Graduate

For graduate students, Information Science + Studies is a place to learn new, digital methods for teaching, research, and presentation - as well as to analyze and critique their effects in social, cultural, economic, and affective terms. We originate graduate seminars as well as cross-list relevant courses from campus departments such as Art, Art History and Visual Studies, Literature, English, and others. (See Courses for more information about what has been and will be offered.) In addition, ISS-connected graduate students are encouraged to develop independent study projects focused around learning new technologies, applying digital methods, or digging into ISS-related research topics.

ISS is part of the larger Visual Studies Initiative community centered in the Smith Warehouse, Bays 9 through 12.  We are co-located with the Duke Wired! Lab for Visualizing the Past, the Jenkins Collaboratory for New Technologies and Society, the Artificial Life, Culture and Evolution Lab, the S-1 (Sense) LabDuke Art, Law, and Markets, and the Visualization Technology Group. We sponsor or co-sponsor workshops, symposia, and guest speaker-related events regularly with this community, and take input from graduate students on which topics to pursue and outside speakers to bring to campus. In addition, the weekly VSI Rendez-Vous, which takes place at 4:15 every Thursday,  provides an opportunity for faculty and graduate students to "workshop" their latest projects with a diverse group of faculty, staff, and students from the sciences, social sciences, and humanities.

We also help graduate students connect to various interdisciplinary research opportunities further afield. Grad students have been involved in projects in the Franklin Humanities Institute's GreaterThanGames Lab, the BorderWorks Lab, the Haiti Lab, and the PhD Lab for Digital Knowledge, as well as the Renaissance Computing Institute. ISS project support takes the form of hosting independent study opportunities, organizing training, providing hardware and software, or simply providing key introductions. We are also developing our connections to the Triangle Digital Humanities community, and encourage students to attend events and take relevant courses at UNC and NC State as well.

ISS and the VSI community are also often looking for a few good research assistants or TAs. We teach several sections of Web-Based Multimedia Communications each fall semester, for example, and often have needs for TA support in 3D modeling and visualization, database design, mapping and GIS, game design, database development, physical computing, virtual reality design, etc. Learn through us - and then help us teach and develop new projects! Advanced graduate students also sometimes teach their own courses in ISS as well. Recent topics have included Digital Storytelling, Media Remix, and the web development course.

For more information about graduate study in ISS, contact Victoria Szabo, the ISS Certificate DGS.