A unique international exchange with the University of Bergen in Norway will enable West Virginia University students to be full participants in an international team of leading scholars and creators of new media.

Sandy Baldwin, associate professor of English and director of the Center for Literary Computing at WVU, is part of a team developing a joint course and transatlantic exchange in collaborative creativity in new media. Funded by a North American Cooperation grant given by the government of Norway, the project is based at the University of Bergen, Norway, and includes WVU, Temple University and the University of Minnesota, Duluth.

“Dr. Baldwin’s work is vital as we move toward more robust international collaboration,” Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Dean Robert Jones said. “His research is on the cutting edge of new media studies and we anticipate that this partnership will open many new doors for our students.”

Baldwin will collaborate with Scott Rettberg, associate professor of digital culture and the principal investigator on the grant. Rettberg leads the University of Norway Electronic Literature Research Group, and the ELMCIP European research project. ELMCIP, Developing a Network-Based Creative Community: Electronic Literature as a Model of Creativity and Innovation in Practice, is a three-year research project funded by Humanities in the European Research Area.

The grant will fund bilateral meetings to develop student and faculty exchanges, and pilot a joint course by all the partners on the topic of collaborative creativity in new media, to take place in Bergen. The entire team will develop the creative practices emerging out of the collaboration.

WVU’s Center for Literary Computing, under Baldwin’s direction, is internationally recognized for research and programming involving creative new media. The center has existing relations with the other collaborators at the Art and Design program at the University of Minnesota, Duluth and at the Department of Film and Media Arts at Temple University. In the long term, the pilot project will provide a model for future transatlantic exchanges and courses in collaborative creativity in new media.

“I am honored to be collaborating with these other scholars and programs,” Baldwin said.

He adds that the University of Bergen’s program in digital culture is one of the top programs of its type in the world.

“This is the kind of department that we in the U.S. should be looking to for ideas. New media is intrinsically creative and global. I can’t think of any better way to bring students and scholars together.”

For more information, contact Sandy Baldwin at clc@mail.wvu.edu.

-WVU-

rh/12/04/12

CONTACT: Rebecca Herod, Director of Marketing and Communication
304-293-9264, Rebecca.Herod@mail.wvu.edu

Follow @WVUToday on Twitter.