"Swerver. And that’s what I am, like it or not"
A Burnable Book
Bruce Holsinger
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The Digital Humanities Institute
A year after its official establishment, Digital Humanities Institute at the George Washington University has been quietly but productively been engineering significant foundations for the technological turn in scholarship recently gaining velocity. Co-founder and director, Jonathan Hsy has been hard at work developing the projects begun by Alexa Huang, currently on a much deserved sabbatical, and planting new seeds for the future. A few of these structural scaffoldings include the launching of an official DH Institute website to serve as a forum for online discussions and a node for digital projects, as well as making the Digital Humanities symposium at GWU, once supposed to be a one off event, into a regular conference for the evolution of the Humanities in the wake of a technological revolution.
In addition to co-sponsoring a variety of important digital events at GWU, the DHI invited the renowned scholar and author Bruce Holsinger to speak to students, faculty, and staff at a day long series of events. The day began with an intimate luncheon where Holsinger discussed his recently penned novel, A Burnable Book, with medieval seminars who had read it as part of a wider discussion about life in the late 14th century. Official events came to a close with a talk to a bustling amphitheater, where Holsinger shared a "A MOOC Postmortem" on his Massive Open Online Course on "Plagues, Witches, and War." Throughout his private and public remarks, Holsinger made frequent reference to an "ambivalence" that now distinguishes his current relations to texts and society. This, in part, accounts for why questions on Holsinger's work diversely characterizes his approach to volatile social matters as strikingly cynical to some and surprisingly optimistic to others. Indeed, Holsinger's ambivalence serves to critically frame how he presents discourses on medieval swervers and digital MOOcs.
In addition to co-sponsoring a variety of important digital events at GWU, the DHI invited the renowned scholar and author Bruce Holsinger to speak to students, faculty, and staff at a day long series of events. The day began with an intimate luncheon where Holsinger discussed his recently penned novel, A Burnable Book, with medieval seminars who had read it as part of a wider discussion about life in the late 14th century. Official events came to a close with a talk to a bustling amphitheater, where Holsinger shared a "A MOOC Postmortem" on his Massive Open Online Course on "Plagues, Witches, and War." Throughout his private and public remarks, Holsinger made frequent reference to an "ambivalence" that now distinguishes his current relations to texts and society. This, in part, accounts for why questions on Holsinger's work diversely characterizes his approach to volatile social matters as strikingly cynical to some and surprisingly optimistic to others. Indeed, Holsinger's ambivalence serves to critically frame how he presents discourses on medieval swervers and digital MOOcs.
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A Burnable Book
The Digital Humanities Institute timed Holsinger's visit to align with the end of the semester, when two courses, one taught by Jonathan Hsy and one by Jeffrey J Cohen, had completed reading A Burnable Book as part of their discussion on medieval literature and its antecedents. The novel follows a fictionalized John Gower (author of such works as the Confessio Amantis) as he is called upon by Geoffrey Chaucer (author of such works as The Canterbury Tales) to help solve a mysterious plot that seems to threaten the lives of royalty and the stability of England in the year 1385. While students and teachers had a variety of questions for Holsinger, on matters such as genre and composition, the conversation returned time and again to the rising role of another historical figure portrayed in Holsinger's book: Eleanor (a.k.a. John) Rykener.
A medieval transgender prostitute, Eleanor has been discussed passionately in recent scholarship on queer and trans readings of the 14th century. In his own treatment of the politically charged figure, reflecting his critically ambivalence, Holsinger has the character characterize himself/herself as a swerver: “Swerver. And that’s what I am, like it or not. A man in a body, a woman in soul. One day a he, the next a she, a stiff cock for some, a tight arse for others. Provided they could pay, Eleanor would do all and be all for her loyal jakes, and she had plenty who liked taking it and giving it every which way.” (44) When asked how much he had been influenced by the critically queer and trans practice of attending to gaps in the archive and imagining erased histories, Holsinger responded by saying that he believes that this has long been a project of medieval studies. All scholars and authors, Holsinger contends, must on some level become "swervers" if they are going to make sense of the lived messiness, complexities, and contradictions of the past.
