Cathy N. Davidson is distinguished professor of English and in the MA in Digital Humanities and MS in Data Analysis and Visualization at the Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY). She is founding director of the Futures Initiative, a programme dedicated to advancing equity and innovation in higher education. She is also the R. F. DeVarney professor emerita of interdisciplinary studies at Duke University where she served as vice provost for interdisciplinary studies. Currently, she is co-director of ‘Transformative Learning in the Humanities,’ a programme supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Davidson has published over twenty books including ‘Revolution and the Word: The Rise of the Novel in America’ (Oxford UP) and ‘Closing: The Life and Death of an American Factory’ (Norton), with documentary photographer Bill Bamberger. Her most recent books are ‘Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn’ (Viking) and ‘The New Education: How to Revolutionize Higher Education to Prepare Students for a World in Flux’ (Basic Books), recipient of the 2019 Frederick W. Ness Annual Book Prize awarded by the Association of American Colleges and Universities.

She is currently finishing the final book in the ‘How We Know’ trilogy, coauthored with Christina Katopodis, ‘Transforming Every Classroom: A Practical Guide to Revolutionary Learning’ (anticipated, Harvard U Press, 2022). In 2002, Davidson cofounded and continues to codirect HASTAC (“Haystack”), Humanities, Arts, Science and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory, the world’s first and oldest academic social network.

Photo: The News and Observer, John Rotte