The Library welcomes Amanda Visconti and Brandon Walsh, who began on April 24 in the Scholars’ Lab—Amanda as Managing Director, and Brandon as head of the Lab’s Graduate Programs. Amanda will assist Director Alison Booth in developing the Lab’s activities and overseeing staff, resources, and the budget. Brandon will oversee the Digital Humanities and Praxis fellows and an increasing number of undergraduate and graduate interns.

Amanda comes to UVA from Purdue University where she was an Assistant Research Professor & Digital Humanities Specialist Librarian. Amanda wrote the first entirely-digital dissertation in literary humanities—Infinite Ulysses. Prior to that she earned an M.S. in Information, Digital Humanities, and Human-Computer Interaction at the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. at the University of Maryland, which included experience in the University of Maryland’s Institute for Technology in the Humanities. She recently initiated Digital Humanities Slack.

Brandon comes from Washington and Lee University where he was a Mellon Digital Humanities Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor of English. He has collaborated with the Praxis Program from Lexington, and helped to build a DH curriculum and center in W&L’s library. Brandon holds a Ph.D. in English from UVA; his dissertation, AudioTextual: Modernism, Sound Recordings, and Networks of Reception, provides a model of interdisciplinary work for our current graduate students, uniting sound studies, modernist literary studies, and DH. Brandon brings teaching skills (as shown by his participation HILT), and a proven ability to manage grant funds and host public events.

Welcome, Amanda and Brandon!