UCL Centre for Digital Humanities

We are pleased to announce the second one day conference organised by UCLDH’s INKE project, and hope you will consider submitting a proposal.

Research Foundations for Understanding Books and Reading in the Digital Age: Textual Methodologies and Exemplars
15 December 2010
Koninklijke Bibliotheek (National Library of the Netherlands), The Hague
in conjunction with the conference Text & Literacy (16-17 December)
Proposals due 30 September 2010

Digital technology is fundamentally altering the way we relate to writing, reading, and the human record itself. The pace of that change has created a gap between core social/cultural practices that depend on stable reading and writing environments and the new kinds of digital artefacts–electronic books being just one type of many–that must sustain those practices now and into the future.

This one-day gathering explores research foundations pertinent to understanding those new practices and emerging media, specifically focusing on work in textual method, in itself and via exemplar, leading toward [1] theorizing the transmission of culture in pre- and post-electronic media, [2] documenting the facets of how people experience information as readers and writers, [3] designing new kinds of interfaces and artifacts that afford new reading abilities, [4] conceptualizing the issues necessary to provide information to these new reading and communicative environments, and [5] reflection on interdisciplinary team research strategies pertinent to work in the area.

The gathering is offered in conjunction with the Text & Literacy conference (16-17 December) and is sponsored by the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (the National Library of the Netherlands), the Book and Digital Media Studies department of Leiden University, and the Implementing New Knowledge Environments research group.

We invite paper and poster/demonstration proposals that address these and other issues pertinent to research in the area. Proposals should contain a title, an abstract (of approximately 250 words) plus list of works cited, and the names, affiliations, and website URLs of presenters; fuller papers will be solicited after acceptance of the proposal. Please send proposals before 30 September 2010 to siemens@uvic.ca.

This post is co-written by Ernesto Priego and Claire Ross.  It is a collective write up on becoming HASTAC Scholars.

HASTAC stands for Humanites, Arts, Science and Technology Advanced Collaboratory. It is a network of individuals and institutions inspired by the possibilities that new technologies offer us for shaping how we learn, teach, communicate, create, and organize our local and global communities.

HASTAC believe that digital spaces provide huge opportunities for informal and formal learning and for collaborative, networked research that extends across traditional disciplines, across the boundaries of academia and community; across the two disciplines of humanities and technology.  It is one of the most exciting online academic projects out there that we know of.

Therefore we are profoundly honoured to have been nominated and selected for the HASTAC Scholars Program. We will be two of more than 145 scholars from around the world who will share their adventures in digital academia through blog posts, tweets and other online resources. We can’t wait to be part of a really vibrant and more importantly digital academic community; it is a fantastic opportunity and a privilege to be part of it.

In the traditional concept of the lone scholar working away in the ivory tower, the idea of communication and sharing ideas has little hold.  Academic research can often seem and in fact be solipsistic. Often the thoroughness required for postgraduate study hyper-specialises subjects and therefore leaves scholars with little time to actually communicate to others what they are doing.   There is also the concept of academic reputation to take into consideration. Interesting questions have been raised about the nature of scholarly activity, authority and academic reputation in the digital age.  Does partaking in blogging damage your academic career, it may enhance your visibility as an academic but it is often not supported by the institution.  It is time to query the factors that have traditionally lead to recognition and promotion in academia and whether or not these are changing in an increasingly socially networked world.

The web is of course changing this traditionalised view of an isolated academic dramatically, and even in an age in which “peer review” and “publish or perish” remain the terms to know, academic culture in the humanities is being quickly transformed. Teachers, researchers, librarians, academic administrators, university students and all possible combinations and variations thereof are now continually sharing publicly what they do and when, where and how they do it.

So everyone else is doing it, but we believe scholars are also using Internet Technologies in a different way. Web 2.0 tools offer unique opportunities for research, teaching and communicating findings to the academic community and the public at large. Scholarly work has now more channels of expression than ever before, and the speed at which this is happening is often daunting. Suddenly the private becomes public and what used to be our time of leisure is now also being examined and affecting our public and private lives. The age of the Internet is indeed an era of intermediacy and blur. Academic culture is being transformed to a more open, inclusive and accessible environment, where sharing and dialogue are commonplace.  Right now Digital Humanities is a very exciting place to be.

But the blurring of boundaries is a cause for great anxiety for some; a reason for excitement for others. There are no easy answers about the implications of the web for humanities research. Thorough, innovative, critical research remains to be done. While some may find collective and public models of online collaboration intimidating and threatening, we believe that doing the walk is essential to doing the talk: the interrogation of scholarly paradigms established on a pre-Internet era can only be carried out through a critical engagement with the tools we are increasingly dependant on to work.

For people studying how Internet technology affects the way we do and think about things (and who study the Internet as a way or ways of thinking too), contributing to the social construction of knowledge inside and outside the brick-and-mortar classroom and library is not just a demand of the times, it is a natural, essential part of our research.  HASTAC knows this well and is indeed, conceptually and pragmatically, an ongoing exercise in 21st century scholarship.

Applications are invited for a PhD studentship at UCL Centre for Digital Humanities in collaboration with the British Library, to work on the impact of Large Scale Digitisation Initiatives (LDSIs), also commonly referred to as Million Book Projects. The aim of the research is to study the use of large-scale digitised collections to ascertain how, when, and by whom they are used. The research will gather quantitative and qualitative evidence and investigate theories and predictions about the impact of LDSIs on libraries, publishers and the reading and researching public.

