Dartmouth Strategic Planning ::

Leading Voices in Higher Education: January 26, 2012

Renowned humanities scholar Cathy Davidson visited Dartmouth on 26 Jan 2012 to discuss the ideas in her latest book, “Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn,” and explore implications for Dartmouth and higher education.

VIDEO: Cathy's thoughts about students' writing and Distraction (2:50) »

VIDEO: A challenge to Dartmouth (5:20) »

Cathy N. Davidson served from 1998 until 2006 as the first Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Studies at Duke University, where she worked with faculty to help create many programs, including the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience and the program in Information Science + Information Studies (ISIS). She is the cofounder of Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory, (HASTAC, pronounced “haystack”), a network of innovators dedicated to new forms of learning for the digital age. She is also codirector of the $2 million annual HASTAC/John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning Competition. In December 2010, President Obama nominated her to the National Council on the Humanities.

During her time as the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at Duke University, she has published more than twenty books, including Closing: The Life and Death of an American Factory (with photographer Bill Bamberger) and The Future of Thinking: Learning Institutions in a Digital Age (with HASTAC cofounder David Theo Goldberg). She blogs regularly on new media, learning, and innovation on the HASTAC website as “Cat in the Stack.”