The Lansing State Journal recently released an article celebrating the national growth and prominence of GradHacker. GradHacker is a blog written by and for graduate students that discusses issues and themes common to students enrolled in graduate programs. Typical posts cover both professional and personal concerns, with recent topics including the proper usage of social media with professional colleagues, how to survive a dissertation, and the way memes can be used within media studies. The most recent GradHacker podcast interviews Michigan State University’s Graduate School Dean, Karen Klomparens about factors to consider when applying to graduate schools.

GradHacker was founded by a number of graduate students at MSU, including Alex Galarza and Katy Meyers. They conceived of the idea while enrolled in the Cultural Heritage Informatics Initiative led by Dr. Ethan Watrall, associate director of MATRIX and now advisor for the GradHacker project. GradHacker’s steady rise in popularity has led to national and international attention on both a) the unique challenges faced by graduate students and b) the quality of work being done by graduate students both at Michigan State University and other institutions.

MATRIX has been pleased to continue to support the development of the GradHacker platform as well as the professional development of the graduate students who created it. We invite you to learn more about the project by reading the LSJ article or to explore GradHacker for yourself at www.gradhacker.org. GradHacker can also be read on InsideHigherEd.com at http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/gradhacker.

MATRIX Associate Director Ethan Watrall, traveled to the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH) Institute on Thursday, October 04, 2012 to give a digital dialogue entitled “Archaeology and the Big Tent of the Digital Humanities.” Watrall talks about how the classification of the digital humanities as a “big tent” has led to the question of who is (and who is not) included under the label of “digital humanist.”

As an assistant professor within the MSU Department of Anthropology and the Associate Director at MATRIX, a digital humanities center, Watrall has clearly seen connections between his work as an archaeological anthropologist and the digital humanities. Unfortunately, however, the majority of his colleagues have not. The reason(s) behind this separation are puzzling and, Watrall argues, complicated.

In this digital dialogue, Watrall expounds on those reasons and the opportunities missed because of them. More importantly, he lays out what he sees as important commonalities between the two fields and suggests pathways for the two fields to become integrated and engaged with each other.

The Digital Dialogues series are produced by MITH with the goal of generating discussions, presentations, and intellectual exchanges that scholars can build into their weekly schedules. To review Watrall’s dialogue, or to view past dialogues in the series, visit the Digital Dialogues homepage at http://mith.umd.edu/digitaldialogues/ or follow the program on Twitter at @digdialog.

A new episode of Africa Past & Present was released on June 1. This episode features Dr. Peter Limb of Michigan State University (MSU) as he discusses the life and writings of Dr. Alfred Bitini Xuma. An important figure in the history of South Africa, Xuma was the first black physician in Johannesburg and served as President-General of the African National Congress (ANC) from 1940 to 1949.

Limb’s discussion is based on his recently published book, A. B. Xuma: Autobiography and Selected Works. By reflecting on Xuma’s autobiography, his correspondence, essays and speeches on health, politics, crime, beer, the pass laws, and the rights of African women, Limb illuminates some of the tensions and controversies Xuma faced during his career and describes his historical legacy for South Africa.

Africa Past & Present is a joint project between MATRIX and the MSU Department of History. The project works to make regular podcasts focused on issues of African history, culture, and politics. Visit their site to learn more about the project, download this podcast, and explore past episodes.

Episode 63 of Africa Past and Present was released Wednesday, May 16 2012. The episode features a conversation with Professor Tom Turner, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Country Specialist at Amnesty International USA.

Africa Past and Present is hosted by Michigan State University historians Peter Alegi and Peter Limb and produced by MATRIX. Subscribe to the podcast on the Africa Past and Present website and on iTunes.

MATRIX is pleased to announce The Gradhacker Podcast, a recent addition to the Gradhacker project launched by Cultural Heritage Informatics Fellows Katy Meyers and Alex Galarza. The podcast is co-hosted by Galarza and education technology PhD candidate Andrea Zellner. MATRIX has provided support for the Gradhacker blog, now featured on Insidehighered.com, and continues to incubate projects like the podcast. The podcast is produced and hosted via MATRIX’s Digital Lab. Episodes feature interviews, discussion of recent Gradhacker blog posts, and news/stories related to graduate school. Episode 1 includes an interview with an MSU faculty member who has experimented with ‘flipping’ his classroom and Episode 2 features MATRIX Associate Director Ethan Watrall explaining the importance of THATCamp. The podcast URL is podcast.gradhacker.org and you can also now subscribe on iTunes.

In this episode, Layering Racial Oppression in South Africa, Jacob Dlamini, South African author, journalist, and historian, discusses his best-selling book Native Nostalgia, a memoir that challenges conventional struggle narratives.  He also talks about the social and political history of Kruger National Park and a new research project on collaborators of the apartheid security forces.

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Africa Past and Present is hosted by Michigan State University historians Peter Alegi and Peter Limb and produced by MATRIX. Subscribe to the podcast on the Africa Past and Present website and on iTunes.

In Episode 58, Professor Aili Mari Tripp (Political Science, University of Wisconsin – Madison; President-elect, U.S. African Studies Association) discusses African women’s movements, democratization, and the paradoxes of power in Museveni’s Uganda. She also underscores the need for the African Studies Association to challenge the U.S. government’s draconian cuts to international education. With guest host Prof. Kiki Edozie (International Relations, Michigan State).

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Africa Past and Present is hosted by Michigan State University historians Peter Alegi and Peter Limb and produced by MATRIX. Subscribe to the podcast on our website and on iTunes.

Africa Past and Present is co-hosted by Michigan State University historians Peter Alegi and Peter Limb and produced by Matrix.

Episode 57 features African activists Eddie Daniels and Christine Root, who discuss spending a lifetime working for African liberation. Daniels work in South Africa led to his imprisonment alongside Nelson Mandela on Robben Island from 1964-1979, while Root worked in solidarity with such struggles from the U.S. as Associate Director of the Washington Office on Africa.

The African Activist Archive, a Michigan State University project cosponsored by Matrix and the African Studies Center, preserves records and memories of ordinary Americans supporting the African fight against colonialism and apartheid.

Africa Past and Present is co-hosted by Michigan State University historians Peter Alegi and Peter Limb and produced by Matrix.

Episode 56 features Dr. Gary Morgan, Michigan State University Museum Director, on African masks and the Great Dance (Gule Wamkulu) in Chewa society, Malawi. He discusses the origins and characters of Gule Wamkulu, and gender, political, educational and health aspects of masks and their future in a globalizing world. This podcast accompanies the MSU Museum exhibition on masks and the first major book on Gule Wamkulu with Claude Boucher of the Kungoni Centre of Culture and Art, Mua, Malawi.

Photo: Greya character (copyright Gary Morgan)