Cluster 1: Program Models
[en] “Starting From Scratch”? Workshopping New Directions in
Undergraduate Digital HumanitiesCaitlin Christian-Lamb, Davidson College; Anelise Hanson Shrout, California State University Fullerton
Abstract
[en]
Recent years have seen widespread interest in digital humanities (DH) and growing
interest in undergraduate-centered digital curricula. However, few undergraduate
DH programs resemble those at large research institutions, where digital
initiatives tend to be housed in graduate programs and rooted in graduate
pedagogy or faculty research. Further, no two undergraduate DH programs are
alike. This article seeks to move beyond graduate- and faculty-centered models
by exploring new possibilities for undergraduate DH initiatives. It describes a
workshop held at the ADHO DH2015 conference. This workshop brought together
practitioners of digital pedagogy from small liberal arts colleges and from
undergraduate centers within larger institutions. This article details the
workshop’s exploration of undergraduate DH education, situating those practices
in the context of broader trends in digital pedagogy. Finally, this article
charts three broad challenges faced by programs which emphasize undergraduate
digital curricula and offers suggestions and strategies to address these common
issues.
[en] Digital Humanities Pedagogy as Essential Liberal Education: A
Framework for Curriculum DevelopmentBrandon T. Locke, Michigan State University
Abstract
[en]
Digital humanities projects and methods are becoming increasingly common in
undergraduate humanities classrooms. Digital projects and exercises allow
students to engage with new technology, collaborate with peers, graduate
students, and faculty, and produce tangible scholarship that is publicly
visible. The Lab for the Education and Advancement in Digital Research (LEADR),
a new student-focused digital humanities initiative at Michigan State
University, has introduced digital components into large numbers of of History
and Anthropology courses. Through two years of courses, it has proven fruitful
to frame these not as “Digital Humanities projects,” but as
part of a digital liberal arts curriculum that seeks to teach students not only
about the domain-specific content, but also essential skills for information
retrieval and analysis, media literacy, and communication in the digital age.
This framework places these skills as extensions of longstanding skills,
literacies, and knowledges that humanities and social sciences have contributed
towards liberal arts education.
[en] The MoEML Pedagogical Partnership
ProgramJanelle Jenstad, University of Victoria; Kim McLean-Fiander, University of Victoria; Kathryn R. McPherson, Utah Valley University
Abstract
[en]
Since 2014, The Map of Early Modern London (MoEML) has partnered with professors and students
around the world in a unique collaboration between a digital humanities (DH)
project and humanities classrooms. The model we have developed addresses a
sustainability challenge for DH projects, provides professors with a way of
meeting administrative demands for engaged learning, and gives students a
high-stakes research-based learning opportunity with the potential for an
open-access, peer–reviewed publication. The MoEML
Pedagogical Partnership Project emerged from a confluence of problems and
opportunities. One longstanding problem for DH practitioners is project-based:
how do we sustain the projects already begun? Another problem emerges as DH
moves out of the “big tent” and sets up camp in humanities
classrooms at smaller, non-R1 institutions. Also, for scholars not trained in
the technologies that drive many DH projects, crossing the analog-digital divide
might be daunting and discourage them from contributing to DH projects. To
address these challenges, the MoEML Pedagogical
Partnership takes Research-Based Learning (RBL) models and turns them into
high-profile publication opportunities, mobilizing ubiquitous social networking
and communication technologies to connect the project with the new demographic
of student contributors. This essay will highlight how digital projects and
digi-curious professors can collaborate to develop innovative pedagogical
practices that provide projects with content, enliven professors’ pedagogy, and
invite students to acquire scholarly research skills, gain digital literacy, and
engage in an interdisciplinary and international collaboration. We argue that DH
projects can be used innovatively and effectively in the classroom to promote
RBL. At the same time, DH projects–open-access ones in particular–can provide a
home both for humanities research and for the fruits of digital pedagogy across
a wide range of institutional settings.
