NEWS
BRIEFS
Professor Trailblazing in the Digital Humanities
Amanda Licastro, Assistant Professor of Digital Rhetoric at as well as the power of digital humanities to foster greater
Stevenson’s School of Humanities and Social Sciences, was social engagement and understanding through pedagogy.”
recently awarded the Alliance of Digital Humanities Orga- Licastro, who said she was deeply honored to receive the
nizations (ADHO) Paul Fortier Prize for her paper entitled prize, strongly believes in Stevenson students and hopes
“Teaching E mpathy through Virtual Reality.” to demonstrate that everyone has boundless potential as
Licastro presented her paper at the highly competitive
humans.
where “My presentation gave me the chance to showcase the
approximately 2,000 people competed for the honor to be innovative ingenuity of our students and to demonstrate
named a Paul Fortier Prize winner. The award, given for the power of collaborative, project-based pedagogy,” Licastro
the best paper by a young scholar, honors late University says. “Introducing any new technology into a learning
Distinguished Professor of French, Paul Fortier. environment is risky, but I believe it is vital to prepare our
Digital
Humanities
Conference
in
Montreal
ADHO panelists described Licastro as a trailblazer in students to be leaders in their chosen industries, which
the digital humanities field as her paper illustrated the means making the most cutting-edge tools available to
potential of virtual reality in a teaching context. “This them for consideration.”
project demonstrates the potential for digital humanities An English professor at SU since 2015, Licastro taught
to foster a deeper human understanding, specifically by herself the skills necessary to understand digital technology
focusing on and exploring the question of empathy in an and teach it to others. She encourages students to explore
educational context,” ACH representative to the ADHO the unknown and learn new skills that are outside of their
awards committee Micki Kaufman said. “The project comfort zones.
illustrates the possibilities that innovative teaching provides
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