Maggie Sardino
Maggie Sardino, a junior writing and rhetoric major in the College of Arts and Sciences and citizenship and civic engagement major in the Maxwell School, has been selected as a recipient of a 2022 award through the Fulbright Canada Mitacs Globalink Program.
The program funds U.S. students to undertake advanced research projects in a wide range of disciplines for 10-12 weeks in Canada in their area of interest. It also provides professional training and opportunities for cultural and social experiences in Canada.
Sardino was awarded a placement at the University of Victoria (UVic) in British Columbia to work on a project titled “Digital Humanities: Open Scholarship.” Below, she talks about the award, and her studies and experiences at Syracuse.
Q: You are a major in writing and rhetoric and citizenship and civic engagement here at Syracuse University. How have those two disciplines intersected in your studies?
A: I constantly find myself making connections between my coursework for writing and rhetoric and citizenship and civic engagement. These two disciplines are centered around navigating structures of power and representation. For citizenship and civic engagement, my coursework has emphasized the importance of identifying power imbalances between communities and how we can adapt practices and policies to center the voices that are routinely ignored.
Through my studies in writing and rhetoric, I have acquired the skills to articulate these imbalances and explore different systems of thought that can make new realities possible. Both of my studies have enabled me to become more aware of the way power works through both our formal systems of representation and informal systems of communication.
Q: In your time at SU, you have been a storyteller through the Narratio Fellowship program, a storytelling workshop partnership between the College of Arts and Sciences and Syracuse’s Northside Learning Center, and the SU Globalists publication. What have these experiences taught you?
A: Being able to work with the Narratio Fellowship and the Globalists publication has been an absolute honor. I have learned so much from these experiences. The most valuable lesson has been recognizing the responsibility I have as a storyteller. Narratives have the ability to empower communities, forge connections and challenge falsehoods.
Both of these programs have instilled in me that reflecting on the impact of your work and acknowledging the larger context it exists within is crucial to being an ethical storyteller. My work with the Narratio Fellowship has also imparted to me the responsibility storytellers have to equip others with the tools they need to share their own stories on their own terms.
Q: What inspired you to apply for the Fulbright Canada Mitacs Globalink Program?
A: I was inspired to apply for the Fulbright Canada Mitacs Globalink Program for two major reasons. First, it presented me with an opportunity to engage in cutting-edge community-based research. Canada is one of the leading countries in this field of research and learning. I could not pass up on an opportunity to be trained and mentored by the leaders within community-based research.
Secondly, the program emphasizes the importance of building relationships across the U.S. and Canada. As someone who has not had much opportunity to travel, being able to experience living in another country and being supported by the Fulbright network presented me with the resources to immerse myself in another country and expand my perspective.
Q: Your project at the University of Victoria, “Digital Humanities: Open Scholarship,” focuses on making humanities scholarship more open, inclusive and accessible to non-academic audiences. Tell us more about that.
A: While interning at the University of Victoria, I will be working primarily within the Electronic Textual Cultures Lab (ETCL) where I will explore how we can leverage technology to make scholarship more accessible to and engaged with public audiences. This research is focused on how we can dismantle obstacles to scholarship access, such as paywalls and licensing restrictions, so that non-academic audiences can engage with digital humanities research.
I will also be exploring how we can use technological tools to involve the public in each step of the research process from knowledge co-production to publication. All of this is aimed at creating more sustained dialogue between academic and non-academic communities and empowering the public to occupy a more central position in community engaged university practices.
Q: As part of your experience, you will be helping to organize and facilitate the Digital Humanities Summer Institute, which will be held in June at UVic and is the largest event of its kind in the world. What will happen at this event, and what do you think you’ll take away from it?
A: At the 2022 Digital Humanities Summer Institute, between 500 and 700 scholars, faculty and staff from the arts, humanities, library, and archives communities will convene for two weeks during the summer to share cutting-edge digital humanities work. Participants in the 2022 DHSI will also have the opportunity to receive training on topics ranging from the role of data visualization in open scholarship to anti-colonial pedagogical approaches to digital humanities.
I am really excited to see how humanities scholars from across the world are making strides toward more open scholarship and more engaged research methodologies. The experience will broaden my perspective on the variety of innovative and creative ways academics can involve public audiences in every part of the research process. As I prepare to publish some of my own research, I hope to directly apply the lessons I learn from the DHSI to my work and future projects.
The Fulbright Canada-Mitacs Globalink program is open to sophomores and juniors who are U.S. citizens and have a compelling rationale for pursuing research in Canada. Applications are due in mid-October. Interested candidates should contact the Center for Fellowship and Scholarship Advising (CFSA) at cfsa@syr.edu.
