Mary-Kate Hedrick, Award Winner

Mary-Kate Hedrick (first-year MA, Linguistics concentration) has won First Place in NCSU Libraries’ 1st Annual Multimedia Research Contest. The contest promotes research innovations involving visualization and digital media. This year’s theme was “Innovation and the 18th century.” Mary-Kate’s delightful project introduces key figures and concepts in historical linguistics through interactive puzzles and games. Check it out:

“Philologists who Chase” is a non-linear digital gamebook that offers an overview of linguistic subfields alongside biographical information of key philology practitioners in the 1700s. Building upon the framework of previous studies in digital humanities which examine the rapidly changing perspectives of online learning, the linguistic riddles and word puzzles presented throughout this project will attempt to reorient the state of ‘pedagogical multimedia’ towards a sustained discussion of student engagement and agency through interactive digital lesson plans. The title, “Philologists who Chase,” comes from William Cowper’s 18th century poem “Retirement,” which takes an interesting view to ‘novel’ interests and hobbies and really lends itself well to demonstrating the historical relationship between philology and modern linguistics.
Congratulations, Mary-Kate!