This post is part of the Meet the ETCL Team series, which introduces the wonderful people who work in the lab and who have worked with us in the past.
Alex Christie joined the lab in 2012 while completing his PhD in the English Department at UVic. As a research assistant on the Modernist Versions Project, Alex worked on several projects that involved transforming modernist archival materials in digital environments. The first of these used modVers, a tool developed by Daniel Carter, to visualize variants between different manuscript versions of writings by Marcel Proust and Djuna Barnes.
Working alongside Katie Tanigawa, and in collaboration with the Modernist Versions Project, INKE, the Maker Lab, and Compute Canada, Alex also developed the Z-axis Mapping project, which creates warped 3D maps of modernist literary space.
Katie and Alex also worked together to organize the lab’s Nuts & Bolts Speaker Series in 2015–2016, and Alex collaborated with other ETCL and INKE team members on several publications in the field of open social scholarship.
Now, Alex is Assistant Professor in Digital Prototyping at Brock University’s Centre for Digital Humanities (CDH), which houses Brock’s Interactive Arts and Science and GAME programs. Alex’s main work in the CDH involves supporting the students in these programs by connecting them with the conceptual and technical resources they need to realize their creative ambitions. He is continually amazed by the videogames and digital media products Brock’s students create and take to market. In 2018, Alex served on the program committee for the Digital Pedagogy Institute, a two-day conference run in partnership with other Ontario universities and hosted by the CDH from 2017 to 2018. Alex is currently completing several publications on digital pedagogy.
For Alex, the physical space of the lab and the way it enabled impromptu discussions is his favourite memory of working here. Similarly, he cites the collaborations that working together in a shared space facilitate as the lab experience that shaped his career path the most. In particular, he notes learning how to build successful collaborations with colleagues to share research, build professional communities, and contribute to the advancement of our field as the most transformative aspect of being part of the lab team.
When Alex is not working, he enjoys cycling, hot yoga, playing the piano, experimenting with new vegetarian recipes, and practicing Insight meditation. He is forever in search of the perfect breakfast smoothie recipe.