Contact: ocallaghant(at)nku(dot)edu
About Me
I am a Professor of English at Northern Kentucky University where I teach medieval literature, history of the English language, and introductory linguistics as well as digital culture and digital humanities approaches to literature. I received a Ph.D. in medieval studies from the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto, with a specialization in Middle English and Old French literature and medieval manuscript studies. I received my B.A. (Hons.) and M.A. in English from the University of Toronto. I am the co-author of the textbook Introducing English Studies (Bloomsbury, 2020) and have published on medieval literature and manuscript studies as well as on the digital humanities and pedagogy. In addition, I co-direct The Augmented Palimpsest Project, a digital humanities tool that explores how the medium of Augmented Reality can be used in humanities pedagogy—specifically the teaching of medieval literature to high school and undergraduate students.
In December 2020, I was invited by the MLA International Bibliography team and EBSCO to participate as a webinar speaker on innovative strategies to virtual teaching during the pandemic. I gave a virtual presentation to librarians across the US and Canada about the MLA IB Database — specifically, using the MLA IB Database Online Course and a follow-up Scholarly Question Assignment in my courses during the pandemic. Please read the EBSCO blog post highlighting the event and providing a link to the webinar recording.
In September 2022, I was interviewed on accent and dialect variation in Northern Kentucky for the podcast series The Kentucky Side (Link nky). Interested in learning more? Just click on the episode title “Does Northern Kentucky have a southern accent?” (35 min).
Online Teaching: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
For the past 15 years, I have taught some of my classes online as one of the first faculty in the English department at NKU to do so. Writing-intensive and reading-intensive courses are particularly challenging online, and learning module systems, such as Canvas and BlackBoard, have been slow to create tools that work effectively for humanities-based instruction. Consequently, I have sought every opportunity possible to learn more about effective online pedagogy and, through the Online Learning Consortium (a collaborative community of higher education leaders and innovators dedicated to advancing quality digital teaching and learning experiences), successfully completed online courses on screencasting, alternative search engines beyond the big three (Google, Yahoo, and Bing), advanced audio and visual tools for teaching, teaching/building in Second Life, and advanced applications of ebooks and open educational resources (OERs) in teaching.
I first qualified in 2010 as a Peer Reviewer and in 2020 as a Master Reviewer for Quality Matters (QM), a nationally recognized faculty-centered, peer-review process that certifies the quality of online and blended courses. The QM certification process has allowed me to learn the best standards for online teaching, to evaluate online courses and programs at other institutions, and to lead course reviews at a national and international level, thereby providing me with a broader perspective on pedagogy in a digital environment. Over the years, I have served as a QM Subject Matter Expert to review online undergraduate courses in Classical studies, Medieval and Renaissance culture, Arthurian literature and film, and introductory French language instruction; however, the majority of requests have been for me to review courses in Latin language instruction at both the college and high school levels.
I also teach online at my own institution, including (thanks to the pandemic) undergraduate courses in English Literature, History of the English Language, Grammar, College Writing, Principles of Informatics, and Honors Interdisciplinary Research (Special Topics: Digital Culture; The Humanities and Science) as well as developed the initial online graduate program in Liberal/Integrative Studies at NKU. However, I generally teach an introductory composition course online over 7 weeks each summer as part of NKU’s accelerated online program. Now that is a definite pedagogical challenge!
Teaching online is neither my preferred pedagogical approach nor a significant research interest. However, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, I have been asked to help academic friends, advise colleagues, and recommend online teaching tools with sufficient frequency that I have been motivated to collect, curate, and comment on what I consider to be the most effective pedagogical strategies, readings, guidelines, and technologies for teaching the humanities online — especially for the first time. If that need is what has brought your to my website, check out my webpage on Humanities Teaching Online.
And if you find any broken links or discover a better resource than what I list, please let me know.
My Publications (Selected)
Textbook
Krouse, Tonya, and Tamara F. O’Callaghan. Introducing English Studies. Bloomsbury, 2020.
Scholarly Articles & Essays
O’Callaghan, Tamara F., and Andrea R. Harbin. “Truly Immersive Worlds? The Pedagogical Implications of Extended Reality.” The Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy, Special Issue on The Potential of Extended Reality (XR): Teaching & Learning in Virtual Spaces, Issue 17, 2020.
O’Callaghan, Tamara F. “Exploring the History of a Word or Phrase.” Teaching the History of the English Language. Eds. Chris Palmer and Colette Moore. MLA Publications, 2019. 334-36.
Harbin, Andrea R., and Tamara F. O’Callaghan. “Augmenting Chaucer: Augmented Reality and Medieval Texts.” Digital Medieval Literature and Culture (Routledge Literature Handbook series). Eds. Jen Boyle and Helen J. Burgess. Routledge, 2017. 63-81.
Harbin, Andrea R., and Tamara F. O’Callaghan. “Text and the Sensorium: The Augmented Palimpsest as an Augmented Reality Text.” The Digital Arts and Humanities. Eds. Charles Travis and Alexander von Lünen. Berlin: Springer Publishing LLC, 2016. 169-86.
Harbin, Andrea R., and Tamara F. O’Callaghan. “Hyperprint Texts and the Teaching of Early Literature.” Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching 21.1 (2014): 111-26.
O’Callaghan, Tamara F. “The Fifteen Stars, Stones and Herbs: Book VII of the Confessio Amantis and its Afterlife.” John Gower Trilingual Poet: Language, Translation and Tradition. Ed. Elisabeth Dutton, John Hines, and R.F. Yeager. Oxford: D.S. Brewer, 2010. 139-56.
O’Callaghan, Tamara F. “Tempering Scandal: Eleanor of Aquitaine and Benoît de Sainte-Maure’s Roman de Troie,” Eleanor of Aquitaine: Lord and Lady New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. 307-17.
Digital Humanities Project: The Augmented Palimpsest
Funded by an NEH Digital Humanities Start-Up Grant (2014-16)
The Augmented Palimpsest is a digital humanities tool that explores how the medium of Augmented Reality (AR) can be used in teaching medieval literature. Using Chaucer’s General Prologue, the tool delivers digital enhancements that emerge from the printed page via a smart device. More information is available on my Digital Humanities Projects webpage.
The Significance of My Website Name
To be honest, my first name and last name are so challenging to spell (and to pronounce!) that using them for a website proved impractical. Consequently, I decided to use the name, Digital Quandary, that I was given in Second Life when the virtual world allocated your last name and only allowed you to choose your first name. Second Life offered me the misspelling “Quandry,” which I was eventually able to correct to “Quandary.” I selected “Digital” as my first name and then began to use it for Twitter and other social media ever since. The name has stuck.