Welcome to Digication
Scholars Conversations.

I'm your host, Kelly Driscoll.

In this episode, you'll hear part
one of my conversation with Brittany

Linus, an undergraduate student
pursuing a dual degree in African and

African-American Studies and Digital
Humanities at Stanford University.

More links and information about today's
conversation can be found on Digication's

Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Full episodes of Digication Scholars
Conversations can be found on

YouTube or your favorite podcast app.

Welcome to Digication
Scholars Conversations.

I'm your host, Kelly Driscoll, and I am
so excited today to introduce Brittany

Linus, an undergraduate student athlete.

She's a graduate student at Stanford
University, where she's pursuing a dual

degree in African and African-American
Studies and Digital Humanities.

And I'm just going to read a little bit
from Brittany's bio here to provide some

context into this conversation today.

Uh, I'm.

Just thrilled to talk to you, Brittany.

You're an amazing human being.

Brittany is a Nigerian-American
UI designer, Digital Humanities

Scholar, and Pleasure Activist.

I just love this.

She believes self care, even in the
smallest form of a smile, is activism.

Currently, Linus is completing a
Creative Honors Thesis in collaboration

with the Department of African and
African-American Studies and the

Institute for the Diversity in the Arts.

Thank you for joining me today, Brittany.

Thank you for having me.

I really appreciate you reaching out.

I'm so excited to be here.

Oh, I am just thrilled.

So Brittany created a project portfolio in
Digication that I just happened to stumble

across through my work with Stanford,
and I literally gasped when I opened

it, you know, it's titled Visual Bodies.

I saw that right in the thumbnail
in Stanford's Portfolio Directory

on Digication and I was like,
Ooh, what is this about?

And literally was like, Oh, Wow.

Wow.

So, I had to track Brittany down.

I appreciate it, by the way.

That was And I was so pleased that
she was excited to hear from me.

So here we are, finally
having a chance to talk.

And Brittany, I just thought it would
be great for our listeners, for you to

just describe a little bit about how you
found yourself at Stanford University

and talking a little bit about the things
that you're studying and, and why you're

so passionate about what, you know,
what you're pursuing at Stanford and

also just what you're doing as a person.

I just think it's remarkable.

Thank you so much.

Um, it has been quite the journey, not
only being a student at Stanford, but

the entire process of becoming one.

And I'll be honest, when I was a senior
in high school, and it was, I think

it was around August, that was when
All of our teachers and our counselors

were advocating for us to consider what
university are you going to apply to?

Did you do your SAT and ACTs?

Um, and I just didn't know where
I wanted to go specifically.

And so it was just weighing
down on my mind a little bit.

And I remember my aunt, my Auntie
Vivian, she came over to my house.

She sat me down.

We were having a conversation catching up.

And she asked, you know, what is,

when you go to university, what is
biggest thing, the biggest takeaway

that you want to have for yourself?

And I told her, you know what,
I just want to transform.

I want to go from a larvae to a butterfly.

I don't know what institution
is going to get me there.

I don't know how I'm going to get there.

But that metamorphosis.

I want to experience that.

And she said that there are two
schools that will allow you to go

through this transformative journey.

There's one on the East Coast and
there's one on the West Coast.

There's Harvard and then there's Stanford.

Stanford That was something
that I hadn't necessarily put

in a lot of thought to consider.

So I remember going on Google, I pulled
up Stanford University, the website,

and I was just perusing the homepage.

And I was just like, of course, every
website and every school is going

to have Short, concise information,
all the beautiful pictures of the

campus and then in the classrooms.

I'm looking for the dirty stuff.

I'm looking for what is going on in
the maker spaces, the artist spaces.

I want to know really what
Stanford is all about.

And that's when I discovered
Stanford University's Design School.

Yes.

And I remembered on literally on the
website, when you scroll down, it

said, we are here to get stuff done.

And to get stuff done creatively.

And so you see students in the
lab with their goggles, like laser

cutting acrylic and with wood.

Yeah.

And in the classrooms with sticky notes
and putting it on like makeshift cardboard

boxes that they're turning into robots.

It was so cool.

Yeah.

