Many-to-Many Receives Digital Humanities Grant
Juliana Friend (Anthropology) received a Collaborative Research Grant from Digital Humanities at Berkeley for her project, Many to Many, an interactive online archive of ethnographic conversations recorded around the world. A collaboration between the Berkeley Center for New Media (BCNM) and the Dialogic Ethnographies Townsend Working Group, Many-to-Many harnesses new media tools to trace global connections and probe the possibilities of participatory ethnography.
Juliana and her colleagues invite ethnographers, their interlocutors in the field, and the general public to record and share conversations of all kinds: chats between mothers and daughters, disputes between friends, rants by colleagues, non-verbal exchanges, expressive gestures, or conversations where non-human actants “speak” alongside human participants. Breaking the mold of the linear, dyadic conversation, they ask, what is a conversation in the first place?
Accompanying the global archive will be a podcast that brings together conversations from multiple countries or regions, enriched by participants' commentary. This format pushes beyond the dominant paradigm of anthropology podcasts that interview academics about their work. BCNM and anthropology students will co-create the interface during Fall 2016.
Digital Humanities recently awarded more than $200,000 in grants to UCB community members. The grants will promote collaborative research and the development of new DH courses.
Juliana's dissertation work explores the intersection of new media, sexuality, and Islam in Senegal. Juliana examines transformations in sexual education practice in a region officially marked by and popularly stigmatized for sexual violence. She also collaborates with LGBT activists in Senegal on issues of online activism and human rights. Drawing on experience in print and radio journalism, Juliana explores the opportunities and limitations of online platforms for collaborative storytelling.
Find the announcement and more from Digital Humanities at Berkeley here
To find out more about the project, or record and submit conversations, contact Juliana Friend at jgfriend [at] berkeley.edu.