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Pioneering Immersive Learning
David Neville, PhD, MS, works at the intersection of humanistic scholarship, immersive technology, and instructional design — integrating theory, technical practice, and pedagogy to chart the future of Digital Humanities education. With more than 30 years in higher education, he blends scholarly depth, digital fluency, and instructional innovation to help institutions realize the potential of Extended Reality (XR), Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), and hybrid curriculum design.
For over a decade, David has been at the forefront of digital innovation in the humanities. As a Digital Liberal Arts Specialist at Grinnell College, he brought emerging technologies into classrooms across disciplines. He also founded the Immersive Experiences Lab, where faculty and students collaborated on projects in Virtual Reality (VR) design, interactive storytelling, and hybrid pedagogy. The lab became a proving ground for how immersive media transforms the study of culture, history, and language.
David sees the Digital Humanities as a space where technology and humanistic inquiry meet to explore new ways of understanding culture, meaning, and experience. His work grows out of that intersection, bringing XR, GenAI, data analytics (R and xAPI), and creative design into dialogue with the interpretive traditions of the humanities. He is increasingly focused on the design of Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) in immersive environments, particularly for second language and culture acquisition, where generative agents, XR interaction data, and xAPI analytics work together to support adaptive feedback and rigorous assessment. David is especially interested in how open and collaborative approaches can make research and teaching more experiential and accessible, and in how digital tools, thoughtfully used, can extend the reach of humanistic scholarship while keeping its core commitment to curiosity, empathy, and interpretation.
As Principal Investigator on a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Digital Humanities Advancement Grant, David led the development of a VR Viking longship that let students step into history as an environment they could explore. The project combined historical research, 3D modeling and scanning, and immersive storytelling with evidence-based practice and data-driven analysis. Undergraduates took part in every stage, from design and asset creation to user testing. The initiative fostered new collaborative teaching environments and created a framework for evaluating student learning outcomes, measuring both academic performance and 21st-century digital skills acquisition.
Bridging Disciplines, Leading Change
David’s background spans Medieval Studies, German, Computer Science, and Instructional Design, a mix that fuels both scholarship and innovation. He has produced more than 90 publications, projects, and presentations in digital and spatial humanities, XR, game-based learning, second language and culture acquisition, and hybrid education. His current research explores how immersive environments deepen humanistic inquiry, facilitate second language and culture acquisition, and support narrative-driven experiential learning.
David holds a PhD in German Language and Literature from Washington University in St. Louis and an MS in Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences from Utah State University. To complement this background and ensure the successful, on-time delivery of complex initiatives such as NEH-funded projects, he brings specialized expertise in formal project leadership and Agile methodologies. He has completed the Google Project Management Certificate and is preparing for the CAPM credential, reinforcing his ability to lead cross-functional teams and apply data-driven, outcomes-focused approaches in the Digital Humanities.
Service to the profession is central to David’s work, actively shaping the future of the Digital Humanities. His contributions include serving as a founding member of the international Plus Ultra Collective (PUC), a non-profit organization dedicated to integrating humanistic studies with technology to preserve cultural materials and advance public understanding, and as a Senior Editorial Board Member for the International Journal of Emerging and Disruptive Innovation in Education: VISIONARIUM. He is also an active member of EDUCAUSE. In these capacities, David helps define emerging standards for immersive learning, ethical technology integration, and interdisciplinary research design, demonstrating a strong national and international reputation that directly supports the field’s growth.
Adventures Off the Clock
Outside his professional life, David draws energy from weightlifting, bass guitar, and gravel cycling. His Salsa Fargo, Alsviðr, carried him through Prairie Burn 100 and RAGBRAI 2025, and he is already planning a bikepacking tour across Northern Europe. His passion for endurance cycling, music, and strength training mirrors the same curiosity and persistence he brings to his professional work: pushing limits, finding rhythm, and exploring new terrain. If your institution is ready to push limits and imagine new possibilities for the Digital Humanities, David is ready to help build the future with you.
(Render by David Neville / Meadhall hearth in Blender)
(Professional Photo by Rachael Venema/Jennifer Weinman Photography)