R. Stewart Varner
svarner@upenn.edu
620 Williams Hall
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA
EDUCATION
Doctor of Philosophy, 2010
Emory University, Institute for the Liberal Arts
Focus: Critical Theory, Theories of Subjectivity, Globalization and Culture Dissertation Title: Inside the Perimeter: Urban Development in Atlanta Since the 1996 Summer Olympic Games
Master of Library and Information Science, 2010
University of North Texas, College of Information
Focus: Digital Libraries
Master of Arts, 2001
Bowling Green State University, Department of Popular Culture
Focus: Youth Cultures, Consumer Cultures
Thesis Title: Alternative Consumption: Thrifting, Going Vegan and Creating Community Spaces
Bachelor of Arts, 1998
Queens University of Charlotte
Majors: English Literature, American Studies
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Managing Director, The Price Lab for Digital Humanities
The University of Pennsylvania, September 2016 – Present
- Manage operations for the Lab;
- Set strategic goals for the Lab;
- Coordinate with a variety of campus partners including the UPenn Libraries and SAS Computing.
Digital Scholarship Librarian
University of North Carolina, Feb 2014 – August 2016
- Coordinate with a variety of library units and campus resources to provide scalable and sustainable support for digital scholarship projects;
- Develop and lead workshops for faculty, students and library staff;
- Assist in the planning of the Research Hub;
- Actively participate in the Triangle Area digital scholarship community;
- Actively participate in the national digital scholarship network.
Digital Scholarship Coordinator
Emory University, Woodruff Library, May 2010-Jan 2014
- Co-wrote a successful grant to the Mellon Foundation for the Digital Scholarship Commons;
- Managed activities described in the grant including partnering with faculty to incorporate technology into their research;
- Managed grant budget and operations budget for the Digital Scholarship Commons;
- Produced regular reports for Mellon and library leadership;
- Supervised a staff of library employees, graduate student fellows and undergraduate students;
- Coordinated workshops, lectures and symposia.
Beck Foundation Fellow
Emory University, Woodruff Library, May 2008 – May 2010
- Coordinated and compiled submissions from editors of the collected non- fiction works of T.S. Eliot;
- Proofread and created TEI markup for T.S. Eliot project.
Woodruff Fellow
Emory University, Woodruff Library, August 2007 – May 2008
- Coordinated with special collections staff to select items from the papers of the poet Loula Kendall for the Emory Women Writers Resource Project, an online archive of writing by women;
- Digitized and encoded the items using markup created by the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI).
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Varner, S. (Forthcoming, 2016) DocSouth Data: Open Access Data for Digital Humanities. In K. Smith (Ed) Open Access and the Future of Academic Libraries. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishing Group.
Varner, S. (2016) Library Instruction for Digital Humanities Pedagogy in Undergraduate Classes. In J. White and H. Gilbert (Eds.), Laying the Foundation: Digital Humanities in Academic Libraries. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press.
Hagenmaier, W., Lamparello, D.M., Baker, K.S., Mueller, J. and Varner, S. (December 2014/January 2015). Archivist! Data Librarian! Asset Manager! Do the Differences Really Matter?: Reflecting on Breakout Discussions at the Society of American Archivists 2014 Annual Meeting. ASIS&T Bulletin.
Vandegrift, M., Varner, S. (2013). Evolving in Common: Creating Mutually Supportive Relationships between Libraries and the Digital Humanities. Journal of Library Administration, 53 (1), 67-78.
Page, M., Varner, S. (2012). The Research Commons: Placemaking for Learning In a Twenty-First-Century Library. The Academic Exchange: A Forum for Emory Faculty Work, Life, and Thought, Fall 2012.
Bryson, T., Posner, M., St. Pierre, A., & Varner, S. (2011). Digital Humanities, SPEC Kit 326. Washington, DC: Association of Research Libraries.
Varner, S. (2006). Youth Claiming Space: The Story of Pittsburgh’s Mr. Roboto Project. In P. Hodknson and W. Dicke (Eds.), Youth Cultures: Scenes, Subcultures and Tribes (161-174). London: Routledge.
SELECTED PRESENTATIONS
- The Radical and the Incremental: Expanding the Librarian’s Tool Kit to Prepare the Undergraduate Digital Scholar/Citizen. Panel with Barbara Rockenbach and Laurie Allen. Digital Library Federation Forum, Vancouver, BC October 27, 2015. (A version of the talk is on my blog, titled Multimodal Librarians.)
- The More the Merrier: Tapping into the Power of Librarians to Collaborate on Undergraduate Digital Humanities Assignments. Digital Humanities Forum, Lawrence, KS September 24, 2015.(A version of the talk is on my blog, titled Multimodal Librarians.)
- Libraries as Collaborators in Digital Scholarship: Balancing Experimentation and Sustainability. Case Western Digital Scholarship Colloquium, Cleveland, OH, November 7, 2014.
- Beyond the Digital Surrogate: Discovery and Analysis of Digital Collections. Panel with Lauren Klein and Elizabeth Lorang. Digital Library Federation Forum, Atlanta, GA October 27, 2014.
