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GC Digital Initiatives at the CUNY Graduate Center

This group accompanies the the GCDI website (http://gcdi.commons.gc.cuny.edu/). Here, members of the GC community can share news of recent events and new projects and can begin to build connections between projects.

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Fwd: Fw: of interest to your students?

  • Posted by Matthew K. Gold (he/him) on June 19, 2025 at 6:59 pm

    Hi All,

    Please find below an opportunity to take a free class with Shannon Mattern
    (https://arth.sas.upenn.edu/people/shannon-mattern) at Metro NY Library
    Association.

    Best,

    Matt

    ——————————
    *From:* Shannon Mattern <[email protected]>
    *Sent:* Wednesday, June 18, 2025 10:51 AM
    *To:* Shannon Mattern <[email protected]>
    *Cc:* Becca Quon <[email protected]>
    *Subject:* of interest to your students?

    Hello, friends!

    I hope you all are doing well — or, at the very least, *surviving* amidst
    this pervasive destruction and demoralization.

    I’m writing to share something that might be a productive outlet and a
    vehicle for new inter-institutional solidarities. I planted these seeds
    about a year and a half ago, and they’re just now starting to bear fruit 🙂

    As some of you know, I’m recentering myself in NYC after a few-year detour
    in Philadelphia (which itself followed nearly 19 years at The New School).
    After serving for decade on the board of the Metro NY Library Association
    (https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://metro.org/__;!!GIqKXF0_-xZi!vRDdQs1n7eqhwV8cQoYXQjBV34k1p55H5gWWwhwHtzrzb3yGdffceYwwwassDcgi7ZhU-2QJ_nk8DYLqzw$)
    —
    a state-founded, member-supported nonprofit linking several hundred of
    NYC’s and Westchester County’s libraries, archives, and museums — I’m now
    its Director of Creative Research. And in this role I’m developing new
    research, experimental libraries, and public pedagogy projects that bridge
    all of our member institutions
    (https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://metro.org/join/*members__;Iw!!GIqKXF0_-xZi!vRDdQs1n7eqhwV8cQoYXQjBV34k1p55H5gWWwhwHtzrzb3yGdffceYwwwassDcgi7ZhU-2QJ_nlyC677qQ$):
    from colleges, philanthropic foundations, and public libraries, to activist
    archives, museums, and botanical gardens.

    One of our newest projects is the Cross-Reference Coalition
    (https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1-mgwuRUMF-xUpBMIm7yXR6lVKItlrm0HEQkMdk_piQM/edit?slide=id.p*slide=id.p__;Iw!!GIqKXF0_-xZi!vRDdQs1n7eqhwV8cQoYXQjBV34k1p55H5gWWwhwHtzrzb3yGdffceYwwwassDcgi7ZhU-2QJ_nlOohzHnA$),
    an experimental school that prioritizes exuberant interdisciplinary and
    inter-institutional collections, and which allows me to apply my 25+year’
    teaching experience
    (https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://wordsinspace.net/classes/__;!!GIqKXF0_-xZi!vRDdQs1n7eqhwV8cQoYXQjBV34k1p55H5gWWwhwHtzrzb3yGdffceYwwwassDcgi7ZhU-2QJ_nmldML0KQ$)
    across
    a city-wide network. *Our classes are open — and, in this initial phase,
    free! — to knowledge workers at our member institutions, *graduate
    students* at our member institutions (including all of yours!), and artists
    and designers across the city. *I’m aiming to cultivate the same glorious,
    generative heterogeneity I enjoyed so much in my classes at The New School
    🙂

    Our inaugural class, in the fall, celebrates NYC’s geographic anomalies,
    pushes against automation’s flattening fakery, and addresses the erasure of
    difference and the prioritization of profitable utility in our current
    political climate, by examining and appreciating *The Misfit*. We’ll
    explore collection items that simply won’t fit on shelves or in boxes,
    objects and identities that defy classification, storage formats that
    condense and compress (as well as the things that leak outside!), and
    institutions that deliberately defy professional standards.

    *I’d be greatly appreciative if you could please help us spread the word
    throughout your own institutions — particularly among your graduate
    students — about our call for applications
    (https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://metro.org/news/cross-reference-intro/__;!!GIqKXF0_-xZi!vRDdQs1n7eqhwV8cQoYXQjBV34k1p55H5gWWwhwHtzrzb3yGdffceYwwwassDcgi7ZhU-2QJ_nkusyiCow$)
    and
    our upcoming zoom information sessions: one is this Friday, June 20, at
    noon; another is Tuesday, July 8, at 6pm; you’ll find registration links at
    the bottom of the call. *

    METRO is not accredited — but I’m pretty sure my classes over the years
    have proven to be “accreditation-worthy” 🙂 And I’m happy to work with
    admitted students to explore arrangements for independent studies at their
    home institutions, and to liaise with their advisors to ensure that the
    students are mentored and evaluated appropriately. I’ve organized several
    such work-arounds in my various administrative roles at The New School 🙂

    Thanks so much for your consideration, and thanks in advance for any
    assistant you can offer in sharing our news! I hope there’ll be
    opportunities for us to collaborate as I cultivate these new programs
    across NYC’s knowledge institutions, and I’d be delighted to discuss any
    ideas you might have 🙂

    Wishing you all the best,
    Shannon

    SHANNON MATTERN, PHD
    Penn Presidential Compact Professor of Media Studies, University
    of Pennsylvania
    Director of Creative Research, Metropolitan New York Library Council
    2025 Kluge Chair of Modern Culture, Library of Congress
    wordsinspace.net

    [image: Screenshot 2025-06-18 at 10.47.36 AM.png]

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