Events

GW Digital Humanities Symposium

Thursday January 24 - Saturday January 26, 2013

Digital humanities is a vibrant field that uses digital technologies to study the interactions between cultural artifacts and the society. In our second decade of the twenty-first century, we face a number of questions about the values, methods, and goals of humanistic inquiries at the intersection of digital media and theory.

Topics we will address in this inaugural GW Digital Humanities Symposium (initiated by Medieval and Early Modern Studies Institute and Dean's Scholars in Shakespeare Program) include:
Digital and “analogue” scholarship: goals, methods, best practices
Challenges of working with and against multiple media
(In)visible histories of race, gender, and avenues of access
Disability, cultural difference, and linguistic diversity
Visual and print cultures, embodiment, archiving the ephemeral
Canon formation, close and distant reading strategies
Resistance to digital humanities and issues of legitimacy
Promise, perils, and future trends of digital humanities and pedagogy

Features:
Provocative, 15-minute presentations; Skype session; hands-on proof-of-concept sessions; digital pedagogy sessions
Emphasis on live discussion and debates
Free Wi-Fi for all; bring your own laptop, tablet, or smart phone
On-site digital humanities book display and sales
Videos of the talks may be available online
The event is free and open to the public, but you are required to register. The presentations are designed with a broad audience in mind and address multiple disciplines that range from computer science and media studies to gender and race studies, digital pedagogy, and literary studies.
Omeka Workshop with Patrick Murray-John

April 19, 2014
10:30am-2:30pm
Rome 771

April is Digital Humanities learning month! Please join the GWU English Graduate Digital Humanities Working Group on April 19, 2014 in Rome Hall 771, 10.30 am - 2.30 pm, for an Omeka tutorial.

Omeka is a free and open source content management system for online digital collections. A favorite tool for digital humanists, Omeka allows scholars and professionals to store and display scholarly collections and exhibitions.

This event will be lead by Dr. Patrick Murray-John, Web Developer and Assistant Research Professor at the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University, and is co-sponsored by the GWU Digital Humanities Institute.

Space is limited, so please r.s.v.p to Tawnya Ravy (tcravy@gwmail.gwu.edu) to reserve a spot.

For more information: download a flyer.
THATCamp DC 2014 (The Humanities and Technology Camp)

Saturday April 26, 2014

If you are interested in how technology is changing—or can change—the work of scholars in the Humanities and Social

Sciences, then we invite you to attend the first ever THATCamp on Saturday, April 26th at the George Washington University. THATCamp, or The Humanities and Technology Camp is an international phenomenon, bringing together students, scholars, librarians, and technologists of every skill level to learn how to integrate digital technology into their teaching and research and explore ways to see their work differently. Topics covered may include academic blogging, social media in the classroom, digital research methods, web-based class projects, digital portfolios, quantitative humanities, scenarios and gaming, 3D modeling, primary source digital repositories, coding, crowd-sourced transcription, data visualization, activist-archivists, and online publishing.

THATCamp is an “un-conference” where participants propose sessions and the agenda is prepared in the first hour. If you want to host a workshop on a tool or platform, or run a session on Wikipedia to correct or create entries, or participate in crowd-sourced transcription projects, that is fine. You may wish to propose sessions to talk about challenges and opportunities for new scholarship, to reflect on recent experiences, to share tips on using new media or tools effectively, to exchange methodologies for interdisciplinary innovation, or discuss the digital divide and social justice issues related to open source or internet access. Reading long papers out loud is not permitted, but you may sign up to present your project in 3 minutes during the “Dork-Shorts” session in the morning. The THATCamp agenda is participatory and created on the spot, so come prepared to pitch an idea for a session to TALK, MAKE, TEACH, or PLAY, or propose one in advance on our blog. THATCamp is free and open to everyone, but participants must register athttp://dc2014.thatcamp.org by April 19. We are particularly interested in undergraduate and graduate student participation.

We’re currently accepting applications from students, faculty, librarians, technologists, museum professionals, archivists, and anyone else who is interested in the digital (and the) humanities (in the broadest sense of the word, including social sciences). We’d appreciate it if you’d pass this message on, and post the attached flyer if you can.

Event Date: Saturday, April 26, 2014, from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm

Location: The George Washington University, Funger 108 and 207-210

To Register: dc2014.thatcamp.org/register

For more information: THATCamp 2014 Invitation (or download in Word)
Programming Session with Daniel DeWispelare

Please join the English Graduate Student DH Working Group on Monday, May 12, 2014 in Rome Hall 771, 11.00 - 2.00, for another programming session with Daniel DeWispelare.

This even will focus on building databases. Bring your your laptops, chargers, etc. to the session. iPads and iPhones don't really work for this, as the things we will be working on require more processing power. Also try to download and install the programs specified below, and try to test run them.

Please RSVP by Sunday, May 11.

These are the TWO programs recommended by Daniel:

1. A Code Editor -- one can write code in anything (textedit or notepad, for example) really, but code editors are very useful for a number of reasons which even the most perfunctory google search will show--syntax highlighting, code completion, and function dictionaries for example. Who among you can write a dissertation in Notepad?? For my part, I recommend Komodo Edit, which is free and available for Mac, Windows, and Unix platforms. My advice would be to steer away from WYSIWYG editors, which are mostly a waste of time and don't allow you to learn coding best practices in a coherent and self-conscious way.
2. An FTP Client -- FTP stands for file transfer protocol. When you code a web file (in most languages), you then need to transfer it from your computer to the server so that other people can see and interact with it. While this might seem like an easy thing in the age of google drive and Drop Box, it isn't so. Basically, a program like FILEZILLA or FETCH can really speed things along. Both of these offer free downloads for a trial period, after which one usually has to pay. The other route would be to learn about how to FTP and SFTP through the Unix terminal that is built into any MAC computer--if you are running a Mac that is, as this can also be quite useful for self-starters and people with great technical acumen.
Brown Bag Lunch, Friday, August 1

All are invited to an informal brown bag lunch discussion on the digital humanities at the law school this Friday, August 1, at noon, in room E412 at the law school (see below for more information). The brown bags are just a way for the law faculty to get together and discuss topics of general intellectual interest. There is not a formal presentation; we just have casual discussions among a small group of faculty.

The topic will be the digital humanities: the use of technology as a method for understanding the liberal arts. Scholars have begun to use technologies like quantitative coding to study literature and philosophy, and a debate is brewing among academics about what this means and its impact. This is especially relevant to legal scholars, both interdisciplinary and more broadly, in thinking about our methodologies. Thanks to David Fontana for the suggestion. Below are three short news articles on the phenomenon.

Digital Keys for Unlocking the Humanities' Riches:http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/17/arts/17digital.html
Analyzing Literature by Words and Numbers:http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/04/books/04victorian.html
The Humanities Done Digitally: http://chronicle.com/article/The-Humanities-Done-Digitally/127382/