A medieval transgender prostitute, Eleanor has been discussed passionately in recent scholarship on queer and trans readings of the 14th century. In his own treatment of the politically charged figure, reflecting his critically ambivalence, Holsinger has the character characterize himself/herself as a swerver: “Swerver. And that’s what I am, like it or not. A man in a body, a woman in soul. One day a he, the next a she, a stiff cock for some, a tight arse for others. Provided they could pay, Eleanor would do all and be all for her loyal jakes, and she had plenty who liked taking it and giving it every which way.” (44) When asked how much he had been influenced by the critically queer and trans practice of attending to gaps in the archive and imagining erased histories, Holsinger responded by saying that he believes that this has long been a project of medieval studies. All scholars and authors, Holsinger contends, must on some level become "swervers" if they are going to make sense of the lived messiness, complexities, and contradictions of the past.
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Massive Open Online Courses
The main event of the day was Holsinger's postmortem on teaching a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) that taught lessons on "Plague, Witches, and War" to thousands of students over the course of a few months. Once again, Holsinger found himself working amidst politically charged topics and circumstances. After a very public conflict at the University of Virginia, where he works, Holsinger was offered funds to teach a MOOC designed in part to help redirect the conversation and business of the university towards new areas. MOOCs are and were considered still very experimental, both in their structure and their consequences. The "Massiveness" of the course means that the teacher will have to change their usual pedagogical mode to respond to working with tens of thousands instead of tens of students. The "Openness" means the course will function according to different revenue and access structures, without the usual enrollment requirements on credits and tuition. The "Online" part requires teachers to change the format of their pedagogy, retooling discussions and term papers to work instead via digital lectures and forums. Many regard these changes as unmaking the very structures of community on which the Humanities depends, while others view these innovations as a mass democratization of knowledge.
True to his ambivalent position, Holsinger neither shies away from the controversies that fuel and surround MOOCs nor gives into their respective despair and optimisms. Every way of doing things opens up certain opportunities while it shuts down others. For instance, while the massive and online nature of MOOCs disallow the intimacy of meetings such as the luncheon held earlier in the day, it encourages digital visits from high profile guests who are more interested in speaking to an audience of twenty thousand students (from the comfort of their home computer) than speaking to twenty (after traveling however long to be there in person). As a teacher, Holsinger tells fellow educators that despite the demands to learn and adapt technologies, the learning curve is rather quick and the pay off can be substantial. When polled, students of MOOCs generally were optimistic and excited about how online courses make education more accessible to populations that otherwise would be walled out by traditional universities.
In the end, however, Holsinger's ambivalence also speaks to the mixed futures he sees for MOOCs. On the one hand, the "brick and mortar" classrooms will continue to serve demands for teaching that cannot be replicated elsewhere and (ironically) the expense of staging MOOCs (free of charge), as opposed to pay-to-learn online courses, will likely only be financially sustainable as the largesse of large traditional institutions. However we cut it, the changes that are opened up by Medieval Studies and the Digital Humanities requires everyone to be a bit of an amphibian, able to exist between different environments, discourses, and forms of embodiment. The ability to package and re-package yourself and your work is critical to navigating the demands of the past and the future. If we are to thrive, we need to take a lesson from the medieval swervers and the digital MOOCs to maintain our ambivalence.
True to his ambivalent position, Holsinger neither shies away from the controversies that fuel and surround MOOCs nor gives into their respective despair and optimisms. Every way of doing things opens up certain opportunities while it shuts down others. For instance, while the massive and online nature of MOOCs disallow the intimacy of meetings such as the luncheon held earlier in the day, it encourages digital visits from high profile guests who are more interested in speaking to an audience of twenty thousand students (from the comfort of their home computer) than speaking to twenty (after traveling however long to be there in person). As a teacher, Holsinger tells fellow educators that despite the demands to learn and adapt technologies, the learning curve is rather quick and the pay off can be substantial. When polled, students of MOOCs generally were optimistic and excited about how online courses make education more accessible to populations that otherwise would be walled out by traditional universities.
In the end, however, Holsinger's ambivalence also speaks to the mixed futures he sees for MOOCs. On the one hand, the "brick and mortar" classrooms will continue to serve demands for teaching that cannot be replicated elsewhere and (ironically) the expense of staging MOOCs (free of charge), as opposed to pay-to-learn online courses, will likely only be financially sustainable as the largesse of large traditional institutions. However we cut it, the changes that are opened up by Medieval Studies and the Digital Humanities requires everyone to be a bit of an amphibian, able to exist between different environments, discourses, and forms of embodiment. The ability to package and re-package yourself and your work is critical to navigating the demands of the past and the future. If we are to thrive, we need to take a lesson from the medieval swervers and the digital MOOCs to maintain our ambivalence.
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