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Conference report: Black Studies and the Digital Humanities – New Developments
I recently attended two fantastic conferences that covered a range of new and interesting scholarship and activism happening at the intersections of the Digital Humanities and the interdisciplinary Black Studies field. My research draws on developments in the digital humanities that document histories of oppression and black resistance in the African Diaspora. I presented highlights of my research on shared consciousness, social ties, and race/ethnicity before the Haitian Revolution, and how it is facilitated by digitized runaway slave advertisements from colonial Haiti, the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, and other developments in the digital humanities. Important themes of the #Envisioning Black…
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Conference Report – MSU Well-Represented at HASTAC 2016
Conference travel is always a bit stressful for me. Between dealing with travel concerns, presenting, and networking, I’ve never found it easy to relax and enjoy the experience of just being at a new place. Happily, that was not the case at the 2016 HASTAC Conference, which I attended thanks to the HASTAC Scholars program. While HASTAC 2016 took place at Arizona State University, it was easy to feel at home, as the connections to Michigan State were present everywhere I looked. The first day of HASTAC is dedicated to the HASTAC Scholars unconference. This half-day event allows junior scholars…
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Conference Report – Seeing Differently: ImagePlot, Playthroughs, and Narrative Variation
One of the things I appreciate most about HASTAC is how it challenges me to think and work in new ways. I don’t think that’s to be underestimated either–too often the structures of higher education force us into habits and assumptions that reenforce the status quo rather than challenge it, to the detriment of our work and our students. HASTAC pushes against these trends, however, and provides a unique opportunity to reconsider what we do in the light of new perspectives from across the many fields of the Digital Humanities. My presentation for HASTAC 2016 was directly related to those…
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Conference Report: The Land of HASTAC ’16
The steady dry heat of roughly 100 degrees fahrenheit in Tempe, Arizona may have slowed down our walking and upped our water intake, but it did not alter the participants’ enthusiasm for the 2016 HASTAC (humanities, arts, science, and technology alliance collaboratory) annual conference. My HASTAC 2016 journey began with former MSU alum from the Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures Department and friend, Allegra Smith picking me up from the airport. Not long after, we met up with current MSU student Howard Fooksman to discuss, over margaritas and tacos, leading the HASTAC scholars unconference day the following afternoon. Divided into …
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Global Digital Humanities Symposium
The Global Digital Humanities Symposium took place on April 8-9, 2016. Find out more about the symposium at http://msuglobaldh.org/about/ Featured speakers included: Dorothy Kim Alex Gil Radhika Gajjala Hoyt Long Digital humanities has developed in a range of disciplines and locations across the globe. Initially emergent from initiatives in textual encoding, database building, or critiques of design and media cultures, the field is increasingly drawn together. Speakers presented scholarship works at the intersections of what had been disparate approaches. Much digital humanities scholarship is driven by an ethical commitment to preserve and broaden access to cultural materials. The most engaged…
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MSU Digital Humanities specialists featured in DH+Lib Scene Report
MSU Libraries’ own Bobby Smiley interviewed Brandon Locke (Director of LEADR) and Kristen Mapes (Digital Humanities Specialist, CAL) about their roles within the world of MSU Digital Humanities. The interview was featured as a Scene Report on the DH+Lib website (part of the American Library Association), which showcases work at the intersection of libraries and digital humanities. Read the article: “Deeply Embedded Subject Librarians”: An Interview with Brandon Locke and Kristen Mapes
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MSUDH Workshop: Text Analysis with Natural Language Toolkit
Here are the materials from the workshop: bit.ly/nltkguide bit.ly/nltkcmds go.cal.msu.edu/nltkslides —– Join us on March 23, 2016, 3 to 5pm for an introduction to NLTK tools and Python data. Instructors: Devin Higgins (MSUL), Kristen Mapes (CAL) Description: This workshop will provide an introduction to using Python programming and the Natural Language Toolkit (NLTK) to prepare and analyze text. The workshop will introduce Python data types, and provide an overview of NLTK text analysis tools. No prior programming experience required. Register here: http://bookings.lib.msu.edu/event/2262029 Featured photo courtesy of: itp.nyu.edu/classes/roy2016/files/2015/02/PythonTextAnalysis.jpg
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Opportunity for Grad Students: Summer Program Funding – Deadline EXTENDED to March 14
The College of Arts and Letters supports graduate student development by awarding registration for at least one student to attend a summer digital humanities training program. Students from ANY MSU program at any point in their graduate program are welcome to apply. Application Components: Name of course you would like to attend (at DHSI, HILT, DHOxSS, ESU, etc) 300 word proposal for attendance Names & email of 2 faculty recommenders (no letters needed) Curriculum Vitae Student(s) awarded with registration will be expected to share their experience with the MSU Digital Humanities community by: writing one blog post in advance of the program writing…
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LOCUS: Access in a Digital Environment – REMOTE ACCESS OPTION
Due to the inclement weather, nasty roads, and various school/work cancellations, we are offering a remote join option for today’s LOCUS: Access in a Digital Environment. We will livestream the session via Zoom. Instructions for using Zoom are included below. The livestream will not be recorded, but there will be audio and screencast recordings of the talks available on our website in a few weeks. **Zoom instructions** Join from PC, Mac, iOS or Android: https://msu.zoom.us/j/4764783057 *** This mini-symposium will take place on February 24th at 3pm in the library’s REAL classroom (3 West). For this LOCUS, we have partnered…
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Summer Study Abroad in London 2016
At the beginning of this Summer–May 20th through June 18th–students will explore changes in the arts & humanities by immersing themselves in the culture of London, one of the creative capitals of the world. The trip includes hands-on workshops and the ability to view plays, performances, museums, and galleries. They’ll also get to visit Manchester and Liverpool. This experience is a fun way for them to earn a general education requirement and fulfill electives toward the Digital Humanities minor. Find out more at: dh.cal.msu.edu/studyabroad or the Office of Study Abroad’s site for the program The deadline to apply was March 1,…
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MSUDH Workshop: Interactive Data Visualization with R
Join us on February 10th, 3:00-5:00pm, in the MSU Main Library’s REAL Classroom (3 West)! Are you interested in data visualization? Are you interested in making your data visualizations interactive and shareable on the web? If the answer to both is yes, this is the workshop for you. During the workshop you will be introduced to the R programming language and use it to make web based interactive data visualizations. Instructors: Thomas Padilla (MSUL) Register here: http://classes.lib.msu.edu/view_class.php?class_id=151 “Visualization of International Migrant Stock” photo courtesy of Flickr user asheshwor.
