Remembering Ross Scaife

Just a note to commemorate Ross Scaife, who I met as a colleague during my first job at the University of Kentucky. Ross was an amazingly decent person, kind and generous to a new assistant professor in a neighboring department navigating his first institution outside of the womb of graduate school. Ross wasn’t flashy or ostentatious, just hip-deep in building a humanities cyberinfrastructure years before we all began thinking of it as such. He helped put Kentucky on the digital humanities map.

Ross’s friendship was one of the bright spots to emerge out of my time in Lexington. I last saw him at an MLA in Philadelphia. Two colleagues, having an ordinary dinner. But he was an extraordinary scholar and individual.

First Roy, now Ross. Go read Dot Porter’s tribute here. It’s been a rough year for our field.