Recognized for Visionary Contribution to Science and Technology in Education
NEW YORK, N.Y. (October 24, 2012) – The World Technology Network recognized Cathy N. Davidson (Duke University) and David Theo Goldberg (University of California Humanities Research Institute) as winners of the prestigious World Technology Award in the “Educator” category last night at a gala ceremony held at Rockefeller Center in New York City. A list of all winners is available at WTN.net.
Davidson and Goldberg were named Educators of the Year for their work as co-founders of what has become a 9500+ global learning network, the Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory (HASTAC, pronounced “haystack”). Begun in 2002, HASTAC has had a profound impact leading innovative reform on higher education. Davidson and Goldberg also co-administer the annual Digital Media and Learning Competitions supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The four Competitions to date have sponsored and mentored 89 learning projects in more than 20 countries.
The World Technology Network (WTN) has been honoring the top innovators in science and technology since 2000, singling out the “most innovative work of the greatest likely long-term significance.” Nominees for the 2012 World Technology Awards were selected by the WTN membership in more than 40 countries through an intensive, global competitive process over a period of many months.
“It’s a gratifying to see HASTAC go from an idea to an influential, international knowledge network which helps shape new programs and mentor the next generation of teachers, professors, and community learning leaders,” said Davidson, who holds two Distinguished Professorships at Duke University, where she also codirects the PhD Lab in Digital Knowledge. “This wonderful recognition from the WTN isn’t just for us, but for everyone who contributes to HASTAC, including the 720 students in the HASTAC Scholars network, and all the DML grantees who share our commitment to new forms of peer-based education, informal learning, and vital community information exchange and social action. We are deeply honored to receive this distinguished award.”
Now in its tenth year, HASTAC is a global learning network primarily based in higher education and dedicated to knowledge that crosses disciplines and translates specialized scholarly research for a larger public. HASTAC was founded “to lead inventive and innovative knowledge production and learning at the interface of humanities, the natural and social sciences, the arts, and digital technology,” said David Theo Goldberg, Director of the University of California Humanities Research Institute and Executive Director of the Digital Media and Learning Research Hub at the University of California, Irvine, supported by the MacArthur Foundation. “We were concerned that knowledge making not be limited by the conventional silos. The Digital Media and Learning Competition grew out of the collaboration with the MacArthur Foundation and our mutual interest in surfacing and recognizing the sorts of learning technologies and practices that would foster such innovation. We are thrilled that the World Technology Network has found this work worthy too.”
HASTAC’s central administrative offices are at Duke University, which has provided invaluable support for the peer-produced virtual network since its founding. The www.hastac.org website is an open community that anyone can join for free. It serves as a collaborative platform, an authoring tool, an information commons, an innovative electronic publishing outlet, and a web communication tool. Community members use HASTAC for research, classroom teaching, online public discussions of research collaborations, and forums on technological and social issues such as “Race After the Internet” or “Pedagogical Ethics in a Digital Age.” HASTAC’s two mottos are “Learning the future together” and “Difference is our operating system.”
The winners of the World Technology Awards were announced during a ceremony at the Time-Life Building on October 23 at the close of the World Technology Summit, a two-day thought leadership conference presented by the WTN in association with TIME magazine, Fortune, CNN, Science/AAAS, Technology Review, and others.
“The World Technology Awards program is not only a very inspiring way to identify and honor the most innovative people and organizations in the technology world, but also a truly disciplined way for the WTN membership to identify those who will formally join them, as WTN Fellows, as part of our global community,” said James Clark, Founder and Chairman of the World Technology Network. “By working to make useful connections among our members, we look forward to assisting Professors Davidson and Goldberg in continuing to help create our collective future and change our world.”
The WTN is a curated membership community comprised of the world’s most innovative individuals and organizations in science, technology, and related fields. It exists to “encourage serendipity” — the happy accidents of colliding ideas and new relationships that cause the biggest breakthroughs for individuals and institutions — and works to accomplish its mission through global and regional events for its members and extended audience, to help make connections among them, and to examine the likely implications and possible applications of emerging technologies.
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About Cathy N. Davidson
Cathy N. Davidson teaches at Duke University, where she co-directs the Ph.D. Lab in Digital Knowledge and is the Ruth F. DeVarney Professor of English and the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies. She served as Duke’s first Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Studies and helped to create the Program in Information Science + Information Studies and the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience. She was recently appointed by President Obama to the National Council on the Humanities. In July 2012, she was named the first educator on the six-person Board of Directors of the Mozilla Foundation.She has published more than 20 books, most recently Now You See It: How Technology and Brain Science Will Transform Schools and Business for the 21st Century (see: http://english.duke.edu/people?Gurl=/aas/English&Uil=cathy.davidson&subpage=profile).
About David Theo Goldberg
David Theo Goldberg is the Director of the system-wide University of California Humanities Research Institute and Executive Director of the MacArthur-sponsored UCI Research Hub in Digital Media and Learning. The latter is the international center coordinating all research for the MacArthur Foundation initiative in connected learning. He is a Professor in Comparative Literature, Anthropology, and Criminology, Law and Society at UC Irvine. He has written extensively on digital media’s impact on higher education, on race and racism, law and society, and on critical theory. He has published more than a dozen books, most recently The Threat of Race (see: http://uchri.org/about/staff/dr-david-theo-goldberg/).
Davidson and Goldberg are the co-authors of the widely read The Future of Thinking: Learning Institutions in a Digital Age (MIT Press, 2010).
For more information about Cathy Davidson, please contact:
Anna Rose Beck
Executive Assistant to Cathy N. Davidson
anna.beck@duke.edu
919-684-8471
For more information about David Theo Goldberg, please contact:
Arielle Read
Executive Assistant to David Theo Goldberg
aread@hri.uci.edu
949-824-8900
For more information about HASTAC, please contact:
Hilary Culbertson
Program Coordinator, HASTAC
hilary.culbertson@duke.edu
919-668-1913
For more information about the World Technology Network, please contact:
Beth-Ellen Keyes
Director of Events and Operations, The World Technology Network
Awards2012@wtn.net
646-246-1081