You know, I've heard and I was like.

That's the school I want to go to.

I totally, I mean, I get the appeal.

I didn't want the polished
kind of view or perspective.

I wanted to see the work
that was being done.

And that was what led me to
apply to Stanford University.

Once I applied, honestly, I'm going to be
so honest, that one sit down that I did to

just kind of see what Stanford was about.

That was the only one that I did because
I realized, oh my gosh, Stanford has

like a full percent acceptance rate.

Logistic.

Little competitive.

I was just like, well, you
know, maybe we shouldn't really

get our expectations too high.

Lo and behold, I got in.

And so that was, That was
amazing, an amazing experience.

So when I finally landed and I could see
for myself the pictures of the campus

that were on the website versus what
I was seeing and feeling and touching

in real life, it was astounding.

But what I was really excited for
was the student experiences that

were on the design school's website.

So it's my first day of classes
and I just so happen to enroll

in a black studies course.

It was one of those, those courses that I
have always had an interest in, I either

just did not have the time to take them,
or they just didn't fit in my schedule.

And I said, you know what?

I'm gonna take this class for me.

I never looked for this CS degree.

They're saying I have to take
introduction to Python and all of

these different programming courses.

But this particular literature
class, I want to take it.

And I remember enrolling in it and
it was one of the most transformative

classes that I have ever taken.

What was beautiful about it was.

I saw the student experiences
that were on the Stanford

University Design School's website.

People in the lab making things.

It translated into that classroom.

We were not only reading
about Black scholars, right?

We're not only reading their speeches
or looking at their autobiographies,

we were put in conversation
with them through our artistry.

And so we were invited to use
different mediums for our art, graphic

design, web development, and even
stimulating conversations around Okay,

so what, what is the rhetorical use
of graphic design when you put it

on a website or when you're trying
to invoke some level of activism,

but your only mode of communication
is Instagram with other people?

How can you leverage the
technologies that are available?

To cultivate and tell your own story and
not only your own story, but a Black story

that is in conversation with other people.

So you can build up this global
community that digitality

allows for you to cultivate.

It was a stimulating conversation
because I had never viewed technology

as more than a means to an end.

I didn't view it as an art.

Such a transformative experience.

Um, and from there, my interest in
graphic design, web development,

It kind of blossomed a little bit.

I was like, wait, wait, I can do so much.

I have so many tools at my disposal.

And most importantly, I'm in a
space that values experimentation.

I'm in a space where the work and
the readings that I'm doing, they

don't want to see the readings.

They want to see how the
readings impacted me.

Right.

Yeah.

With this in mind, I can cultivate a
formula for myself that allows me to

develop a user experience that imparts
the same feelings that I had as a student

onto those as viewers, as audiences.

So for you to come to me, And like, that
was what happened with my first ever in

the Digication website, Visible Bodies.

That was literally my first ever
stab at web development, graphic

design in an academic space.

It was so affirming to the feelings
that I harbored in my heart at that

time as a student, as a freshman
at Stanford, who didn't really know

what I was doing, but I had these
intuitions and these interests in mind.

Um, and so I just, I think Love
out there because it's exactly

platforms like these that allow me
the space of so many other students.

So just deeply reflect
on how far we've come.

And so that's literally starting
also with this question is just

allowing me to see how far I've
come and where I started from.

Yeah.

Oh, well, thank you so much
for this introduction and.

It was immediately apparent to me when
looking at the project that you created

that you approached it as this kind of new
medium, you know, almost like, you know,

someone who hasn't touched a paint set
before or hasn't used watercolor pencil.

You know, you really approached it with
this kind of mindset of exploration

and Just beautifully put in different
imagery at a scale that just brought

me in as a viewer right away.

You incorporated video
in interesting ways.

You had music.

that one could listen to right on
the introduction as you're reading.

I mean it was just so thoughtfully
crafted and I really appreciated the

kind of scale that you were using and
the intentional use of the kind of

Parallax and squinting kind of options
that one has because you're just kind

of revealing these different layers
and, and parts of your kind of story of

the project and why it's so meaningful.

So it's really an experience
as you're going through it.