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MSUDH Workshop: Github and Git for Humanists
Join us on January 20th, 3:00pm to 5:00pm, in the MSU’s main library’s REAL classroom for the spring semester’s start to the Michigan State University Digital Humanities Workshop Series. Curious about Github and Git? Want to learn how to use them to manage data, code, digital projects, and collaborative document editing? During this workshop we will provide a low barrier introduction to Github and Git that will show you their potential value and offer some hands on experimentation. The instructors for this workshop are Megan Kudzia and Thomas Padilla. register here: http://classes.lib.msu.edu/view_class.php?class_id=153 See the slides for this workshop here. photo: “GitHub Shows Border,…
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Workshop: D3.js for Interactive Data Visualization
For those who missed the workshop on December 4, there is a recording available, as well as the workshop tutorial and notes! Workshop materials available: Video recording of the workshop – [begin just after the 17 minute mark. It cuts off early, unfortunately.] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIrZjVH0Zcg&feature=youtu.be Tutorial materials for the workshop created by Emily Dolson – http://emilydolson.github.io/D3-visualising-data/ Notes and chat from the workshop in Etherpad – https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/d3js-workshop Friday, December 4, 2015 12:00-3:15pm MSU Main Library, 3-West Instruction Room Free + snacks and coffee will be provided. RSVP at go.cal.msu.edu/d3js Sponsored by the College of Arts and Letters Digital Humanities Program, Social Science Data Analytics, and…
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DH Library Office Hours
Thursdays from 12:00-1:30 in the Main Library, Collaborative Technology Lab, W101C Have a question or idea about Digital Humanities? Come chat with the DH librarians!
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LOCUS: Visualizing and Narrating Space
This mini-symposium will take place on November 18th at 3pm in the library’s REAL classroom (3 West). For more information regarding the LOCUS talks, including the program, you can click here or you can visit the “next” sub-tab located under LOCUS. LOCUS is a series of presentations from people at MSU doing work in Digital Humanities. LOCUS Presentations are: – Descriptions of works in progress – Descriptions of completed projects – Demonstrations of a method, tool, or resource Register to attend at http://classes.lib.msu.edu/view_class.php?class_id=147 [Registration is encouraged but not required] featured image courtesy of: http://stanford.edu/group/toolingup/rplviz/images/rplviz.png
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Darwin’s Semantic Voyage
Join us for an invited talk, “Darwin’s Semantic Voyage: Exploration and Exploitation of Victorian Science in the Reading Notebooks”. Speaker: Colin Allen, Provost Professor, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, Indiana University Date: 10/23/2015 Time: 12:00-2:00 Location: Main Library, Room W444 Description: During the 23 years between his voyage on the Beagle and publication of The Origin of Species, Charles Darwin meticulously documented the books he read. His Reading Notebooks thus enable the study of inputs to his creative process between 1837 and 1860. We located digitized full texts of 670 of his nonfiction readings (390 of which he classified as…
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Pedagogy in a Digital Age
Please consider taking part in the first LOCUS symposium of the semester – “Pedagogy in a Digital Age”. CFP extended to 10/2!
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HASTAC 2015 at MSU
Michigan State was delighted to host the HASTAC 2015 conference! See hastac2015.org for videos of a number of sessions and for further information.
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James Coltrain, 3D Reconstructions, Road to HASTAC Speaker Series, May 1
Join us for a Road to HASTAC Speaker Series talk on “New Possibilities for Historical Reconstructions with Unity 3D and Azimuth” given by James Coltrain of University of Nebraska, Lincoln Dr. Coltrain will give at talk on Friday, May 1, 10:00-11:30am in 255 Old Horticulture, and he will give a workshop on May 1, 1:00-2:30pm in 112 Old Horticulture. Registration for the workshop is strongly encouraged leadr.msu.edu/3dworkshop This talk will focus on current issues facing the use of historical 3D reconstructions in digital humanities projects, and Azimuth 3D, a web application for displaying scenes built in the Unity 3D online…
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Reading Group: Ethnicity & Race in Digital Humanities, Wed, Apr 15, 12pm
Join us on Wed, April 15 from 12-1pm (Location: Espresso Royale) for the final DH Reading Group of Spring 2015. Ellen Moll will lead a discussion on ‘Ethnicity and Race in Digital Humanities’ based on the following articles. Don’t worry – they each rather short. Please read as many of the articles as possible in advance of the discussion, but also feel welcome to attend even if you haven’t had a chance to read it all! Tara McPherson, 2012, Why are the Digital Humanities So White? Or Thinking the Histories of Race and Computation, Debates in the Digital Humanities, print edition, http://dhdebates.gc.cuny.edu/debates/text/29 Lisa Nakamura, 2008,…