Cathy Davidson

Davidson was born in Chicago, received a B.A. from Elmhurst College, an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Binghamton University, and did postdoctoral studies at the University of Chicago. She has received honorary doctorates from Elmhurst College and Northwestern University.[1]

Davidson was a professor of English at Michigan State University. She served as vice provost for Interdisciplinary Studies at Duke University from 1998 to 2006, with administrative responsibility for over 60 research programs in Duke's nine academic and professional schools. She was responsible for designing technologies for research, teaching, and learning, and in 1999 helped create ISIS, the program in Information Science + Information Studies at Duke.[2]

In 2002, Davidson co-founded with David Theo Goldberg the virtual organization Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory HASTAC, an international organization dedicated to rethinking the future of learning for the information age.[3]

In 2003, Davidson initiated a program at Duke, in conjunction with Apple Computer, to give free iPods to each member of the incoming class with no other requirements. This sparked harsh criticism and ridicule from the academic community and news media.[4] The program was viewed as a success by Duke since it led to new applications for the iPod in an educational environment and inspired a new initiative among Duke students to innovate and collaborate.[5][6]

During the 2006 Duke University lacrosse case, Davidson and 87 other Duke faculty members, sometimes referred to as the "Group of 88", published an open letter viewed as prejudicial to the three defendants. The letter gained additional prominence when the defense attorney for the lacrosse players requested a change of venue while citing the advertisement as evidence of Duke faculty bias against the players.[7] In response to criticism of the ad, Davidson published a piece in the Raleigh News & Observer in January 2007. She stated that the ad was a response "to the anguish of students who felt demeaned by racist and sexist remarks swirling around in the media and on the campus quad in the aftermath of what happened on March 13 in the lacrosse house."[8]

In 2010, President Obama nominated her to a six-year term on the National Council on the Humanities, a position confirmed by the Senate in July 2011.[9] She serves on the Board of Advisors to the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation "Digital Media and Learning" book series. A former president of the American Studies Association, she is also a former editor of the journal American Literature.[10]

In 2012, Davidson and Goldberg received Educators of the Year awards from the World Technology Network in recognition of "doing the innovative work of 'the greatest likely long-term significance' in their field" of education through their work as co-founders of HASTAC/MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning Competition.[11][12] She was named the first educator on the six-person Board of Directors of Mozilla.[13]

In 2016, the New American Colleges and Universities (NAC&U) awarded Davidson the Ernest L. Boyer Award for significant contributions to American higher education.[14]

Davidson is the author or editor of 18 books.[15] Closing: The Life and Death of an American Factory (a collaboration with documentary photographer Bill Bamberger) was a recipient of the Mayflower Cup Award for Non-Fiction. The photographs from Closing traveled to museums around the U.S. for four years, including the Smithsonian Museum of American History.[16][17][18]

She served as General Editor of the Oxford University Press Early American Women Writers Series[19][20][21] and, with Ada Norris, edited American Indian Stories, Legends and Other Writings by Zitkala-Sa, the first Penguin Classic devoted to a Native American author.[22][23]

Her book, Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn was named by Publishers Weekly "one of the top ten science books" of the Fall 2011 season".[24] One reviewer from The Washington Independent Review of Books opined that Davidson "makes the case, through numerous examples and lucid argument, that we can do much better in aligning our schools, our workplaces and our lives, and that this will make us not only more successful as a society but more fulfilled as individuals."[25]