The work will be carried out at the UCL Centre for Digital Humanities which brings together work being done in many different UCL departments and centres, in the humanities, computer science and engineering, as well as Library Services and Museums and Collections. We also collaborate with organisations outside UCL, such as museums, galleries, libraries and archives. We aim to produce research that is meaningful to both computer scientists and humanities scholars, and that will bring about new knowledge in both research areas. In this case the research will collaborate with the British Library, and make use of some of their large-scale digitised collections.

The Studentship is for three years and carries a stipend of £15,000 for the 2010/11 session. This means that fees will be paid, but not all living expenses will be covered. Applicants must have at least a good 2.1 in their first degree, and ideally an MA or MSc in a relevant discipline such as information studies, digital humanities or human computer interaction. Students may begin their research either in October or January of the 2010-2011 session.

To apply, please send a CV, covering letter and details of two academic referees to Kerstin Michaels (k.michaels@ucl.ac.uk). Informal enquiries may be made to Dr Claire Warwick. (c.warwick@ucl.ac.uk)

The closing date for applications is 1 September 2010.

Applications are invited for a PhD studentship at UCL Centre for Digital Humanities in collaboration with the British Library, to work on the impact of Large Scale Digitisation Initiatives (LDSIs), also commonly referred to as Million Book Projects. The aim of the research is to study the use of large-scale digitised collections to ascertain how, when, and by whom they are used. The research will gather quantitative and qualitative evidence and investigate theories and predictions about the impact of LDSIs on libraries, publishers and the reading and researching public.

The work will be carried out at the UCL Centre for Digital Humanities which brings together work being done in many different UCL departments and centres, in the humanities, computer science and engineering, as well as Library Services and Museums and Collections. We also collaborate with organisations outside UCL, such as museums, galleries, libraries and archives. We aim to produce research that is meaningful to both computer scientists and humanities scholars, and that will bring about new knowledge in both research areas. In this case the research will collaborate with the British Library, and make use of some of their large-scale digitised collections.

The Studentship is for three years and carries a stipend of £15,000 for the 2010/11 session. This means that fees will be paid, but not all living expenses will be covered. Applicants must have at least a good 2.1 in their first degree, and ideally an MA or MSc in a relevant discipline such as information studies, digital humanities or human computer interaction. Students may begin their reserach either in October or January of the 2010-2011 session.

To apply, please send a CV, covering letter and details of two academic referees to Kerstin Michaels (k.michaels@ucl.ac.uk). Informal enquiries may be made to Dr Claire Warwick. (c.warwick@ucl.ac.uk)

The closing date for applications is 1 September 2010.

Applications are invited for an Engineering Doctorate (EngD) in the UCL Centre for Digital Humanities and Department of Computer Science in conjunction with a major London museum. This is a 4-year studentship, starting in October 2010, leading to the award of an Engineering Doctorate, which offers the opportunity to conduct research within a cultural heritage context.

The research will seek to understand more about how 3D scans of museum objects can be used in a physical or virtual exhibition space. Within this we wish to ask the following subsidiary questions: how does the use of 3D scans affect the user experience of visiting an exhibition? (For example the user’s level and type of learning, or how much they enjoy the experience.) Can users understand the relationship between the original and virtual object? Can users understand how such exhibitions should be navigated?

This EPSRC (UK Research Council) funded studentship is available to UK citizens and EU nationals if a relevant connection with the UK has been established (usually by being resident for a period of three years immediately before the EngD). Applicants must fulfil EPSRC eligibility criteria and the normal academic requirements for admission to study in the Department. This studentship will pay a tax-free stipend of approximately £18,000 per year, plus tuition fees. EU students without a relevant connection to the UK can receive an award to cover tuition fees only.

Applicants should have at least a high 2.1 in Computer Science, Human Computer Interaction, engineering or a related field. Applicants must also demonstrate an interest in cultural heritage, and the use of new media within a museum context.

Informal enquiries on the project can be made to Dr Melissa Terras (m.terras@ucl.ac.uk). For further information on the EngD Programme, see http://web4.cs.ucl.ac.uk/teaching/engd/ or contact Dr Jamie O’Brien, j.obrien@cs.ucl.ac.uk.

To be considered, you must fill in the general UCL application form. Please see http://www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/graduate-study/application-admission/, where you can download the forms and guidelines. Make sure you specify Supervisor (Melissa Terras), and EngD (“Understanding the use of 3D Scanning in a Museum Environment”) on the “Research Subject Area” part of the form. Please send the completed form to Naomi Jones & Melanie Johnson, Department of Computer Science, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT.

If you need further assistance regarding our application process, please contact the postgraduate administrators – Naomi Jones & Melanie Johnson (postgradadmin@cs.ucl.ac.uk).

The closing date for applications is September 1st 2010. Interviews will be held shortly thereafter.

Hot off the press: Wikipedia has an article on UCLDH now, which we hope to bulk up over time.

While starting the article, we also introduced the new Digital Humanities Centers category, a short but hopefully growing directory of DH Centres represented on Wikipedia. If your institution isn’t listed, add it!

The next Decoding Digital Humanities meetup will be held on:

Date: Tuesday, 24th August 2010
Time: 5.30pm – 7.30pm
Location: Jeremy Bentham pub, 31 University Street, London, WC1E 6JL (map)

This months topic has been suggested by John Levin: The free software movement

Richard Stallman’s The GNU Project

and The General Public License

These texts build on the DDH #4’s discussion on Eric Raymond’s The Cathedral and the Bazaar, but are less about the process of coding, and more on the programmer in the world.

To read more about John’s selection please visit his blog.

Hope to see you there!

If you cannot make this date but are interested in future meetings, you can join the the DDH e-list!