2023-2024 Praxis Program Charter

About Our Charter

This charter is a living document. We will give it water and light as needed. 🌿

“Definitions are vital starting points for the imagination. What we cannot imagine cannot come into being. A good definition marks our starting point and lets us know where we want to end up” — bell hooks, All About Love: New Visions

Ethos

• “You are not the work you do; you are the person you are” (Toni Morrison). We vow to recognize each other as people first, scholars second.
• We vow to be a dream team that is consistent, that is dependable, and that is committed to the process of failing and succeeding together.
• We vow to foster an environment in which we each feel safe enough to be vulnerable with one another. We will strive for honesty and authenticity. It is safe to not know something.
• We will offer what we can – when we can – depending on our individual knowledge bases and capacities at any given time.
• We will “read the room” as best as we can, be cognizant of the group’s energy, and of any potential questions or concerns that might arise.
• We vow to recognize and celebrate every one of our collective and individual wins – big and small!

Cohort Culture

• Collaborative - Come with an open mind and a ready hand to help and lean on one other.
• Supportive - Provide encouragement and ideas for further research.
• Transparent - Be open with what may be going on outside of Praxis.
• Accountable (to self and group) - Review group and personal charters regularly, in order to maintain accountability.
• Reliable - Be consistent and responsible for group projects and communication.
• Balanced - One should never try to do everything or think they have to do everything; there needs to be a healthy and supportive balance between the individual and the team.
• Have fun/laugh - Share fun and joyful things with each other.

Our Practices

• We will meet for lunch on the first Tuesday of each month.
• We will celebrate our accomplishments by sharing them. To start the first meeting of the week, we will share something that’s going well in our lives or in our work.
• We will approach projects by breaking them down into small tasks with distinct due dates. We will document our progress every time we make a change to a shared project.
• “Put on your own mask first”: we will take care of ourselves before we tend to others. Group members should not sacrifice or risk their physical, mental, or emotional health for Praxis-related work or meetings.

Dealing with Conflict

• Come to each moment of conflict with kindness and understanding.
• Speak out sooner rather than later, but pause to gather your thoughts.
• Stick to the issue at hand; don’t pile on past complaints when you’re addressing one.
• Try to resolve problems directly, but when larger issues or conflict arise, staff mediation is available. From the Praxis charter: “students are free to request such intervention at any time. Such interventions might include but are not limited to: renegotiating roles, private discussions of behavior and team responsibilities, or removal from the team.”
• Allow others to express issues or concerns with understanding; each of our individual feelings and thoughts are valid, but may conflict with others. Work together to create a safe environment for sharing concerns and feeling conflict. As these differences come up, we will learn how to best vocalize potnetial concerns of alternative routes of resolution.
• Have regular check-ins with the group to give space to express concerns. As a group, we will work to respond within a week when a concern arises (or more based on a group member’s circumstances)

Personal Goals

Cohort Playlist

Molly (Music; Composition and Computer Technologies)

• Write article on challenges and opportunities with website accessibility
• Seek publishing opportunities for article
• Write second-year paper on the intersection of music, technology, and disability in the aim of reimagining virtuosity
• Experiment further with MUGIC gestural device
• Experiment further with Domenico Vicinanza’s arpeggio sensor
• Experiment further with MOCAP (motion capture) system
• Experiment with Zoom hand sensing
• Improve DJ skills
• Create and publish Perspective website that has multidimensional accessibility and interactive form
• Create and publish Loud and Soft website that has multidimensional accessibility
• Finish solo piano piece for Brianna Matzke
• Finish duo piece for Duo Entre-Nous
• I respond well to: clear communication, deadlines, rest, exercise, Top 40, baking and baked goods
• Favorite song: Sylvan Esso - Coffee (Official Music Video)

Seanna (English Department)

• Learn to be comfortable with frustration; it is inevitable and it will pass
• Actually ask questions, recognize I am not alone and that I have other fellows and the SLab staff to turn to when needed
• Lean into public-facing writing
• Pursue publishing opportunities
• Experiment with social media platforms as a space of inquiry
• Experiment with virtual and/or augmented reality
• Seek grants to support opportunities for work with VR/AR
• Be intentional about building connections with cohort; not just as a group but also individually
• Attend more workshops with the SLab
• I respond well to consistency, verbal affirmations, funny TikToks, coffee, & quality time
• Favorite artists: Kes, SZA, Shenseea, Davido, Burna Boy, Rema, Simi, & the queen, Beyoncé

Rachel (English Department)