[en] Getting on the Map: A Case Study in Digital Pedagogy and
Undergraduate CrowdsourcingShannon Kelley, Fairfield University
Abstract
[en]
This case study describes my experience implementing a digital writing assignment
in a traditional undergraduate literature classroom at Fairfield University
while in a pedagogical partnership with The Map of Early
Modern London, an award-winning, peer-reviewed digital humanities
mapping project housed at the University of Victoria. I argue that crowdsourcing
opportunities can offer a way for faculty at small liberal arts colleges and
universities to increase digital literacy among their students. I suggest that
such assignments be framed with supporting undergraduate coursework. I then
offer a series of preparatory steps and suggestions on how to modify an existing
course in ways that meet student learning outcomes pertaining to digital
literacy.
[en] A Tale of Two Internships: Developing Digital Skills through
Engaged ScholarshipPatricia Hswe, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; Tara LaLonde, The Pennsylvania State University; Kate Miffitt, The Pennsylvania State University; James O'Sullivan, University College Cork; Sarah Pickle, The Claremont Colleges Library; Nathan Piekielek, The Pennsylvania State University; Heather Ross, The Pennsylvania State University; Albert Rozo, The Pennsylvania State University
Abstract
[en]
This paper offers a case study of two contrasting digital scholarship
internships at The Pennsylvania State University. We explore the benefits and
drawbacks of the internship model as an approach to developing digital
scholarship among undergraduates through detailing the challenges and
particularities of these experiences and analyzing mentor reflection and student
feedback. We conclude with a number of recommendations on best practices for
teaching digital scholarship through an internship model and aim to provide a
useful roadmap for institutions looking to follow a similar model for
undergraduate education in this field.
Cluster 2: Disciplinarity and DH Pedagogy
[en] Towards a Seamful Design of Networked Knowledge: Practical
Pedagogies in Collaborative TeamsAaron Mauro, Penn State Behrend; Daniel Powell, University of Victoria; Sarah Potvin, Texas A&M University; Jacob Heil, The Five Colleges of Ohio; Eric Dye, Penn State Behrend; Bridget Jenkins, Penn State Behrend; Dene Grigar, Washington State University
Abstract
[en]
Collaboration is an ethically charged relationship that challenges traditional
modes of authorship attribution, institutional norms, and expectations of
teaching and learning. A careful reflection on the needs and expectations of
project participants demands an exposure of the seams and social dynamics
inherent in research-driven relationships. In this paper, we ask: How does
integrating digital scholarship into undergraduate pedagogy challenge systems of
evaluation and credit and affect collaboration in research environments tuned to
promotion and tenure? Emerging from our participation in the Scholarly
Communication Institute (2015) in the Research Triangle of North Carolina, this
article presents the findings of a team tasked with evaluating best practices
and better understanding how authorship and contributorship models emerge in
heterogeneous teams of students, faculty, staff, #alt-ac roles, librarians,
programmers, and community partners.We have used the Taxonomy of Digital
Research Activities in the Humanities (TaDiRAH) to describe our
contributions to this article. Please find the full reference of activities
here: https://github.com/dhtaxonomy/TaDiRAH/blob/master/reference/activities.md
This taxonomy was brought to our collective attention at the 2015 Scholarly
Communication Institute by the “Modeling contributorship
with TaDiRAH” team, comprised of Cassidy Sugimoto, J. Britt
Holbrook, Korey Jackson, Zach Coble, April Hathcock, and Micah
Vandegrift.
[en] Undergraduate Students and Digital Humanities Belonging:
Metaphors and Methods for Including Undergraduate Research in DH
CommunitiesEmily Christina Murphy, Queen's University; Shannon R. Smith, Bader International Study Centre, Herstmonceux Castle, Queen's University
Abstract
[en]
How can alternate histories of DH through feminist criticism, participatory art,
and design shape undergraduate pedagogy in DH? In this article, we argue for
explicitly employing a “scholar-citizen” model as a principle
of pedagogical design, making explicit many of the latent assumptions of DH
belonging and community. By adhering to these design principles we have been
able to question some of the assumptions of pedagogical theories like Research
Based Learning and public–facing scholarship, demonstrating these theories’
complex relationships public, semi–public, or private dissemination; classroom
and non–classroom spaces; complexity of the assigned task; and the role of
assessment. Our experiences as Director and Assistant Director for a combined
Summer intensive undergraduate Field School in DH occasion this article.