It's not one that would, One would kind
of consider as a traditional sort of

website, or even what one would describe
as a traditional kind of portfolio that

people are using Digication for often.

It's definitely a portfolio, a project
oriented portfolio, but you really

pushed kind of the boundaries of what the
technology could do and got under the hood

and clearly spent a lot of time exploring
all of the different setting options, you

know, design capabilities that were there.

And it was so exciting to see.

Um, so you were talking a little
bit about how you kind of just

Happened to come into this course.

Could you tell us a little bit about
how you were introduced to the project?

How you discovered Digication?

And maybe, you know, I, I'm talking
about how there are all of these

different layers, but what was the
process like for you as you were

kind of building this and what was
it that you really wanted to express?

Oh my gosh.

So I'm going to start.

With a very, I would say,
universal experience as a student.

I was a freshman, it was my second
quarter at Stanford, and I had started

that quarter under the belief that
I was still going to be pre med.

Oh wow, okay, yes.

I was taking this chemistry class.

We had one of our first quizzes, and
I'm not going to, I'm, I'm not kidding.

I literally got a 40 percent and I
unenrolled from the class that same day.

That same day.

Not meant to be.

Yes.

I was just like, no,
that's just how it is.

And I remember because, um, the quiz.

The grades had released, I think it
was a day or so before the last day

where you could finalize your schedule.

So I was desperately in need of a class.

Yeah.

I just was like, I don't know where to go.

So I went on Stanford's catalog,
it's called Explore Courses.

And I saw that there was this course
offered, it was called Visible

Bodies, Black female African authors.

And the Politics of Publishing in Africa.

That was the complete name of the course.

And it falls under this category of
an Introductory Seminars Program.

I was like, what is that?

I mean, this class looks cool.

What is an introductory seminar?

And so introductory seminars at
Stanford are exploratory courses

cultivated by all disciplines across
the campus in order to advertise,

right, the discipline to students.

It's a test run.

They purposefully make it interesting.

Fun, inviting, um, they center,
a lot of them center the arts in

order to allow students to kind of
get an insider view into what this

discipline could entail for them beyond
the academics, beyond the theory.

Now it's time for us to work.

So you have an idea of what you
will be doing as a student and not

what you're going to be reading.

I love the premise.

The title of the course
was so exhilarating.

And so I sent an email to the lead
instructor, Joel Cabrita, and I

was like, I know it's kind of late.

I am in desperate need of a course,
but, and I just so happened to stumble

upon your class that you're teaching.

Visible bodies.

I want to be a part of it.

Could you send me the syllabus?

Joel got back to me and Joel
was like, here's a syllabus.

I enrolled you in the class.

I love that at it.

And we're in the course now.

Joel is going over or doing a
comprehensive review of the syllabus.

And I see On the syllabus, there is
this portfolio presentation component

that is not just for our particular
cohort, but it is across the entire

Introductory Seminars program.

So you could be in the chemistry
department, human biology, um,

African and African-American studies.

They work literally cultivating a
symposium for you to present your work.

To all of the students who happened
to take introductory seminars

courses just like you that quarter.

Yeah.

And the tool that we were
introduced to was Digication.

So as we were working through and
cultivating our, our experiences within

the course, um, and specifically for
Visible Bodies, what we were asked to do,

our literal one assignment was to build
and envision our own publishing house.

And we did everything from the pitching
to, um, the financial, logistical

planning to the business strategy.

How are we going to market this?

From there, we actually partnered up with
Black female authors across the world.

So we had their oversight, we were
documenting everything, and eventually we

were invited by the actual introductory
seminars program to further extend.

What we were doing or cultivating
within the class beyond, I mean,

really beyond that to start thinking
about, okay, if this publishing house

was real, how would you compensate
people who say, submit their work?

How would you, what is the community
engagement component of this experience?

And could you share these conversations
that you're having with these

authors and with these publishers?

Could you make that information
accessible to others?

And so that was the utility, or
rather that is where the utility of

the portfolio kind of took shape.

It was this key presentation component
that I was introduced to as a student

from the introductory seminars.

So we are given this website.

I'm perusing it and I'm like,
wait, I don't, I mean, I haven't

really done web development before.

