I am delighted to be a 2014/15 HASTAC Scholar! The Humanities, Art, Sciences and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory is an incredible organisation bringing together scholars from around the world working in a variety of areas linked to digital engagement and academia. The alliance is affiliated with the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University and I am kindly supported in my fellowship by the brilliant Scottish Documentary Institute at Edinburgh College of Art to whom I am incredibly grateful. I am looking forward to collaborating with my peers on areas including the project I set out below, which formed part of my application.

I aim to further develop the excellent resources of HASTAC in data visualisation and digital storytelling into the area of documentary film. Documentaries aim to entertain and inform, but also in many cases to improve understanding and bring about positive social action. Digital technology has increased filmmakers’ creative means of production and distribution and also provided tools to evaluate the success of public engagement. I would like to develop my use of innovative methodological tools to examine strategies of information diffusion and interaction and share how impact can be made in different fields through the combination of creative industries and digital humanities’ toolsets.