[en] A Long-Belated Welcome: Accepting Digital Humanities Methods
into Non-DH ClassroomsKara Kennedy, University of Canterbury
Abstract
[en]
Digital Humanities (DH) methods incorporated into traditional (non-DH) humanities
classrooms present a fruitful opportunity to help undergraduate students learn
digital literacy skills as well as new ways of studying the humanities. In light
of the trend of increasing numbers of women entering higher education and
choosing humanities and arts degrees, DH can also help women who potentially
face gender biases related to digital technology gain competence and confidence
with it through their humanities courses. Having more students introduced to DH
as a regular part of study may increase diversity in the DH community when they
themselves become teachers and researchers. Barriers exist, from reluctance to
change to a rising contingent labor force. Therefore, this article offers a
selection of accessible DH methods that can be used to positively shape
humanities pedagogy.
[en] Teaching Electronic Literature as Digital Humanities: A
ProposalAlex Saum-Pascual, University of California, Berkeley
Abstract
[en]
This essay presents an approach to teaching Digital Humanities through two
largely unexplored lenses: electronic literature and foreign languages (Spanish
in particular). It offers a practical example of a course taught during the
Spring of 2016 at UC Berkeley that combines literary analysis with the teaching
of basic programming skills, and DH tools and methods. Concretely, this course
is an upper division, undergraduate writing intensive class, where students
learn how to write and talk about electronic literature–e.g. hypertext novels,
kinetic poetry, automatic generators, social media fictions, etc.–, learning
specific terminology and theoretical frameworks, as they gain the skills to
build their own digital art pieces in a collaborative workshop setting. By
taking this course as a practical example, this essay tackles three important
pillars in the humanities. Firstly, the overall concept of literature, and more
specifically, the literary; secondly, what we understand by literary studies at
the university; and thirdly, and more broadly, what constitutes cultural (beyond
technical) literacy in the twenty–first century. This essay’s final claim is
that teaching e-it as DH effectively address all three.
[en] DH for History Students: A Case Study at the Facultad de
Filosofía y Letras (National Autonomous University of Mexico) Adriana Álvarez Sánchez, National Autonomous University of Mexico; Miriam Peña Pimentel, National Autonomous University of Mexico
Abstract
[en]
Digital Humanities (DH) is a field of research in which humanists at the National
Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) can take part and about which they can
collaborate in debates and projects. Introducing DH in the academic programs at
an undergraduate level can be a difficult path to traverse. Even so, for the
academic year 2016, we managed to include a Specialized Seminar-Workshop on this
field of study within the History Course at the Facultad
de Filosofía y Letras at the UNAM. This article shows and analyzes
the context, the methods and the academic, technical and specialization
implications DH has in the History field (and in Humanities in general), and
also presents the results of our teaching work, of the research project in
teaching to which it is connected, and of some other activities which aim at
establishing an academic digital culture in this School’s community.
Cluster 3: Tool Devolopment
[en] Building a Toolkit for Digital PedagogyAlex Christie, Brock University
Abstract
[en]
Despite the perceived newness of electronic methods in physical classrooms,
electricity–and the distributed labor on which it runs–has long powered the
spaces of pedagogy. Routing electronic practices in undergraduate teaching
through the digital infrastructures with which they operate, this writing tests
circuits of power that migrate between disciplinary and physical learning
systems. It does so through a discussion of Pedagogy Toolkit, an open source and
community-authored teaching repository built with Jekyll and deployed via GitHub
Pages. Contributing to an increase of energy for project-based interventions in
digital humanities teaching, Pedagogy Toolkit circulates digitized teaching
materials, guides to teaching with digital humanities tools, a curated sample of
online syllabuses accompanied by a syllabus templating tool, and an accessible
website templating framework. An overview of new methods for digital teaching in
the undergraduate classroom leads in turn to a reflexive discussion of the
design of digital platforms as pedagogical objects, activating issues of labor,
diversity, and knowledge transmission along the way. Ultimately, building a
toolkit for digital pedagogy constructs infrastructure as a mode of intellectual
inquiry, exposing classroom power as a conduit for ethical connections between
students, teachers, and digital development teams. Rerouting logics that
partition teaching practice and tool development, this article situates building
communities at the heart of humanities learning.
