People

Braxton Soderman, Co-Chair

Braxton Soderman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Film & Media Studies and co-chairs the Humanities Center’s Digital Humanities Exchange (DHX), a group of faculty, staff, and graduate students who share interests in developing digital avenues for humanities research at UCI. He researches videogames, critical theory, new media aesthetics, and theories of play. He is the author of Against Flow: Video Games and the Flowing Subject (MIT Press, 2021) which critically analyzes Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s theory of psychological flow in relation to game studies and the concept of play. He recently completed a co-authored book on the Intellivision videogame system, developed by the toy company Mattel in the late 1970s. Intellivision: How a Videogame System Battled Atari and Almost Bankrupted Barbie™ will be published within MIT’s Platform Studies Series in Fall 2024. In addition to his books, Professor Soderman has published articles in differences: a Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies, The Journal of Visual Culture, Games and Culture, and elsewhere. He is excited to be working with the Digital Humanities team at UCI and extending its work through a new critical data studies initiative.

Ricky Crano, Co-Chair

Ricky Crano, PhD, is co-chair of DHX and a critical media and cultural theorist specializing in algorithmic epistemologies, affective infrastructures, data power, the comparative media histories of liberalism and fascism, and the environmental and psychodynamic implications of compulsory digitality. At UCI, Ricky holds an Assistant Specialist research post in the Humanities Center and is a lecturer in Film and Media Studies and Anthropology. He holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Studies from The Ohio State University and has previously taught at Tufts University and the Columbus College of Art and Design. His work has appeared in myriad interdisciplinary humanities journals, from Convergence and Angelaki to Foucault Studies and Media-N. His manuscript-in-progress is titled Swipe Right: Participation, Authority, and the Partial Joys of Networked Self-Reflection. He is thrilled to be a collaborator in the recent launch and ongoing development of a critical data studies initiative through UCI’s Digital Humanities Exchange.

Madelynn Dickerson, Co-Chair

Madelynn Dickerson is the Head of Digital Scholarship Services at UCI Libraries and is a co-chair of the Digital Humanities Exchange (DHX). She was previously the Research Librarian for Digital Humanities and History and his been involved with DHX since 2018. Madelynn has an MLIS from San Jose State University, an MSc in the History of Art from the University of Edinburgh, and a BA in Literature from UC Santa Cruz. Her research interests include “collections as data” and related topics. She recently co-authored “Critical Community-Centeredness: Ethical Considerations for Computational Archival Studies.” Madelynn is the author of The Handy Art History Answer Book (Visible Ink Press, 2013) and Apastron (Plan B Press, 2017), a chapbook. Her poetry and visual art have appeared in a wide range of publications and in exhibitions regionally and nationally.

Steering Committee Members

SueJeanne Koh, Humanities Center

Dwayne Pack, School of Humanities, Office of Information Technology

Viviana Alvana Rodriguez (History), DHX Graduate Student Fellow

Alexander Rudenshiold (Film and Mediat Studies), DHX Graduate Student Fellow

And you!

Attend one of our upcoming events

Get in touch via email or be added to our Google group – hum-dh@uci.edu