I mean, honestly, I was scared.

Like at that point, I hadn't coded ever.

So I was just like, I don't know what
to expect when I log onto this platform.

And I remembered, um, Joel came to me.

And Joel was like, it's okay.

Because everything is listed out for
you and how you interact with the

page and how you want to lay it out
is literally on the left hand side.

So whatever, say it's the font,
you want to add an image, you

want to add a description, you
want to add alt text, it is there.

It is an option for you.

And that opened my eyes, right?

Because I was able to consider
things that I hadn't even considered.

When you're allowed to upload
a file, it'll tell you the type

of files you can upload, right?

And with Digication,
it did more than that.

It showed me the icon, it
gave me a little description.

And so I, the idea of adding like a GIF
or, or GIF, um, memes or adding photos

and pictures and videos, I wouldn't have
thought of those things if the option

on the interface was not available.

It was almost like the platform
was giving me permission.

To imagine things beyond what
I thought I could imagine.

And so that's exactly what I did.

I was literally just, as you said,
the curiosity in my mind, how could I

represent this concept using imagery?

How could I represent this conversation?

Using a video, what is the
value of a multimedia approach

to this particular process?

And how will it aid in my storytelling
such that when I step away from the

website, someone who is interacting
with it will still have that same

impression as if I am still in the room.

And that was the utility of Digication.

It was the fact that Digication
just through the sheer...

I love the way that it is like, format it.

Everything is just there for you.

You are given permission
to be imaginative.

Oh, well, thank you for that description.

And I mean, I can tell you from my
perspective, you know, the whole team

here put so much thought and, you know,
we want that for the users, right?

We want to be able to not just
provide them with a tool, but provide

them with kind of some openness and
opportunity to explore and, you know,

we're kind of quietly suggesting
different options that are available.

So, for those that are coming into this
with, you know, this feeling of, oh gosh,

you know, I've never, Created a website.

Um, I, I don't know what a portfolio
is, you know, I have some ideas

about this project that I'm
creating, but how do I express that?

You know, we're, we're hoping to kind
of lead users through that by making

those tools easy to get to and kind of
presenting it throughout the experience

of navigating through the platform.

So I, I appreciate that.

Description very much.

And it sounds like, you know, when I
reached out to you that this experience

that you had in this course and developing
this project really opened up, you

know, it was transformative for you.

It kind of opened up
some new avenues for you.

I mentioned earlier that now as part
of your bio that you really describe

yourself as a UI Designer now, and I
would like to hear a little bit about

You know, what, what that experience was
like and how you've kind of moved forward

from that to what you're doing now.

Yes.

Oh my gosh.

Digication played a huge, a huge
part in that because after I had made

that and that portfolio, um, I was
reached out to by some of the heads

of introductory seminars program.

And they said, we want to bring
you on as one of our employees.

You're going to help us teach others.

How to do what you did.

So my first on campus job.

My first on campus job.

Was literally being sort of like this
student advisor on the platform, kind

of showcasing and helping students
translate what they have going on in

the classroom, what they want and desire
to kind of cultivate that lies within

their mind, and then putting it on a
platform in a way that is streamlined.

So it tells a story from
the way that it looks.

The type of images, text that is
used, and then how you actually

navigate through the platform.

It is you, it, it introduced me
to design in a different way.

From Digication, I really started
thinking about the value of digital.

Digital Storytelling and looking
at web development as sort of this

soft launch into the discipline.

And so I found myself literally in every
course since then, every course making

some flyer Making a little typing up
a little code and presenting it to my

professors like, oh, this is what I
learned in the classroom This is the the

platform that I'm using and this is where
I started from and they would have like

that base eventually I had an opportunity
to meet with, um, here it's called the

Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis.

I like to call it the Center
of Digital Humanities.

It's a beautiful space.

I love it.

So great.

Um, And there, they just kind of helped
me craft and polish the ideas that I had.

And so that's really all it's been.

Digication launched me into there and now
it was kind of like, I'm hammering it in.

Like, it was, I guess the way that
I would describe it is, Digication

was like the clay that I had and I
was like, now I was like molding it.

