Department of English

Positioned within writing studies, Dobrin’s research focuses on aspects of the Digital Humanities (DH) and Environmental Humanities (EH). Specifically, his work considers the relationship between writing and emerging technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality (AR), and Virtual Reality (VR). He also examines the ecological properties of writing, as well as ecocriticism and ecocomposition, including questions of oceanic criticism. Dobrin is the Founding Director of the Trace Innovation Initiative, a research hub that studies emerging writing technologies such as AI, AR, and VR. Dobrin has been named a Digital Thought Leader by Adobe. He is a member of the Florida Institute for National Security (FINS), part of UF’s AI Initiative. 

Dobrin’s latest monograph Blue Ecocriticism and the Oceanic Imperative (Routledge, 2021) initiates a conversation about blue ecocriticism: critical, ethical, cultural, and political positions that emerge from oceanic or aquatic frames of mind rather than traditional land-based approaches. His previous book, Fishing, Gone? Saving the Ocean through Sportfishing, a book about the future of the world’s oceans, was published by Texas A&M University Press in 2019. In conjunction with the Florida Institute for National Security, he is currently working on a new book about oceanic protein security from an environmental humanities perspective. He is also completing three edited collections: Artificial Intelligence and the Humanities (Parlor Press); Rhetorical Ecologies (with Madison Jones; National Council of Teachers of English Press); and The Humanities Division (with Jason Crider; Parlor Press).