- Archivist! Data Librarian! Asset Manager! Do the Differences Really Matter? With Wendy Hagenmaier, Dana M. Lamparello, Karen S. Baker, Janina Mueller. Society of American Archivists 2014 Annual Meeting, August 16, 2014. (Post conference review can be found here: https://www.asis.org/Bulletin/Dec-14/DecJan15_RDAP_Hagenmaier_EtAl.html)
- Digital Humanities or Just Humanities. South Atlantic Modern Language Association Annual Conference Atlanta, GA, November 8, 2013.
- Using the Amazon Cloud To Host Digital Scholarship Projects (with Jay Varner). CNI Project Briefing, San Antonio, TX, April 5, 2013.
- Producing and Enforcing Downtown Atlanta: Tourism, Class and Power in Post-Olympics Atlanta. South Atlantic Modern Language Association Annual Conference Raleigh, NC, November 2012.
- Emory’s Research Commons: Connecting Scholars with Technology, Expertise, and Each Other in the Library. With Erica Bruchko and Charles Forrest, EDUCAUSE Southeast Regional Conference, Tampa, FL, June 2012.
- The Politics of Big Data. South Atlantic Modern Language Association Annual Conference Atlanta, GA, November 2011.
- Representing Geographic Knowledge: Opportunities and Challenges from the Atlanta Maps Project at Emory University. Representing Knowledge in the Digital Humanities, Lawrence, KS, September 2011.
WEBINARS
- Library and IT collaboration in support of digital scholarship: How and where do we even get started? Webinar with Rob Nelson (University of Richmond), Glenn Burton (University of South Carolina) and Karen Estlund (University of Oregon), March 20, 2013;
- Building a Research Commons in a University Library: Connecting Scholars with Technology, Expertise and Each Other. Invited presentation for the Georgia Library Association’s Carterette Webinar Series, February 13, 2013.
UN-CONFERENCE SESSIONS
- The Coevolution of Libraries and DH. Proposed and facilitated at THATCamp Libraries Post-Conference for the Digital Library Federation Forum Austin, TX, November 7, 2013;
- Library as Digital Press. Proposed and facilitated at THATCamp Libraries Pre-conference for the Digital Library Federation Forum Denver, CO, November 2012;
- DH and Libraries. Proposed and facilitated at THATCamp CHNM, Center for History and New Media, George Mason University Fairfax, VA, June 2012;
- Scholar Librarians; Original Research from the Library. Proposed and facilitated at THATCamp CHNM, Center for History and New Media, George Mason University Fairfax, VA, June 2012.
UNIVERSITY AND LIBRARY SERVICE
Triangle Scholarly Communications Institute, Advisory Panel (UNC)
October 2015 – Present
This panel contains representatives from each of the Research Triangle institutions and plans the annual Mellon Funded Scholarly Communications Institute. Responsibilities include deciding on a theme and choosing participants.
Carolina Digital Humanities Initiative, Steering Committee (UNC)
August 2014 – Present
The Carolina Digital Humanities Initiative is a Mellon funded program at UNC which promotes digital humanities on campus and offers a variety of training opportunities as well as fellowships. The steering committee advises on strategic decisions for the CDHI.
QEP Planning Committee (Emory)
April 2013 – January 2014
The QEP Planning Committee is developing a Quality Enhancement Plan for Emory as part of its re-accreditation process with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. The theme of the QEP is “The Nature of Evidence” and the committee is working on detailed plans aimed at making sure first year students have sustained and meaningful engagements with primary evidence in and out of the classroom.
Task Force on Supporting Digital Scholarship (Emory)
November 2012 – April 2013
Comprised of faculty, graduate students and managers from both the library and central IT, this taskforce is charged with imagining the future of University support for digital scholarship and proposing concrete steps to move toward that future.
Interdisciplinary Humanities Collaborative (Emory)
January 2012 – Present
Assembled by the Office of the Provost, this group provides guidance on what kinds of opportunities and structures could be developed to support interdisciplinary humanistic work at Emory.
Subject Liaison Task Force (Emory)
September 2011 – August 2012
This taskforce was charted by senior library administrators and asked to re- imagine the role of the subject liaison as a research expert and partner in digital scholarship.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Creating Digital Humanities Projects for Mobile Environments
June 2012
Digital Humanities Summer Institute University of Victoria, Victoria BC
Supervisor Development Program
January 2012 – August 2012
Office of Learning and Organizational Development Emory University
Project Management Training
June 2011
Emory Center for Lifelong Learning Emory University
SELECTED TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Topics and Tools in the Digital Humanities (DSMS 700)
Spring 2012
Emory University, Instructor
Visual Culture (IDS 216)
Summer 2007
Emory University, Graduate Instructor
American Identities (AMST 112)
Spring 2007
Emory University, Dean’s Teaching Fellow
SEARCH COMMITTEES (UNC)
- Director of Research and Instruction Services, Davis Library, Fall 2015
- North Carolina Research and Instruction Librarian, Wilson Library, Spring 2015
- Digital Humanities Postdoctoral Fellow, Spring 2015
- Carolina Digital Humanities / Institute for the Arts and Humanities Initiative Post-Doctoral Fellow, Spring 2015
SEARCH COMMITTEES (Emory)
- Senior Secretary, Woodruff Library, Fall 2012
- Research Commons Director, Spring 2012
- Anthropology Subject Liaison, Spring 2012
- Woodruff Graduate Student Fellow, DiSC Spring 2012
- Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Digital Humanities, Summer 2011
- Library Research Fellow, Spring 2011
- History and African American Studies Subject Liaison, Summer 2010