[en] Building a Student-Centered (Digital) Learning Community With
UndergraduatesDanica Savonick, The Graduate Center, CUNY; Lisa Tagliaferri, The Graduate Center, CUNY
Abstract
[en]
This article argues that digital humanities projects can promote social change,
collaboration, equity, and creativity through a focus on pedagogy in the
undergraduate classroom. We analyze a pedagogical project that overtly set out
to challenge structures of power and privilege in the undergraduate classroom
through the use of an open-source online learning community. The Futures
Initiative Commons in a Box site was developed and modified by the university
faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students that make up the community of
users. This learning community invites undergraduate and graduate students to
become active knowledge-producers who contribute to their own teaching and
learning. As such, the site works to increase students’ agency and reconfigure
hierarchical relationships of power and knowledge.
[en] Collaborative Knowledge Creation and Student-Led Assignment
Design: Wikipedia in the University Literature ClassLaura Estill, Texas A&M University
Abstract
[en]
This case study outlines how writing for Wikipedia can benefit students in an
undergraduate literature class by having them undertake scholarly research, read
unmediated texts, and write for a real-life audience. In keeping with the
collaborative spirit of Wikipedia, the rubrics provided here were primarily
created by the class as a whole. Estill demonstrates how this assignment
encouraged students to question received notions of literary canon and to engage
critically with Wikipedia itself. Perhaps paradoxically, writing for Wikipedia
gave students ownership of their writing and research. Ultimately, this
assignment facilitated students to become experts on understudied topics and
helped them learn about how to do literary research.
[en] An Ontology for Gendered Content Representation of Cultural
Heritage ArtefactsIoanna Kyvernitou, National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG); Antonis Bikakis, University College London (UCL)
Abstract
[en]
The need for organising and digitally processing the vast amount of Cultural
Heritage (CH) information has recently led to the development of formal
knowledge representation models (ontologies) for the CH domain. Existing models,
however, do not capture gender-related concepts. This article presents an effort
to fill this gap by developing a new ontology for the representation of gendered
concepts in CH resources. The new ontology, named “GenderedCHContents” resulted from combined research in women’s
studies, gender theory, and computer science. Its primary aim is to draw
attention to the presence of women within CH artefacts. The proposed ontology
extends the Europeana Data Model (EDM) with twenty-two new classes, sixteen
object properties and seven datatype properties. The article presents a
demonstration of the “GenderedCHContents” ontology’s
use in five different representation tasks, which describe five resources
related to Pandora’s myth. Lastly, the study stresses the benefits of reasoning
support (i.e. enabling computers to infer further information from a set of
asserted facts) in revealing different gender ideals and inferred relationships
between metaphorical concepts, along with the benefits of the Semantic Web in
making information about gendered contents more easily retrievable to the
users.
[en] All and Each: A Socio-Technical Review of the Europeana
ProjectRhiannon Stephanie Bettivia, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Elizabeth Stainforth, University of Leeds
Abstract
[en]
Digital technologies offer opportunities for engagement with cultural heritage
resources through the development of online platforms and databases. However,
questions have been raised about whether this type of engagement is structurally
open or bounded by pre-existing institutional frameworks. Michel Foucault’s
later work on “governmentality” speaks to this concern and identifies in
modes of government the mutually reinforcing relation of all and each,
“to develop those elements
constitutive of individuals’ lives in such a way that their development
also fosters that of the strength of the state”
. This article takes Foucault’s insight as a point of departure for
thinking about how digital technologies are mediating and structuring the
relationships between individuals and organizations, using the European
Commission-funded Europeana project as a case study. Europeana is the embodiment
of all and each as a technique of government: it functions by fostering the
contributions of individuals and national audiences in a way that celebrates
their diversity, while also engaging in a project to systematically standardize
and unify. Examination of the technical elements of Europeana reveals the
political imperatives implicit in its technical operations, and how the
parameters for audience participation are subsequently defined. In this article,
we examine the audiences explicitly and implicitly delimited by Europeana, and
then analyze them in relation to the project’s development of the European Data
Model (EDM) for the interchange of metadata about cultural heritage objects. The
article concludes that a lack of explicit definitions about audiences, what
Europeana is, and how its various parts work in concert constitute a
definitional void. This void is a technique of government in
that it absorbs difference and is deliberately vague. It involves power
relations that are hard to center and render visible, and it is thus difficult
to detect which actors are occupying a space of privilege. We suggest some
tentative strategies for addressing this problem by attending to the sites of
awkward engagement and difference that are currently masked in the technical
framing of Europeana.
