Research Groups

VIU-UVic Knowledge Commercialization Group

Sponsored by The University of Victoria's Electronic Textual Cultures Lab

Directed by Richard J. Lane (Principal Investigator, MeTA DH Lab) and Professor Lynne Siemens from the School of Public Administration at Uvic.

The purpose of this research/discussion group is to explore knowledge commercialization in the humanities, with focus on the skill sets and knowledge generated through digital humanities projects and labs. Our main case study will be the Agile Humanities Agency, directed by Professor Dean Irvine. Professor Irvine will visit the Group at The University of Victoria, to share how he established this company through his collaborative DH research and practice relating to the Editing Modernism in Canada project (we would hope to open this visit to the entire ETCL community). Professor Irvine will build upon his recent presentation at the 2015 Implementing New Knowledge Environments conference (Whistler, BC), covering in more detail the challenges and processes involved in humanistic knowledge commercialization. The discussion Group will draw together university and community participants, including those who have worked on large to medium scale DH projects, lab funding and management, digital/social innovation and social enterprise. Given the availability of the participants, the Group would also aim to meet in Nanaimo, either at the MeTA DH Lab or at Innovation Island Technology Association’s incubator Lab, as well as continuing longer term discussion through video conferencing, etc. The Group will explore potential future models for knowledge commercialization, as well as offering comprehensive critique from the perspective of open source models of knowledge generation and mobilization.

Team members include the Principal Investigator of Editing Modernism in Canada, Professor Dean Irvine (Dalhousie), Canada Research Chair in Humanities Computing, Distinguished Professor Ray Siemens (UVic English & Computer Science), the President of the Board of Directors at Nanaimo Loaves and Fishes, Brian Fillmore (BTF Financial Services), co-Director of the VIU-UVic Critical Digital Humanities Group, Professor Emile Fromet de Rosnay (French, UVic), and two VIU student Research Assistants in the MeTA DH Lab, Nathan Bolton and Seamus Finnerty.

Seminar for Advanced Studies in the Humanities 

Literary Theory Research Group, Vancouver Island University

Directed by Dr. Richard J. Lane and Emily Marroquin, VIU.

  • 2016-2017: Hegel, Heidegger & Hyppolite: A Critical Constellation
  • 2015-2016: Returning to Agamben - The Man Without Content, The Open & Homo Sacer
  • 2013-2015: Heidegger in the Digital Age - Being & Time, Technology & Humanism
  • 2012-2013: Ethics & The Humanities - Emmanuel Levinas through Theory & Phenomenology
  • 2011-2012: Biopolitics & Being - Eric Santner's On Creaturely Life: Rilke, Benjamin, Sebald
  • 2010-2011: Slavoj Zizek - The Ticklish Subject
  • 2009-2010: Giorgio Agamben - The Coming Community
  • 2008-2009: Investigating the Abject - Julia Kristeva's Powers of Horror
  • 2007-2008: Approaching Myth in Contemporary Theory

Critical Digital Humanities Group

VIU MeTA DH Lab and UVic

  • 2014-2016: Group lead: Dr. Richard J. Lane (MeTA DH Lab, VIU) and Dr. Emile Fromet de Rosnay (French, UVic), meeting at The University of Victoria and Vancouver Island University. Supported by the MeTA DH Lab, The Seminar for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, and the Literary Theory Research Group, VIU.

ETCL UVic-VIU MeTA DH Lab, Digital Humanities-Theory Discussion Group

  • 2012 (ETCL funded): Group Lead, Dr. Richard J. Lane (MeTA DH Lab, VIU). Core group members: Dr. Emile Fromet de Rosnay (French, UVic), Dr. Stephen Ross (English, UVic), Dr. Jentery Sayers (English, UVic), Dr. Sally Carpentier (English, VIU), Dr. Ian Whitehouse (English, VIU), Dr. Geri Bemister (Criminology, VIU).
  • Thursday, August 23rd, 10.30 am - 12.00 am, Clearihue building CLE A316, The University of Victoria. Speaker: Dr. Emile Fromet de Rosnay (UVic), "From Contingency to Affirmation, or, Why I quit the 'DH' and do them anyway", followed by discussion.
  • Wednesday, April 25, 10.00 am - 12.00 am, Cowichan Campus, room 135, Vancouver Island University. Speaker: Dr. Jenterey Sayers (UVic), "Drop the Digital", followed by discussion.
  • Tuesday, Feb 21, 9:30 am - 11:30 am, Clearihue building, C118, The University of Victoria.

Humanities Interdisciplinarity Research Group

Vancouver Island University

Directed by Dr. Richard J. Lane, VIU

Co-researcher, Dr. Carmen Concilio, University of Turin, Italy

  • 2015-2016: Humanities Knowledge Commercialization and DH Transferable Skills
  • 2014-2015: The New Universities in BC & the Knowledge/Tech Economy: Innovation & Community Transformation.
  • 2013-2014: Big Humanities: Digital Infrastructure, Innovation and Economies in the Arts & Humanities.
  • 2012-2013: DH-Innovations Symposium & Transformation Technologies - Year 3 of the eBook Futures project.
  • 2011-2012: eBook Futures: A Phenomenology of Digital Reading & Being ; Next Generation IT: A Research & Advisory Group (think tank)
  • 2010-2011: eBooks in the Contemporary Humanities – Advantages and Challenges for Teaching and Research
  • 2009-2010: Image Technologies in Canadian Literature - Narrative, Film & Photography
  • 2008-2009: Studying Canadian First Nations Literatures: The Residential Schools; Trauma; Bibliographical Resources in Literary Criticism