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ISSN 1938-4122
Announcements
DHQ: Digital Humanities Quarterly
2025 19.1
Articles
Systematic bias in humanities datasets: ancient and
medieval coin finds in the FLAME project
Lee Mordechai, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Alan Stahl, Princeton University; Mark Pyzyk, Getty Research Institute; Ilia Curto Pelle, Princeton University
Abstract
[en]
FLAME is an online digital humanities project providing economic data for
investigations of the transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages (CE
325-750) in Western Eurasia and North Africa. While accumulating, entering, and
displaying the data, the project’s leadership has become increasingly aware of the
inherent distortions in these data. These deviations operate on various levels, from
the disparate events that provide the coin finds that serve as the basis of its data
to previously unexamined scholarly biases that underpin such a quantitative approach
to historical analysis. By systematically examining these phenomena, we hope to frame
a discussion of such inherent biases in other digital humanities undertakings.
Unjust Readings: Against the New New Criticism
Paul Barrett, University of Guelph
Abstract
[en]
Unjust Readings: Against the New New Criticism" offers a theoretical and methodological defence of the use of digital humanities methods for literary interpretation.
I argue that extant critiques of DH from Fish, Da, Eyers and others depend on an unexamined notion of the appropriate work of the humanities and, in particular,
of literary interpretation. Their claim, that critics should simply "just read" obscures the manner in which literary interpretation is never simply 'just reading.'
I argue that DH not only raises interpretive possibilities that would be impossible without digital tools but also foregrounds the methodological choices and theoretical
paradigms that so often are unstated, or implicit, in traditional humanities work. Inherent to the interpretive act that moves between the digital and the humanities is
a need to state how the critic works between the two, thereby making the interpretive frame explicit. I then demonstrate a number of examples, from my research and the work of others,
that demonstrate this productive capacity of DH in order to further refute that critics should simply 'just read' the texts.
Experiments in Distant Reading: Using Topic Modeling on Chinese Buddhist Texts from 500-800 CE
Marcus Bingenheimer, Temple University; Justin Brody, Franklin and Marshall College; Ryan Nichols, Califoria State University, Fullerton
Abstract
[en]
The article tries to answer whether the BERTopic topic modeling framework can be used to obtain topics that meaningfully distinguish two corpora of Buddhist Chinese texts from 500 to 800 CE.
The first corpus consists of translated “Indian-Chinese” Buddhist texts, the second of “Chinese-Chinese” texts, i.e. texts directly authored in Buddhist Chinese.
Does the application of topic modeling reveal aspects that are typical for these corpora and do these topics suggest avenues for
future research into the sinicization of Buddhism that took place during that time?
For our implementation of BERTopic, we used the customized GuwenBERT, a language model trained on classical Chinese.
To reduce the dimensionality of the embeddings we used the UMAP algorithm. Next, the HDBSCAN takes care of hierarchical clustering.
The most relevant words of each cluster are identified with c-tf-idf. As a last step, we score each cluster by its monochromaticity –
this is a measure of how likely the documents in the cluster are to be derived from either just the “Chinese-Chinese” or just the “Indian-Chinese” documents.
In order to communicate the topics we create virtual paragraphs that combine most of the top twenty terms that represent a sample of ten highly monochromatic topics.
Discussing these topics from a Buddhist Studies point of view, we find that our modified BERTopic workflow does indeed return topics that are characteristic of their
corpus and highlights facets that help to understand the process of how Buddhism became sinicized in the three centuries between 500 and 800 CE.
Thus distant reading of latent topics in the corpus is possible. While some topics are in themselves unsurprising, others highlight new promising areas for research.
Introducing Booksnake: A Scholarly App for
Transforming Existing Digitized Archival Materials into Life-Size Virtual Objects for
Embodied Interaction in Physical Space, using IIIF and Augmented
Reality
Sean Fraga, University of Southern California; Christy Ye, University of Southern California; Henry Huang, University of Southern California; Zack Sai, University of Southern California; Michael Hughes, University of Southern California; April Yao, University of Southern California; Samir Ghosh, University of California, Santa Cruz
Abstract
[en]
We introduce Booksnake, a new mobile app that makes it feel like digitized archival
items are physically present in a user’s real-world surroundings by using the
augmented reality (AR) technology in consumer smartphones and tablets. Unlike
humanities projects that use virtual reality (VR) or AR to publish custom content,
Booksnake is a general-purpose, content-agnostic tool compatible with existing online
collections that support the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF).