And now like as a sculptor,
I'm cultivating the skills

so you can see the details.

You can see the stone becoming skin.

It was such a beautiful experience.

So now I'm entering my
junior to senior year.

I have to start thinking about my thesis.

Yeah.

For African and African-American Studies.

And I wanted to utilize web
design and web development.

Because it is a space of
personal creation, right?

There is no set way to design, so long as
you understand the guidelines, the bylaws

for the interface that you're using.

And the thing about it is, My job as a
Black Studies scholar is to push those

boundaries, is to rethink them, is to
reshape them, and to imagine beyond

the borders that are superimposed
by, say, the technological limits

that we interact with every day.

It could be I mean the face, the
literally the dimensions of the screen

that you're looking at right now.

So I'm thinking about my thesis.

I go to my advisor, Michelle Elam,
and I am really interested And graphic

design, web development, and this notion
of pleasure activism, because something

that I was intrigued by was that I would
design something, and it was probably

the most maximalist version of it.

The whole screen, and it has so many
visuals that are popping out, the

colors are saturated, there's texture,
and people will feel good about it,

which ran contrary to Every other kind
of platform design expert that had

that I had interacted with as of late.

And I wanted to cultivate a thesis that
kind of honored that because that's the

style of web development that doesn't
necessarily It's not, I would say

it's not in the mainstream as of late.

It exists in very limited spaces.

And so that's when Michelle
Elam was like, you can do that.

That's called a creative honors thesis.

You can do that.

So that's what I'm doing.

Um, and right now I am not only
focusing on web development.

I'm focusing also on video games.

Because that's one of the
liminal spaces where maximalism

actually is deeply valued.

You're adding character to not only
the interface, the platform, the brand,

but you are adding character to you
as not only a user, but as a player.

It's very multi
dimensional, multi faceted.

And so, Just to hone in on the
story a little bit more, I'm

interested in web design development.

I'm interested in how websites and the
way that they're designed make you feel.

And that translates into so many different
digital phenomena, especially video games.

And that is literally my thesis.

How video game changes, right, as a user,
that are deliberate, that are personally

decided, communally negotiated, and
generally a human yes to me feeling good.

How can video game changes be good?

Be a pleasure activist tool.

And no one really talks about it that
much from that particular standpoint,

how oppression, right, from the borders
that it's simply imposed to the dominant

narratives that exist, how those
particular narratives, the first thing

that is under attack is how you feel.

Especially when you're feeling good.

So that was my thesis.

And I'm using, I'm actually going
to format it as a virtual magazine

in the format of Digication, the
interface, the way that it has you

scroll down, that's exactly right.

It's simple, but it, it allows the
most minimal interaction with the

interface but that gives you more
time to just see what is going on.

And from there, so I'm cultivating
my thesis into a magazine, which will

then be showcased on a website that
I'm building, I mean, for myself.

And it was just beautiful
to see the sheer evolution.

First.

I mean, I had no idea, no
experience coding websites.

I didn't know HTML.

I didn't know what CSS was.

I was like, what is JavaScript?

I just wanted to get
into the design process.

Digication was a useful tool there.

And eventually through the courses,
through my own personal exploration

and challenges, I was able to expand
my thinking and start looking at ways

in which I can start cultivating.

Those technical skills.

And so now I'm at the end of my
journey at Stanford where I now

have those technical skills.

I'm putting them to work.

I'm building the website from scratch
and the experiences that I had,

even the very first one That I used,
Visible Bodies, that project is all

informing the way in which I design
and structure my thesis as of today.

And so it is just like, it's
literally like the culmination

and it should be, right?

The culmination of my journey as an
undergraduate student at Stanford.

And it really starts with
Digication at the front and center.

Here's a preview of what's coming up
next in part two of my conversation

with Brittany Linus, a recent
graduate of Stanford University.

I got to think about myself
and my experience and how

I'm going to translate that.

It was all about me.

It was all about me and
I had help with that.

From the way that the interface
was designed to the example

templates that are available.

So it was a beautifully curated.

experience as a student and it made
me less hesitant about building and

cultivating a portfolio for myself.