Friends and members of NUDHL:

Here’s a brief recap of our first meeting of 2013-14. Over the course of this year, you’ll see more posts like this, which will provide a record of our gatherings for current and future members, They will also serve as a resource as our agenda unfolds over the course of the academic year.

On Friday, October 11, NUDHL Convener Michael Kramer moderated the first meeting for the 2013-14 year. The title of this two-hour session was “Introduction to NUDHL and the Digital Humanities,” and it sought to reflect upon what we accomplished last year as well as what we will undertake this year. Michael mentioned Matthew Gold’s edited collection Debates in the Digital Humanities, which we used in the past to stimulate conversation in monthly meetings. He also summarized some of the points that surfaced frequently in last year’s sessions (file backwards through the NUDHL blog for some of this content).

This first meeting of this year also introduced all members in attendance, both old and new, including Co-Conveners Jillana Enteen, Josh Honn, and Michael Kramer, and Assistant Directors Kevin Baker and Andrew Keener. Attendants hailed from a variety of departments and disciplines including: Art Theory and Practice; English; History; Information Technology; Media, several divisions in Northwestern Libraries; Technology and Society; Rhetoric and Public Culture; and Spanish and Portuguese. The recommended reading for this first session was Jeffrey Schnapp et al., “A Short Guide to Digital_Humanities” (2013), which provoked a thoughtful conversation about the multiple, conflicting definitions of DH, what it can do and offer, what the stakes are, and who is or who can be involved. Of course, as Michael and the English Department’s Jim Hodge were quick to remind us, this book bears the marks of its origins: advocacy for an undergraduate DH program directed towards administrative offices.

Rather than attempting to collaboratively formulate a strict or polemical definition of what digital humanities is, we sought in this session to articulate what it does. This strategy for the conversation invited members to discuss some of their own experiences or interests in the ways that DH serves their research or work. Michael suggested at first that DH might promise a challenge to the very traditionally text-centered approaches of the humanities, as well as multiple modes of perception in both research and teaching. Jim Hodge brought up the notion of “deformance,” a term used by Jerome McGann and Lisa Samuels to describe the playful reconfiguration of texts, to which Josh Honn added computer glitching. Thinking more broadly, Andrew Keener summarized some of Franco Moretti’s points about distant reading in Graphs, Maps, Trees, and offered some thoughts about different modes or models of DH (Moretti being at Stanford, and the bibliographically-inclined McGann “school” radiating outwards from UVa on the East Coast). Towards the end of the conversation, Elizabeth Hunter raised some questions about the roles of gaming in the digital humanities, and we hypothesized how a first-person Shakespeare RPG might integrate a player’s experience with an increasingly difficult sequence of encounters with early modern English language or text. Other topics to surface, if only briefly, included: the difference between the public humanities and the digital humanities; 3D printing; canonicity; and databases.

At the very end of the meeting, Josh invited attendants to peruse the Northwestern University Library’s “A Guide to Digital Humanities”, a useful resource for faculty, staff, and graduate students interested in learning more about DH at Northwestern. Additionally, this NUDHL blog offers a place for discussions to continue between sessions and throughout the year.

What are the Digital Humanities?

November 14-16, 2013 @ University of Chicago

Scholars have long been interested in how new media technologies and novel statistical methods can alter the way that humanists approach their work. Indeed, for as long as there have been computers, there has been talk of imminent transformation in the study of our collective cultural life. Only recently, however, have digital technologies made major inroads into the broad range of disciplines that constitute the humanities as a field—scholars in disciplines as diverse as philosophy, art history, English and film studies are now making use of them in their work. But what are the digital humanities? How do they promise to change the way we approach the study of language, literature, philosophy and the arts?

 

Are you a researcher, developer, designer, or data visualizer interested in wikis, Wikipedia, and open online collaboration? If so, the inaugural Chicagoland Wiki Research Hackathon is coming up Friday, November 8 at Northwestern and you should be a part of it!

You can signup on this form and read on to learn more.

What is this event? The Wiki Research Hackathon is a free and open to all, and is being coordinated in conjunction with Wikimedia Labs² and the global Wiki Research Hackathon, which is currently scheduled to take place on four different continents over a 24 hour period!

Why “wiki research”? Wikis and other platforms for open, online collaboration (also known as peer production) are responsible for some of the most innovative and ground-breaking activities on the Internet. In addition to generating valuable public goods (like the world’s largest free encyclopedia!), many of these online communities also produce incredibly rich and detailed public datasets that can be used to conduct research of many kinds, visualize social interactions, and also to build new services, tools, and platforms.

Why should I participate? The goal of the Chicagoland Wiki Research Hackathon is to bring together a local community of people interested in wikis, Wikipedia, and open online communities in order to facilitate collaborations, connections, and new projects. It is an opportunity to meet, brainstorm, and work together. You’ll have the chance to create innovative projects and take advantage of the incredible public data resources available from Wikipedia, Wikia, and other open online communities. By participating, you’ll also be part of a much larger, global community doing wiki research!

Where and when is this happening? The inaugural Chicagoland Wiki Research Hackathon will take place on the Northwestern University campus in Evanston (specific location pending confirmation) from 10am-5:30pm on Friday, November 8. We’ll spend most of the day developing and executing collaborative projects. All attendees are then invited for appetizers and drinks from 6-8pm. You can check out a slightly inaccurate draft agenda for the day if you want more details than that. Note that remote participants are also welcome, but you should get in touch with the organizers ahead of time if you’d like to participate remotely.