[en] Recovering the London Stage Information Bank:
Lessons from an Early Humanities Computing ProjectMattie Burkert, Utah State University
Abstract
[en]
This paper traces the little-known history of the London
Stage Information Bank, a digital initiative that ran from 1970 to
1978 under the direction of Professor Ben R. Schneider, Jr. at Lawrence
University. With support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the
American Council of Learned Societies, and the Mellon Foundation, Schneider’s
team produced a database from the multi-volume reference work The London Stage 1660-1800 (Southern Illinois
University Press, 1960-68). Today, however, most of the project’s outputs are
lost or damaged, and its history has been largely forgotten in both theater
studies and eighteenth-century studies. This essay traces the history of the
Information Bank and my efforts to recover its damaged data and code, offering
the project as an object lesson in questions of access, preservation, and
institutional memory that digital humanities practitioners continue to confront
in 2017. I argue that the project faded into obscurity, not only because of
technological obsolescence, but also because the development team was unable to
promote the kinds of research questions and behaviors that would enable their
tool's widespread adoption and survival. The indifference of literary and
theater scholars to the Information Bank throughout
the late 1970s and early 1980s demonstrates how vital it is that digital and
computational humanities work articulate its meaningfulness within existing
intellectual and disciplinary traditions. While digital scholars build new
avenues for inquiry that expand and transform humanities research, the survival
of these approaches depends on their relationship to current humanities
questions, methods, commitments, and epistemologies.
[en] A Pedagogy for Computer-Assisted Literary Analysis:
Introducing GALGO (Golden Age Literature Glossary
Online) Nuria Alonso García, Providence College; Alison Caplan, Providence College; Brad Mering, Mervideo
Abstract
[en]
This paper describes a digital teaching application that approaches the study of
language and literary works from a social semiotic perspective and represents an
innovative pedagogical model for world language and literature classes. The
Golden Age Literature Glossary Online, known by the acronym GALGO, consists of an online glossary of select keywords, from
canonical texts of Golden Age Spanish literature, whose multiple connotations
illuminate important linguistic and social concepts of the 16th and 17th
centuries. GALGO incorporates British cultural
historian Raymond Williams’ methodology in his Keywords: A
Vocabulary of Culture and Society: namely, identifying problem-laden
words or “keywords,” charting their
distinct usages across texts, and reflecting critically on clusters of
associated words. GALGO seeks to instantiate
language as social semiotic by linking the semantic configurations of a literary
work simultaneously to the cultural environment, the linguistic system, and the
social system. Applying the conceptual design of M.A.K. Halliday’s social
semiotic model, GALGO’s interpretive apparatus
provides the field of discourse or context of situation
for the text in which a specific keyword appears. The field of
discourse presents clusters, word groupings of semiotic affinity that
describe the social action that is taking place in the text. GALGO also performs an interpretation of the tenor of discourse, highlighting sociological variables
connected to class status, gender role and racial category that refine a
keyword’s meaning from the perspective of interpersonal relationships. Finally,
GALGO adds commentary on
discursive structures, such as patterns of grammar, syntactic nuances, and
figurative language, that surround the keyword in the text.
