In anticipation of the reopening of the Red River Innovation Lab for the Humanities (RRILH) at Texas A&M University-Texarkana (TAMUT), I spoke with Dr. Drew Morton, the program’s director, to learn about the upcoming development. While specific reopening dates are still being finalized, the lab – located in UC 323 – is preparing for a soft opening to introduce the campus community to its resources.

Morton said, “We’re still waiting on IT to get the broadband infrastructure set up in the lab so that eSports and the Innovation Lab can share the same space.” The soft opening, he said, “would just entail introducing folks to the space and [give] them a sense of the hardware and software we offer. I’m really excited about our Zenbooth recording booth that we just got.” For those unfamiliar with Zenbooth, envision a modern phone booth designed to create an ideal quiet environment by reducing sound entering and exiting the booth.

One highlight of the lab is its equipment rental service, offering digital SLR cameras, microphones, and more. Access to the lab’s computers, Zenbooth, and general space is facilitated through the ACME suite (321S). Importantly, the RRILH is accessible to all students, with no constraints on equipment or software usage aside from what the library currently imposes.

The RRILH also holds various events and workshops: “Before the pandemic, we brought in a lot of guest speakers from all over the country on Zoom. We had Henry Jenkins from USC do a guest lecture for us on democracy and social media, for instance. We also did tech tutorials on Adobe software and cameras regularly. The goal is to teach our community how they can use new technology to reimagine their scholarship and creative work,” Morton said.

Regarding upcoming speakers, Morton is working on plans, but due to the challenges of reopening the physical space, long-term scheduling is still in progress. He expressed interest in inviting Logan Buck, an honors student who is completing a thesis project on video games in collaboration with Morton.

For now, Morton said that this year is a reboot, and his goal is to “get that space open to the public and [get] the word out about what [the RRILH] can offer to the campus, whether that’s letting professors know they can draw upon our cameras and podcasting equipment to reimagine their classroom assignments or research projects or students know they can use our Macs to create posters for their student organization or club on Photoshop.”