Anyone who is interested! This is inclusive of artists, creatives, academics, community members, and more, at any career stage/level of study and at any institution. The BCaT Lab will provide training, support, and mentorship for undergraduate and graduate students throughout the research process. Options for international participation are available.

Events will be held in the BCaT Lab (University of Maryland, Skinner 3115) with an option to attend virtually via Zoom. The Zoom link is the same for all BCaT Lab events.

Each DISCO CO(LAB) project will run over the course of an academic year (two semesters) and conclude with a hybrid retreat for collaborators to finalize deliverables. Opportunities for longer participation are available. For the Black Homeplaces project, we will begin in fall 2024 and hope to deliver outputs in the summer of 2024.

Collaborators will regularly attend a weekly DISCO CO(LAB) session to engage in communal learning, participate in co-working, and attend practical application workshops throughout the academic year. Each session will be 1-2 hours.

Potential outputs include artistic and creative collaborations (e.g., physical and digital renderings, audiovisual materials such as short films), essays, papers and stories (e.g., conference papers, public scholarship, journal articles), and digital humanities projects (e.g., interactive AR renderings, podcasts, and websites).

Beginning in Fall 2024, prospective collaborators should regularly attend BCaT Lab Bookclub to begin engaging with relevant art exhibitions, films, and readings, learn more about the project, and build community with other DISCO CO(LAB) collaborators. BCaT Bookclub is hosted weekly on Wednesdays from 12 PM - 1 PM at the BCaT Lab space at the University of Maryland (Skinner 3115) and on Zoom. Find out more on the BCaT Lab’s website.

For questions about DISCO CO(LAB), please contact Rianna Walcott, Associate Director of the BCaT Lab, at rwalcott@umd.edu.