Association for Theatre in Higher Education

Secretary’s End of Year Report

Electronic Technology Committee End of Year Report

1. Secretaryand Chair of the Electronic Technology Committee

2. July 25, 2016

3. Submitted by Patricia Herrera

4. Consent Agenda Items:

1)Request approval of the minutes of Governing Conference Call, June 17, 2016.

See Appendix A

2)Request approval of the minutes of the Operations Committee Conference Call, January 16, 2016. See Appendix B

3)Request approval of the Operations Committee actions from January through July 2016. See Appendix C

Action Items:

None.

Discussion Item:

None

News of Note:

Secretary

1)As secretary, I recorded the minutes of meetings held between January to July 2016 of the Governing Council and Operations Committee, both in person and electronically. On times that I was unable to attend meetings Eric Ewald took minutes.

2)I have recorded action items voted on during the above meetings (in-person, as well as electronically) of the OC and GC (See Appendices C-D). All action items from January to July 2016 were submitted for posting on ATHE's website.

Electronic and Technology Committee

1)We reviewed the website’s functionality, usefulness, and accuracy in March and will need to review again in August.

2)Events organized

The ETC sponsored three panels.

Panel #1: Digital Tools in Drama Education: Collaborating on What's Needed andWhat's Next

Friday, August 12, 9:45-11:15

A presentation and open discussion about new digital drama platforms and how professors, publishers, content creators, and librarians can work together to improve their functionality.

James Lingle Session Coordinator, Bloomsbury Publishing

Baron Kelly Associate Professor University of Louisville

Paper Title: Digital Tools in Drama Education: Collaborating on What's Needed and What's Next

Annie Gibson Publisher Playwrights Canada Press

Paper Title: Digital Tools in Drama Education: Collaborating on What's Needed and What's Next

Charlotte Cubbage Head of Learning Services;Northwestern University Library

Paper Title: Digital Tools in Drama Education: Collaborating on What's Needed and What's Next

Panel #2: “I, for one, welcome our new...” : Working for a Future with Robots andPerformance"

Friday, August 12, 4:00-5:30pm

The artists and researchers on this panel are working to imagine and design a future in which human-robot interaction is a ubiquitous feature.

Lance Gharavi Session Coordinator Arizona State University

AnnamariaPileggi Panelist Washington University

Paper Title: From Physical Language to Physical Action: What Can Robots Teach us about Acting?

David Z. Saltz Panelist University of Georgia

Paper Title: Experiments in Expressive Robotics with ZeebZob the Robotic Actor

Elizabeth Jochum Panelist Aalborg University

Paper Title: Rehearsal for the Robot Revolution: Combining Theatre for Social Change with Human Robot Interaction Research

Lance Gharavi Panelist Arizona State University

Paper Title: Resistance is Useless: Performance Pedagogy for Robots

Panel #3: Technology, Digital Humanities and Pedagogy in Theater and PerformanceStudies

Saturday, August 13, 8:15-9:45am

This is the panel that we created as a way to begin conversation about revising our Technology Plan.Committee agreed that the Teaching and Technology Task Force Plan written in 1996 does not reflect the current state of the field. ETC agreed that instead of trying to revise it, it would be best to make a call for paper for ATHE 2016 so as to engage the larger membership body in revising this plan. A call for papers for ATHE conference was made in the fall and spring. Response was low. Due to lack of interest this session has been cancelled.

3) A subcommittee with Patricia Herrera, David Saltz and Andrew Kircher was created to work on potential NEH Digital Humanities Summer Seminar in collaboration with ASTR and ATHE. ETC set up a brainstorming session in ATHE 2015 for a potential NEH Digital Humanities Summer Seminar. There was a follow-up conversation at ASTR 2015. Subcommittee gathered all the points that were raised in these meetings and worked on NEH proposal due in February. The subcommittee was able to complete a draft, but did not feel it was strong enough to submit. We will be working to meet the next deadline.

Next Steps:

ETC will be holding our annual business meeting at ATHE 2016. In this meeting we hope to:

  • Welcome incoming secretary.
  • Brainstorm ideas for revising the Technology Plan. The call for papers did not harness much interest.
  • Brainstorm ideas for panels for next ATHE conference.
  • Set out plan for NEH Digital Humanities Summer Seminar for next year.

Respectfully Submitted,

Patricia Herrera

Secretary and Chair of Electronic Technology Committee