• Be open and open-minded
• Learn from my cohort and the wonderful instructors/community of the Scholars’ Lab
• Look for ways to make DH part of how I think through humanities questions, but try not to force it: I will follow the projects that interest me, in the ways that excite me
• Read lots about digital pedagogy; start to think about ways that it will become a part of my own teaching
• Be meticulous sometimes, exploratory at others, and on special occasions, both at once
• Get comfortable on the command line
• Spend some time in the Makerspace
• Make something I’m proud of: on the page, online, and with my hands (one of each!)
• I respond well to snacks, tiny compliments, and joking around before doing anything serious
• Favorite songs: Right now they’re “Strange Isabella” by Gillian Welch and “Femininomenon” by Chappell Roan

Arselyne (English Department)

• Don’t be afraid to ask for help; Work smarter, not harder
• Regularly take the time to explore the ins and outs of Black and Caribbean digital projects
• Always be open to learning different Black feminist and postcolonial approaches to digital humanities Use aspects of Praxis fellowship to develop a dope dissertation project
• Don’t stay within your “box”; Try something new!
• I respond well to: verbal affirmations, personalized gifts, handwritten love letters, spicy snacks
• Favorite Genres: R&B, Gospel, Rap, Pop, Indie/Alternative, Afrobeats
• Favorite Artists (include): H.E.R., KB, Bellah, Ruth B, Jhene Aiko, Phil Thompson, Jonathan Nelson, Todd Galberth, Tamela Mann, Tori Kelly

Katie (Music; Critical and Comparative Studies)

• Be open to exploring the possibilities of digital technologies
• Embrace failure and struggle as fundamental parts of the learning process
• Use Codelab experiences as opportunities to more deeply engage in the behind-the-scenes aspects of computer technology that I use everyday
• Do not shy away from critiques of coloniality in digital technologies
• Strive to find beauty in the creative aspects of digital technology
• Write about technology in ways that are both accessible to public audiences and respected by computer technologists
• Search out other opportunities to engage in digital humanities work beyond the confines of the fellowship
• Formulate a plan for future work after the completion of this year
• Be intentional about forming and embracing Praxis and Scholars’ Lab communities
• I respond well to: clear communication, constructive criticism formed with kindness, small compliments and words of encouragement.
• Favorite songs today: “How Did You Know”- Sylvan Esso, “Glass Jaw”- chokecherry, “Men Explain Things to Me”- Tacocat

Staff Requests and Commitments

The 2023-2024 Praxis teaching staff reaffirms the language described in the Scholars’ Lab charter, Student Programs charter, and Praxis charter. In addition, we have shared the following language about our goals, commitments, and desires for the 2023-2024 Praxis cohort.

Our Requests for You:

• Refer to us by our first names.
• Attend meetings on time.
• Commit yourself to the process-oriented approach of the program and meet the milestones.
• Work with the staff to define a successful year for yourself, develop a roadmap to meet it, and work with staff to see it through.
• Ask for help.
• We like getting to know you as peers and colleagues! We will learn from you this year, and you are part of the lab’s community including after your fellowship ends.
• We hope you join us in bringing any part of your whole selves to our space that you’re comfortable sharing. Our staff loves bad puns, pet and baby photos, games and books, hearing about non-work hobbies, and attending when any of us do public music gigs etc.

Our Commitments to You:

Brandon

• This will be a challenging year for me. It’s going to pull me away from the program in a lot of ways. Given that I will be out for part of the spring semester, my main goal this year is that I still have ample time to meet and work with each student. I commit to making time for the cohort, such that I can, so that I still come away from the year feeling like we have made space for them within our community.
• Helping interested folks work towards publishing in DH, professionalizing in the field, or otherwise helping to connect the students towards the opportunities they see for themselves.
• Be fully present when attending meetings.

Amanda

• Trying to be fully present when I attend sessions (not multitasking)
• Honoring our prioritization of meeting in person by communicating when/why that’s a challenge for me, in case we can find ways to solve that. (Needing to be careful about getting sick is my primary barrier.)
• I may need to attend sessions somewhat less regularly than other members of the core teaching team, due to my role (not preference!). I’m committing to attending PraxisGeneral sessions at minimum twice/month, but hope to attend more often than that whenever my workload allows. If you’d like me to be at a specific session for any reason, please let me know!

Ronda

• Attending at least one session per week for the year, and being fully present when I’m in attendance.
• Seeking ways to add playfulness and fun to the work of Praxis. Humans learn more quickly and easily in play than any other method of learning, and one of my personal missions is helping people find ways of making play part of their time with us in the Lab.
• Coaching and mentoring as appropriate, desired, and requested. I’m a trained life coach, and one of my great joys is helping other people to discover who and how they want to be in the world and to take steps to make those discoveries their reality.

Shane

• Offer the finest coffee in the library.
• Teach CodeLab well enough that each fellow leaves with a sense that technology is less mysterious than before, that they have the confidence and savvy to orient themselves toward learning new skills, and to be more productive and more ethical collaborators on technical subjects.
• Help make the Hackathon a useful and low friction module that incorporates the experience of practical collaboration and technical learning.