What do I need to bring? Most importantly, you need to bring your ideas, skills, and willingness to meet and work with other people who have diverse interests. The organizers will provide some basic infrastructure (space, food, brainstorming activities, internet connections, lightweight planning and organization). All attendees are encouraged to bring their own laptops (or other personal computing devices) as needed.

Sounds fantastic! How do I get involved? Just signup here. We’ll keep you posted with reminders, additional details about the event, and future announcements Please complete the signup form even if you think you can only come for part of the day or just want to stay informed about future events.

I still have questions – who do I talk to? Email Aaron Shaw (Assistant Professor of Communication Studies, Northwestern).

Who’s supporting this event? The inaugural Chicagoland Wiki Research Hackathon is co-sponsored by the Northwestern Program in Technology & Social Behavior and the Wikimedia Foundation. We’re also grateful for the support of the Northwestern School of Communication; the Department of Communication Studies; and the Program in Media, Technology & Society. If you’d like to get involved as a sponsor and/or organizer of this hackathon or future events like this, please email Aaron Shaw.

The Digital Rhetoric Collaborative is looking for bloggers, especially those “dealing the data.” More here: http://www.digitalrhetoriccollaborative.org/2013/10/14/fall-blog-carnival-call-for-posts-dealing-with-data-digitally/#comment-18133

 

 

2.1: Introduction to NUDHL and Digital Humanities

 

I just stumbled across ETOPiA—NU’s Engineering Transdisciplinary Outreach Project in the Arts—via a well-designed poster hanging up in the library promoting performances of “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs.” Certainly seems of interest to NUDHL and our discussions of issues of technology criticism and interdisciplinary. Here more from the group’s website:

ETOPiA: The Engineering Transdisciplinary Outreach Project in the Arts uses performance arts staged in the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Sciences to inspire a cross-disciplinary dialogue about the role of science and technology in society. This annual event highlights the pursuit and application of knowledge by individuals whose historical and personal circumstances span from tragic to epic. In its inaugural year, 2008, ETOPiA produced the play Copenhagen and opened the doors of the Technological Institute of Northwestern to an audience of almost 1,000 community members, high school students, undergraduates, graduate students, staff, and faculty from the greater university neighborhood.

ETOPiA strives to generate awareness among students of all ages and disciplines about the interdependence of the different fields of study, and the services, responsibilities, and obligations of engineers and scientists in today’s society. To broaden outreach, admission is free to all, and special performances are scheduled for the benefit of area high schools. Support comes from various Northwestern institutions, such the Materials Research Center, the International Institute for Nanotechnology, and The Graduate School. ETOPiA succeeds through direct involvement of Northwestern undergraduate and graduate students who assist in the organization and execution of the event.

More, including information about the current performance, at http://etopia.northwestern.edu/

Dear NUDHL Group:

A reminder of the upcoming September 27th deadline.  The colloquium is an excellent opportunity to get feedback on your DH projects from an enthusiastic and helpful audience, so I encourage you to send in those proposals!

Rob Buerglener

 

 

8th Annual Chicago Colloquium on Digital Humanities and Computer Science

DePaul University, Chicago IL

December 5-7, 2013

CALL FOR PAPERS

The 8th Annual Chicago Colloquium on Digital Humanities and Computer Science will take place December 5-7, 2013, on the Lincoln Park Campus of DePaul University. The conference will consist of panels, roundtables, or other kinds of sessions proposed by scholars relating to recent issues and advances in the digital humanities. We are excited as well to welcome as our keynote speaker Prof. Michael Chwe from the Department of Political Science at University of California Los Angeles. Prof. Chwe is the author, most recently, of Jane Austen, Game Theorist (Princeton University Press, 2013).

Interested scholars are invited to present proposals for individual papers, entire panels or roundtable sessions bySeptember 27, 2013 (extended deadline). Panels will consist of three papers and a commentator/moderator, although other formats are possible. Panel proposals should include a title and brief description of the session as a whole (300 words or less), along with paper titles and abstracts (300 words or less) of all panelists. Short-form CVs (1-2 pages, including  institutional affiliation and contact information) should also be attached. Proposals for individual papers will also be considered and are encouraged.

All proposals should be sent by email to BOTH of the Program Co-Chairs for the conference: Professor Robin Burke (rburke@cs.depaul.edu), and Professor Paul B. Jaskot (pjaskot@depaul.edu). Applicants will be informed regarding inclusion on the conference program by October 11, 2013.

Registration will be free. Participants and other interested scholars may register beginning in Fall 2013. At that point, information on the venue, detailed program, local arrangements for hotels and other pertinent information will also be available at the DHCS website (http://chicagocolloquium.org/ <http://chicagocolloquium.org/>  ).

We are very excited about coming together again for an outstanding program. We hope to have as many fields and subject areas represented as possible, and encourage you to start thinking now of putting together sessions, submitting individual papers, or possible workshops for consideration.

Please join Northwestern University Library on Thursday, August 22, at 2pm, for a presentation by Jade Werner, PhD candidate in English, as she presents on digital humanities, tools for the analysis of literary texts, and graduate studies at Northwestern University.

Jade Werner is the Center for Scholarly Communication & Digital Curation‘s first Digital Humanities Graduate Student Fellow and has been blogging about her experience throughout the summer; her posts can be found here: http://cscdc.northwestern.edu/blog/?author=9.

Digital Humanities in NU Graduate Studies
Jade Werner, PhD Candidate in English, Northwestern University
Video Theater Room, Northwestern University Library
Thursday, August 22, 2013 @ 2:00 PM