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Non-sentient animals have appeared in the Star Wars universe in roles both integral and decorative since A New Hope premiered in 1977. From beasts of burden like the dewbacks and banthas of Tatooine and the Gungans’ kaadu, to monsters like the wampa, rathtar, and dianoga; to the myriad of critters large and small that inhabit interstellar environments, animals are as much a part of the fabric of the Star Wars tapestry as the various non-human sentient species. In some cases, these creatures are mainly exotic window dressing, but in other instances, these animals are used instrumentally to advance larger narratives. To frame my examination of the use of animals in Star Wars, I borrow performance studies scholar Una Chaudhuri’s useful neologism “zooësis.” Coined by Chaudhuri to articulate “the way culture makes art and meaning with the figure and body of the animal,” encompasses the feelings that animals inspire, and so the affect of animals is an important part of understanding the place of the animal in the Star Wars universe (1). Ezra Bridger’s interaction with animals to explore the Force and to aid the Rebellion in Star Wars Rebels offers one example of how animals are instrumentalized, and Ezra’s affective response to “the figure and body” of these creatures – affection, awe, revulsion, or horror – are fairly straightforward. But the lowly porg from The Last Jedi inspires different feelings: the complex affect of cuteness, combined with the desire to consume and devour the bodies of these animals. In what follows I invite my reader to consider the use of animals in Star Wars, and to question how agency is granted and denied to non-human animals in these narratives.

Digital humanists have a labor problem, but it’s not what you might think. It’s not about humanities faculty getting credit in tenure and promotion for digital informatics work. It’s not about the adjunctification of teaching labor. It’s not about the devalua-tion of humanities PhDs, the contraction of the faculty job mar-ket, the rise of #alt-ac, nor the para-professionalization of aca-demic libraries. And while I care deeply about these problems, at least three of which affect me personally almost every day, what I am concerned with here is a type of labor that the collective preoccupation with these issues effaces: the use of student labor on digital humanities projects in and out of the classroom.

Article on an American Anti-Slavery Society periodical, the 'Slave's Friend,' which ran from 1836 to 1839. The author describes the abolitionist sentiment and the animal metaphor.

In “Pictures of Charlotte: The Illustrated Charlotte Temple and Her Readers” I examine the contribution of illustrated editions of Susannah Rowson’s 1791 novel Charlotte Temple to the novel’s curious afterlife. Reprinted in Philadelphia in 1794, Charlotte Temple became the object of a readerly cult that inspired visits to a gravesite in Trinity Churchyard as well as intimate engagements with the material object of the book itself. Through my analysis of portraits and tableaux illustrations that appeared in the novel between 1809 and 1905, along with evidence of readers’ devotional interactions with the portraits, I trace the integration of Charlotte Temple into the American national story as one of the best-loved icons of the Revolution.

Open access is one of the prime motivators in the transformation of scholarly communication in the twenty-first century academy. While most of the attention of the movement has been focused on the work of faculty and graduate students, undergraduate researchers also offer great potential to be catalysts for change. The UNT Libraries have taken on an active role in encouraging and educating the UNT community on Open Access issues, including implementation of their Open Access Policy, providing repository services that support Open Access, participation in International Open Access Week, and year-round seminars on the importance of Open Access initiatives. This paper describes the importance of Open Access, its impact on the academic community and scholars, and initiatives of the UNT Libraries and Honors College for Open Access outreach.

The University of North Texas together with the Council on Library and Information Resources, have received $226,786 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services for a two year research project to investigate how the library and information science profession can best respond to emerging needs of research data management in universities. This project will address broad new issues concerning the emerging roles, expectations, and practices arising from requirements announced by NIH, NSF, IMLS and other funding agencies for data management plans as part of proposals.