Cathy N. Davidson

Ruth F. DeVarney Professor Emerita of Interdisciplinary Studies
Links
Cathy Davidson has published numerous books, including Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn (Viking, 2011); The Future of Thinking: Learning Institutions in a Digital Age (with David Theo Goldberg, MIT Press, 2010) ; Revolution and the Word: The Rise of the Novel in America (Oxford, 1986; Expanded Edition 2004), Reading in America: Literature and Social History (Hopkins, 1989), The Book of Love: Writers and Their Love Letters (Pocket/Simon and Schuster, 1992), Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji: On Finding Myself in Japan (Dutton/Penguin, 1993; New Edition with Afterword, 2006, Duke U Press), and, with Linda Wagner-Martin, The Oxford Companion to Women's Writing in the United States (1995) and The Oxford Book of Women's Writing in the United States (1995). In collaboration with documentary photographer Bill Bamberger, she also wrote Closing: The Life and Death of an American Factory (Norton, 1998). She is General Editor of the Oxford University Press Early American Women Writers series, past President of the American Studies Association, and past editor of American Literature. She was Duke University (and the nation's) first Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Studies from 1999-2006, and is co-founder of the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke. She is also the co-founder of HASTAC ("haystack"), the Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory, an 8000+ network of digital visionaries committed to new forms of learning and education. She serves on the Board of Advisors to the John D. and Catherine MacArthur Foundation "Digital Media and Learning" initiative. Her current research interests include Olaudah Equiano and the controversy over origins, a MacArthur Foundation monograph and collaborative online publication on "The Future of Learning Institutions in a Digital Age" (with David Theo Goldberg), and a study of the culture and neurobiology of "knowing" and attention. With Goldberg, Davidson is co-PI of the HASTAC/MacArthur Digital Media and Learning Competition. She is also the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies. President Barack Obama nominated her for a six-year term on the National Council on the Humanities, which began in July 2011, after confirmation by the U. S. Senate.
Education
- Ph.D., State University of New York at Binghamton 1974
- M.A., State University of New York at Binghamton 1973
- B.A., Elmhurst College 1970
Davidson, CN. Now You See It: How Technology and Brain Science Will Transform Schools and Business in the 21st Century (Penguin Paperback, 2012). 2012.
Davidson, CN. Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn (Viking Press June 2011 publication date). 2010.
Davidson, CN, and Goldberg, DT. The Future of Learning Institutions in a Digital Age. 2009.
Davidson, CN, and Goldberg, DT. MIT Press. MIT Press, 2009.
Davidson, CN, and Goldberg, DT. The Future of Thinking: Learning Institutions in a Digital Age (MIT Press, forthcoming, 2010). MIT Press, 2009.
Davidson, CN. Olaudah Equiano, written by himself. 2007.
Davidson, CN. Closing: The Life and Death of an American Factory. W. W. Norton, 1997.
Davidson, CN. Thirty-Six Views of Mt. Fuji: On Finding Myself in Japan. Dutton-Signet (Penguin USA), 1993.
Davidson, CN. The Book of Love: Writers and their Love Letters. Pocket/Simon and Schuster, 1992.
Davidson, CN. Ideology and Genre: The Rise of the Novel in America. Fourth Annual James Russell Wiggins Lecture in the History of the Book in American Culture, Worcester, Mass: American Antiquarian Society, 1987.
Pages
Davidson, CN. "Humanities and Technology in the Information Age." The Oxford Handbook of Interdisciplinarity. Ed. R Frodeman, JT Klein, and C Mitcha. 2013. (Essay)
"Designing Games for Ethics.": IGI Global. 2011. Full Text
Davidson, CN. "Research and Teaching." A Teaching Subject: Composition Since 1966. Ed. Joseph Harris. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, Studies in Writing and Culture, 1997. ix-xi. (Essay) Open Access Copy
Davidson, CN. "Tatami Room." Eloquent Obsessions: Writing Cultural Criticism. Ed. M Torgovnick. Duke UP, 1994.
Davidson, CN. "The Novel as Subversive Activity: Women Reading, Women Writing." After the Revolution: Further Explorations in the History of American Radicalism. Ed. AF Young. Dekalb: Northern Illinois UP, 1993.