GALGO’s strength resides in the synchronic
connectivity that the system facilitates when identifying the constellation of
meanings for any given keyword. From a technical perspective, the system has the
ability to efficiently identify the absolute position of all uses of a keyword
across multiple texts, so that large texts can be managed and search times
minimized for both users and system administrators. GALGO is constructed in such a way that users can not only access
existing analysis within the database, but also can assume, when instructed to
do so, the role of the system administrator and contribute their own
annotations. A team of faculty and student administrators are currently building
the database with research previously collected in Spanish Golden Age literature
seminars. Providence College students have utilized the social semiotic
methodology underlying GALGO for several years now
with successful outcomes both in terms of their growth as language majors and
critical thinkers.
[en] From Disclaimer to Critique: Race and the Digital Image
ArchivistKate Holterhoff, Georgia Institute of Technology
Abstract
[en]
While the massive and difficult task of finding, documenting, and centralizing
collections is certainly of great concern to image archivists, and has been the
motivating factor for beginning numerous digital humanities projects, strategies
and best practices for archiving challenging or offensive visual objects (images
that are non-canonical, violent, and ambiguous) remains under-theorized. Using
the Pitt Rivers Museum, the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia, Harpweek, the Center for Holocaust and Genocide
Studies, and Visual Haggard: The Illustration
Archive as case studies, I address the question of how digital image
archivists ought to approach the task of curating objects with the potential to
cause trauma. I bring together several critical strands–most importantly visual
culture, race theory, and archival science–to question how the structure of a
digital archive database might best achieve the goals of educating the public,
supporting social justice, and enabling the researches of humanities
scholars.
[en] Media Visualization of Book Cover Images: Exploring
Differences among Bestsellers in Different CountriesWooseob Jeong, Emporia State University
Abstract
[en]
Interest in the role of book cover images in readers’ reading experience and book
marketing has been long-standing. This study attempts to compare book covers
from different countries with a media visualization tool called ImagePlot. The
top 100 bestselling books from 13 Amazon.com’s international sites were
identified and their cover images were downloaded. Using ImagePlot, median
values of brightness, hue and saturation for each image in the data set were
extracted and analyzed. Along with one-way ANOVA tests and the resulting graphs
from SPSS, ImagePlot outputs show differences in these graphical properties of
bestsellers’ cover images in different countries. From the outputs, with all the
book cover images displayed on a single canvas (screen), hidden patterns emerged
and findings were clearly confirmed. This study makes a contribution by
providing connection between research interests in book cover images and media
visualization techniques for further research.
[en] Old Content and Modern Tools – Searching Named Entities in a
Finnish OCRed Historical Newspaper Collection 1771–1910Kimmo Kettunen, National Library of Finland, Mikkeli, Finland; Eetu Mäkelä, University of Helsinki, Helsinki Centre for Digital Humanities; Teemu Ruokolainen, National Library of Finland, Mikkeli, Finland; Juha Kuokkala, University of Helsinki, Department of Modern Languages, Helsinki, Finland; Laura Löfberg, Department of Linguistics and English Language, Lancaster University, UK
Abstract
[en]
Named Entity Recognition (NER), search, classification and tagging of names and
name-like informational elements in texts, has become a standard information
extraction procedure for textual data. NER has been applied to many types of
texts and different types of entities: newspapers, fiction, historical records,
persons, locations, chemical compounds, protein families, animals etc. In
general, the performance of a NER system is genre- and domain-dependent and also
used entity categories vary . The most general set of
named entities is usually some version of a tripartite categorization of
locations, persons, and organizations. In this paper we report trials and
evaluation of NER with data from a digitized Finnish historical newspaper
collection (Digi). Experiments, results, and discussion of this research serve
development of the web collection of historical Finnish newspapers.
Digi collection contains 1,960,921 pages of newspaper material from
1771–1910 in both Finnish and Swedish. We use only material of Finnish documents
in our evaluation. The OCRed newspaper collection has lots of OCR errors; its
estimated word level correctness is about 70–75 % .
