the cultural effects of technology, including The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, The Metainterface, and Investigative Aesthetics, as well as volumes centered on computational art practices such as Electronic Literature, The New Aesthetic and Art, and Digital Art. Grosser is Professor of New Media at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (USA), a Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, and a Guest Professor in the Department of Digital Design and Information Studies at Aarhus University.

They will both do different activities related to their research, collaborate with DARC members, do public Friday lectures and talks, etc. Look out for announcements! We are extremely happy to host them.