Davidson, CN. "Decoding the Hemingway Hero in The Sun Also Rises." The Sun Also Rises. Ed. L Wagner. New York: Cambridge UP, 1987. (Essay)
Davidson, CN. "Flirting with Destiny: Ambivalence and Form in the Early American Sentimental Novel." Studies in American Fiction. 1982. 17-39.
Davidson, CN. "The Matter and Manner of Charles Brockdon Brown’s Alcuin." Critical Essays on Charles Brockdon Brown. Ed. B Rosenthal. Boston: G.K. Hall Publishing, 1981. 71-86.
Davidson, CN. "Why Higher Education Demands a Paradigm Shift." Public Culture 26.1 72 (January 1, 2014): 3-11. Full Text
Davidson, C. "Why Education Demands a Paradigm Shift." Public Culture (2013).
Davidson, CN, and Goldberg, DT. "Our digital age: Implications for learning and its (online) institutions." E Learning and Digital Media 9.3 (August 30, 2012): 249-266. Full Text
Davidson, CN. "Strangers on a train." Academe 97.5 (September 1, 2011).
Davidson, CN. "Blamed For Change." International Journal of Learning and Media (2009). (Academic Article)
Davidson, CN. "Humanities 2.0: Promise, perils, predictions." Pmla 123.3 (December 17, 2008): 707-717. Full Text
Davidson, CN. "No! In thunder." American Literature 76.4 (December 1, 2004): 665-675. (Review) Full Text
Davidson, CN. "Understanding the Economic Burden of Scholarly Publishing." Chronicle of Higher Education 50.6 SEC. B (October 3, 2003). (Review)
Davidson, CN. "Carrie’s Sisters: The Popular Prototypes for Dreiser’s Heroine." Modern Fiction Studies 23 (1997): 385-407.
Davidson, CN. "Guest column - Four views on the place of the personal in scholarship - Critical fictions." PMLA-PUBLICATIONS OF THE MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA 111.5 (October 1996): 1069-1072.
Pages
Davidson, CN. "The futures of scholarly publishing." April 2004. Full Text
Davidson, CN. "Changing Higher Education to Change the World (Series of 8 Articles)." Fast Company (2013). (Essay)
Davidson, CN. "Strangers on a Train: A Chance Encounter Provides a Lesson in Complicity and the Never- Ending Crisis in the Humanities." Academe: Magazine of the American Association of University Professors (2013).
Davidson, CN. "Education, Assessment and the Challenges of the Future (Series of Articles)." Ed. V Strauss. Washington Post Education Blog (2012). (Blog)
Davidson, CN. "The Future of Thinking." (2008).
Davidson, CN, Wagner-Martin, L, Ammons, E, Harris, T, Kibbey, A, Ling, A, and Radway, J. "The oxford companion to: Women’s writing: In the United States." The Oxford Companion to Women'S Writing in the United States (January 1, 2005): 1-1021. Full Text
Davidson, CN, and Moon, M. "Subjects and Citizens: Nation, Race, and Gender from "Oroonoko" to Anita Hill." (1995).
Davidson, CN, and Wagner-Martin, L. "Oxford Companion to Women’s Writing in the United States." (1995).
Davidson, CN. "PH Stands for Political Hypocrisy." Academe 77.5 (1991): 8-14. Full Text
Elliott, E, ed, , and Davidson, AECN. "Columbia History of the American Novel." (1991).
Davidson, CN, and ed, . "Reading in America: Literature and Social History." (1989).
Pages
Selected Grants
Digital Media and Learning Competition VI awarded by University of California - Irvine (Principal Investigator). 2016 to 2017
Digital Media and Learning Competition V awarded by University of California - Irvine (Principal Investigator). 2014 to 2016
Assessing the Impact of Technology Aided Participation and Mentoring awarded by National Science Foundation (Principal Investigator). 2012 to 2015
Digital Media and Learning: Competitions IV and V awarded by University of California - Irvine (Principal Investigator). 2011 to 2014
Expanding Cyber-Communities: A Workshop on Developing New Models for the Natural, Social, and Human Sciences awarded by National Science Foundation (Principal Investigator). 2005 to 2006