Our principal NE tagger is a rule-based tagger of Finnish, FiNER,
provided by the FIN-CLARIN consortium. We also show results of limited category
semantic tagging with tools of the Semantic Computing Research Group (SeCo) of the Aalto University.
Three other tools are also evaluated briefly.
This paper reports the first large scale results of NER in a historical Finnish
OCRed newspaper collection. Results of this research supplement NER results of
other languages with similar noisy data. As the results are also achieved with a
small and morphologically rich language, they illuminate the relatively
well-researched area of Named Entity Recognition from a new perspective.
[en] Playing with Identities: Queering Digital Narratology and the
Exploration of Gender and Sexual IdentitiesCalvin Fung, Monash University
Abstract
[en]
This study builds upon previous research that discusses gender and sexual
identities and digital narratives by introducing a queer narratological approach
to character creation mechanics. First, Lisa Nakamura’s identity tourism and
narratological constructs are applied to formalize the concept of the
exploration in digital narratives. Second, exploration of gender and sexual
identities is demonstrated through a queer narratological analysis of two
digital narratives, Always Sometimes Monsters
(2014) and Hustle Cat (2016). Third, the
development of character creation mechanics in The
Sims (2000-2016) series is examined to reflect the advancement
toward progressive game designs. Concerns regarding a sexuality blind approach
and the downplaying of homophobia are addressed, and Helene Cixous’s
poststructuralist “other bisexuality” as
a transgressive product of the fluidity of identities in digital narratives is
emphasized. This study elaborates the often-disregarded workings of queer
narratology and theory in digital narratives or game designs.
[en] The Digital Classicist: building a Digital
Humanities CommunitySimon Mahony, University College London
Abstract
[en]
There has been much discussion about digital humanities (DH) both as a discipline
and as a community of practice. This paper is based on my talk given to open the
Leipzig eHumanities Seminar series and is presented here with many thanks to
the organisers for their kind and generous invitation. Thanks also to the
DHQ reviewers whose valuable comments have helped me to strengthen this
paper. Whatever the balance of opinion, the emergence
of digital scholarship in the humanities has undoubtedly had considerable impact
on many disciplines; one such discipline is Classics and the study of the
ancient world more generally. This article uses the Digital Classicist (DC) as
an example of a DH community in a case study which traces its development and
growth to examine what might be learned. As a community the DC joins together
practitioners interested in the application of innovative digital methods and
technology to the study of the ancient world (in its widest sense). How has this
come about and perhaps more importantly, how has it been sustained and indeed
provided the inspiration for other affiliated communities? What do we understand
by a community and the association of individual practitioners separated by
distance? It is important that members feel that they are stakeholders, that
they have a sense of ownership and derive value from participation and
contribution. It is argued here that a community could be seen as a symbolic and
intellectual construct, one of perception rather than physicality to facilitate
the exchange of ideas and so effect growth and strengthen the discipline.
[en] Digital Oulipo: Programming Potential LiteratureNatalie Berkman, Princeton University
Abstract
[en]
The formally constrained work of the Oulipo (l’Ouvroir de Littérature
Potentielle, loosely translated as Workshop of Potential Literature) lends
itself particularly well to digital studies, which was quickly recognized by the
members of the group. To facilitate its goal of avoiding chance in its literary
production, the group was naturally drawn to the determinism of computers, where
true chance is simply impossible. In its early years, therefore, the group used
algorithmic procedures as a starting point for various texts and also attempted
to program these texts on actual computers, creating some of the first
electronic literature and embarking on proto-digital humanities work as early as
the 1960s and 1970s, later abandoning these efforts and relegating all
subsequent activity to a subsidiary group.
To understand the Oulipo's forays into computer science and more importantly, why
they abandoned them, I designed and carried out one of the inaugural projects of
the Princeton Center for Digital Humanities. The goal was twofold: first,
through exploratory programming, I intended to create interactive, digital
annexes to accompany my doctoral dissertation; more importantly, I hoped that by
attempting to reproduce the Oulipo's own algorithmic efforts, I would gain
similar insights into the nature of “Potential Literature” and be able to
understand why the group abandoned such efforts after the 1970s.
