Mak discusses interdisciplinarity at MLA 2017

Bonnie Mak
Bonnie Mak, Associate Professor

Associate Professor Bonnie Mak will present, "On Interdisciplinary Endings," as part of a panel at the upcoming Modern Language Association Annual Convention (MLA 2017) in Philadelphia. Sponsored by the discussion group on Interdisciplinary Approaches to Culture and Society, "The Ends of Interdisciplinarity," will feature an open conversation about different aspects of interdisciplinarity in research, media, and teaching. Mak has been invited to reflect on the status of "inter-discipline" in academic practice with faculty drawn from across North America in Comparative Literature, East Asian Studies, and History. 

"Because my research is located at the intersection of the humanities, social sciences, and the arts, I look forward to exchanging ideas with colleagues who are conducting different kinds of interdisciplinary work," Mak said. Complementing the other papers that will focus on scholarly life and pedagogy, Mak's presentation explores the products of interdisciplinary research. "Academic institutions continue to encourage interdisciplinary research and collaboration, but there has been little thought as to the infrastructures required to make such endeavors attractive, feasible, or legible. For example, who might be qualified to review a collaborative project that combines aspects of medieval studies, information science, and design? Who is the audience for such work, and where might it be published? What metrics does the university propose to use to gauge its value, and how do institutions plan to support its dissemination and preservation?"

Mak is jointly appointed in the iSchool and the Program in Medieval Studies at Illinois. Her first book, How the Page Matters (2011), examines the interface of the page as it is developed across time, geographies, and technologies. A second book-length project, Confessions of a 21st-Century Memsahib, examines the digital texts and images that are increasingly being used as resources for humanistic scholarship. She was inaugural Senior Fellow at the Center for Humanities and Information at the Pennsylvania State University for the 2015-2016 academic year and currently serves on the Advisory Board of the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities.

Updated on
Backto the news archive

Related News

Knox appointed interim dean

Professor Emily Knox has been appointed to serve as interim dean of the School of Information Sciences, pending approval by the Board of Trustees. Until officially approved, her title will be interim dean designate. The appointment will begin April 1, 2025.

Emily Knox

iSchool instructors ranked as excellent

Fifty-six iSchool instructors were named in the University's List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent for Fall 2024 and Winter 2024-2025. The rankings are released every semester, and results are based on the ratings from the Instructor and Course Evaluation System (ICES) questionnaire forms maintained by Measurement and Evaluation in the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning. 

iSchool Building

Ocepek and Sanfilippo co-edit book on misinformation

Assistant Professor Melissa Ocepek and Assistant Professor Madelyn Rose Sanfilippo have co-edited a new book, Governing Misinformation in Everyday Knowledge Commons, which was recently published by Cambridge University Press. An open access edition of the book is available, thanks to support from the Governing Knowledge Commons Research Coordination Network (NSF 2017495). The new book explores the socio-technical realities of misinformation in a variety of online and offline everyday environments. 

Governing Misinformation in Everyday Knowledge Commons book

Faculty receive support for AI-related projects from new pilot program

Associate Professor Yun Huang, Assistant Professor Jiaqi Ma, and Assistant Professor Haohan Wang have received computing resources from the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR), a two-year pilot program led by the National Science Foundation in partnership with other federal agencies and nongovernmental partners. The goal of the pilot is to support AI-related research with particular emphasis on societal challenges. Last month, awardees presented their research at the NAIRR Pilot Annual Meeting.

iSchool participation in iConference 2025

The following iSchool faculty and students will participate in iConference 2025, which will be held virtually from March 11-14 and physically from March 18-22 in Bloomington, Indiana. The theme of this year's conference is "Living in an AI-gorithmic world."