About
Nicole Roché has a background in journalism and creative writing. She brings many years of teaching experience at the University of Kansas and the University of Montana, as well as her experience as the Online Managing Editor of CutBank, the graduate literary journal at UM.
She said she first became interested in joining the Digital Scholarship team after working with Director of Research and Digital Scholarship, Eric Williams-Bergen, to incorporate digital narrative and photo annotation projects in her FYP “We Are Our Stories” and FYS “Everyday Artifacts.” In her FYS, students use digital projects to tell the history of treasured family heirlooms through old photographs and other primary materials that document family history, such as immigration records and military records, as well as through more personal documentation like letters, diary entries, and home recordings.
A.I. Engagement
Nicole Roche is the Digital Scholarship Specialist at St. Lawrence University and a member of the Digital Scholarship team. Along with her colleague Eric Williams-Bergen, she creates generative AI resource guides for students and faculty and co-hosts workshops on trends, opportunities, and ethical considerations when using generative AI. In her role supporting digital media projects, she collaborates with students and faculty to evaluate the suitability of AI tools for their project needs.
In 2023, Roche and Williams-Bergen were awarded a grant from the Northern New York Library Network to create an “AI Collaboration Space for Digital Storytelling” in ODY Library. This initiative has provided the campus community with a space to experiment with, and engage in critical conversations about, emergent AI technologies. In the classroom, Roche incorporates assignments that require students to use and critically reflect on generative AI tools. She believes ethical engagement with these tools is crucial for fostering a deeper understanding of their capabilities and limitations.