This article describes the content, development, and results of my project. For
each of my three Python-based annexes, I offer a historical survey of the
Oulipian text or procedure discussed within and the Oulipo’s own proto-digital
humanities experiments; then, I will talk about my own experiences as a
coder-researcher, what learning Python has brought to my project, and how my
exploratory programming offered me a new kind of critical reflection.
Establishing these annexes forced me to learn to code, a type of work that does
not only produce digital texts, but also helped me to reflect on the notion of
chance in a more nuanced way. Finally, coding has allowed me to better
understand the Oulipian mentality concerning this sort of digital
experimentation.
[en] Interdisciplinary Collaboration and Brokerage in
the Digital
HumanitiesAnela Chan, Independent Scholar; Richard Chenhall, University of Melbourne; Tamara Kohn, University of Melbourne; Carolyn Stevens, Monash University
Abstract
[en]
Interdisciplinary collaboration brings the benefit of multiple perspectives to a
research project, yet it also provides opportunities for reflection on each
discipline’s knowledge base. This article presents a case study in
interdisciplinary collaboration between two disparate fields, web development
and anthropology. We explore the challenges of translating between domains with
differing values, aims and methodologies, as well as issues that arose for us
during the development of a web application designed to provide a digital output
of an ethnographic project. We consider our experience using the Agile style of
software development, which emphasises rapid prototyping, iteration and even
failure. In the long run, we find negative experiences in web development can be
more valuable than the positive ones. The concept of ‘knowledge brokerage’ is a
useful term to describe the collaboration between the academics – who were
forced to conceptualise their data in new ways – and the developer – who
negotiated these transitions between abstract information and binary data, and
between academia and a public-facing web application.
[en] Metaphors in Digital Hermeneutics: Zooming
through Literary, Didactic and Historical Representations of Imaginary and
Existing CitiesFlorentina Armaselu, University of Luxembourg; Charles van den Heuvel, Huygens ING, The Hague, Netherlands; University of Amsterdam
Abstract
[en]
The paper proposes to bridge two areas of inquiry, digital hermeneutics and
metaphor within a digital environment, by the analysis of a less studied
phenomenon, i.e. how interpretation is supported and shaped by metaphors
embedded in an interface. The study is articulated around three use cases for
literary, didactic and historical representations of imaginary and existing
cities based on a model (z-text) and interface (Z-editor) for zoomable texts. We
will try to demonstrate that the zooming and contextualization features of the
tool allow creating layers of meaning that can assist interpretation and
critical readings of literature and history.
[en] Methods of quality, quality of methods. What does Roberto Busa
have to communicate to digital humanists in the 21st century? From hermeneutics
to performativity.Marinella Testori, King's College London
Abstract
[en]
Despite being also known as the “Father of Digital Humanities” owing to his
pioneering contribution to the application of informatics to the whole ensemble
of texts by the medieval philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274),
the Jesuit Italian priest Roberto Busa (1913-2011) has still not been fully
appreciated with regard to his development of a
“hermeneutic informatics”
. Indeed this may represent a key concept to clarify what makes a
difference between the common usage of computers in order to speed up
procedures, and high-quality practices enhancing the role of informatics in
shaping human interaction with machines. In other terms, Busa’s interpretation
of informatics may impact not only on the way in which digital resources and
tools are developed, but also on the epistemological reflection about Digital
Humanities. In this paper, by drawing from many of his texts, I will outline how
this innovative “hermeneutics” is explained by Busa in terms of language
dynamisms potentially leading to the development of what Johanna Drucker has
described as a
“humanistic-informed theory of the
making of technology”
.
[en] Reappearing Acts: A Review of Lori Emerson’s
Reading Writing Interfaces: From the Digital to the
BookboundJim McGrath, Brown University
Abstract
[en]
A review of Lori Emerson's Reading Writing Interfaces: From
The Digital To The Bookbound (2014). The reviewer highlights
Emerson's demands that we uncover and demystify the
“invisible” interfaces governing our digital tools and
platforms, situates Emerson's work with the larger field of digital humanities,
and talks at length about the movie Big.
