UMKC Libraries is excited to announce that Dr. Spencer Keralis (they/them) will join the Libraries team in the new position of Head of Digital Scholarship Services. In this role, they will also hold an administrative appointment as the Libraries’ co-director of the Center for Digital & Public Humanities, joining Dr. Diane Mutti Burke and Dr. Jeff Rydberg-Cox in the School of Humanities & Social Sciences.
Spencer comes to us with ten years of experience in digital scholarship, digital humanities, and public humanities, most recently as Assistant Professor and Digital Humanities Librarian with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign University Library. Previous experience includes two different roles over several years at the University of North Texas Libraries: Head of Digital Humanities & Collaborative Programs and Director for Digital Scholarship. They earned an MA and PhD in English and American Literature from New York University. Spencer’s research explores the ethics of collaboration in humanities research and critical digital pedagogy.
As the Head of Digital Scholarship Services, Spencer will be responsible for operational management of the Digital Collaboration Studio; creating programming, resource guides, and consulting services that support digital research and pedagogy; and administrative management and direction for the Libraries’ participation in the Center for Digital and Public Humanities, a partnership between the Libraries and the School for Humanities and Social Sciences. The new Head of Digital Scholarship Services and Co-Director of the Center for Digital and Public Humanities position has been established thanks to generous support from the William T. Kemper Foundation – Commerce Bank, Trustee.