In this article, we critique existing flat-screen image viewers and discuss the
benefits of embodied interaction with archival materials. We contextualize Booksnake
within the broader landscape of immersive technologies for cultural heritage. We
detail the technical pipeline by which Booksnake transforms existing digitized
archival materials into custom life-size virtual objects for interaction in physical
space. We conclude with a brief discussion of the future of the immersive
humanities.
Case Studies
Can Open-Source Fix Predictive Policing? Anti-Racist Critical Code Studies Approach
to Contemporary AI Policing Software
Sarah Ciston, University of Southern California; Zach Mann, University of Southern California; Mark C. Marino, University of Southern California; Jeremy Douglass, University of California Santa Barbara
Abstract
[en]
Technology watchdogs and technoculture critics have discussed predictive policing software at an abstract level or have tried to reverse
engineer its blackboxed code. In this paper, we use the methods of Critical Code Studies, media archaeology, and software studies more
broadly to analyze CivicScape predictive policing software, published online, albeit partially. Working from an anti-racist approach, we
examine how the CivicScape code calculates which neighborhoods to recommend for heavy policing. Our reading demonstrates what code
analysis can add to the analysis of such software and makes a case for the public release of all legislative operational source code
for scrutiny under the principles of the Freedom of Information Act.
Reviews
A Review of Bridget Whearty's
Digital Codicology: Medieval Books and Modern
Labor (2022)
Loren Lee, University of Virginia
Abstract
[en]
Digital Codicology: Medieval Books and Modern Labor
(2022) by Bridget Whearty is a crucial work for scholars engaging
with digitized materials. Advocating for a digital codicology that treats digital
materials as objects worthy of study in their own right, Whearty
addresses the many concerns surrounding digital manuscripts and promotes a more
active, informed use of these resources. She highlights the often invisible
human labor behind digitization, providing a detailed history and
autoethnographic insights that challenge the perception of digital manuscripts
as mere stand-ins for physical texts. Through personal experiences and
institutional analysis, Whearty delves into the complexities of
interoperability and the labor-intensive processes behind digitization and
metadata curation. Her book emphasizes the emotional and intellectual engagement
digital manuscripts can provoke, advocating for broad digitization and
recognizing the dynamic nature of digital projects. Ultimately,
Digital Codicology calls for greater transparency,
collaboration, and a redefined understanding of digital manuscripts as integral
primary sources in modern scholarship.
Black Waves in Digital Humanities: Vaziri's (2023) Exploration of African
Enslavement in the Persian Gulf through Film
Zeinab Parishani, University of Missouri
Abstract
[en]
Racial Blackness and Indian Ocean Slavery: Iran's Cinematic Archive (2023) by
Parisa Vaziri offers an in-depth exploration of the intersection of Blackness and slavery within
Iranian historical and cinematic contexts. The book critically examines how Iranian cinema portrays African
enslavement and marginalized narratives, particularly through fīlmfārsī and Indigenous
theatrical traditions. Vaziri underscores the historiographical neglect of Indian Ocean slavery,
emphasizing the forgotten stories of the enslaved. By incorporating maps that trace African migrations and the
routes of the slave trade, she enriches the reader's understanding of global history.
Review of The Bloomsbury Handbook to the Digital
Humanities (2023)
Soni Wadhwa, SRM University, India
Abstract
[en]
James O’Sullivan’s edited volume is, to use his words, likely to attract three kinds
of readers: DH-experts, DH-curious, and naysayers. This review examines what the book
offers to each category of readers, as a way of approaching the Herculean task of
capturing a glimpse of 43 chapters that touch upon the domain in diverse ways. The
self-critical spirit consistently demonstrated across chapters will stimulate
dialogue regarding the gains made by DH when analysing culture textually.
Author Biographies
URL: http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/preview/index.html
Comments: dhqinfo@digitalhumanities.org
Published by: The Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations and The Association for Computers and the Humanities
Affiliated with: Digital Scholarship in the Humanities
DHQ has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Copyright © 2005 -
Unless otherwise noted, the DHQ web site and all DHQ published content are published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Individual articles may carry a more permissive license, as described in the footer for the individual article, and in the article’s metadata.
Comments: dhqinfo@digitalhumanities.org
Published by: The Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations and The Association for Computers and the Humanities
Affiliated with: Digital Scholarship in the Humanities
DHQ has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Copyright © 2005 -
Unless otherwise noted, the DHQ web site and all DHQ published content are published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Individual articles may carry a more permissive license, as described in the footer for the individual article, and in the article’s metadata.
