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Tableau Workshop – Tutorial
If you missed the Tableau workshop from Wed, Oct 5, 2016, you can follow along with what we learned using this tutorial.
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Save the Date – Global DH Symposium, Mar 16-17, 2017
This day and a half symposium looks to continue in the critical and global spirit of examining digital humanities established at the inaugural Global DH Symposium in April 2016 (find out more at http://msuglobaldh.org/). Save the Date! Global Digital Humanities Symposium March 16-17, 2017 Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan Free and open to the public. CFP and further details will be forthcoming in the next few weeks.
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Reflecting on DHSI
Though it’s been a couple months since DHSI, I’ve still been thinking about the things I learned that week. But first, I want to talk about my overall impression of the summer institute. Before I walked onto UVic’s (University of Victoria) campus and became apart of the DHSI community, I thought this program would be filled with graduate students who were all attending classes that would likely be their field of study. However, I realized that the DHSI is widely attended by undergraduate, graduate, faculty, and community members from all over the world. In fact, I realized that many people…
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Register for a Workshop!
We have some exciting workshops set up for this fall. We hope to see you there! Beginner Tools Workshop: Getting Started in the Digital Humanities Git Workshop: Git and GitHub for Humanities Data Visualization Workshop: Visualizing Data with Tableau 3D Modeling with Photogrammetry Topic Modeling Workshop: Brief Introduction to Topic Modeling Also save the date for LOCUS at the end of the semester — this edition will be on modeling, broadly.
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Meaningful Intersections in Trendy Humanities
Summer is almost gone, and it seems a good time to reflect on the exciting opportunities it brought. To briefly introduce my reflection (though many of you already know me): my name is Cody Mejeur, and I am a PhD student in English working on video game narrative–particularly the interrelationship of narrative and play as cognitive processes. In June I had the honor and pleasure to take part in the Cognitive Futures in the Humanities 2016 conference in Helsinki, Finland, and to present my work at the “Cognition and Digitisation: Joint Future for the Humanities?” workshop that preceded the conference.…
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Further adventures in the digital humanities?
As anticipated on this very blog, I recently spent a week in Indianapolis attending a workshop on computational text analysis at HILT 2016. We spent our time surveying a number of different tools, techniques, and concepts related to text analysis, so I walked away with a greater appreciation for data cleaning, Weka, HathiTrust, metadata, Python, and much more. The most frustrating part of the workshop was that we visited each topic so briefly and that we had so few opportunities to apply these techniques to our own work. I can’t fault the workshop organizers for these decisions—helping participants take a…
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Getting Ready for DHSI
In order to get to DHSI in Victoria, BC I had to take two planes, four buses, and a ferry. This trip was weighing on me as I began to realize I would be up for almost two days getting to Canada. I started to ask myself, why would I spend my summer taking a class for fun? The plane ride was fine and the ferry ride was beautiful, but even when I reached land in Victoria I was still feeling uneasy. Once I retrieved my keys for the dorm, I walked around aimless for only a few minutes before…
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New Adventures in the Digital Humanities
In a few days, I’ll be heading down to Indianapolis to attend a workshop on computational text analysis that runs from June 13th through June 16th. This shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise to anyone who’s had to listen to me ramble about my research: I’ve been waist-deep in R for a while now, there’s a digital methods category on my research blog, and I certainly haven’t been shy about wanting to pick up some text analysis skills to add to my repertoire. The one thing that could turn heads, though, is that I’m a PhD Candidate in…
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Learning Data Visualization Strategies at HILT
As a I prepare to travel to Indianapolis for the HILT (Humanities Intensive Learning and Teaching) Institute, I’ve been reflecting on my connection to Digital Humanities research and pedagogy. As a researcher of visual/digital rhetoric, I have been consistently fascinated by the ways researchers take diverse data sets and communicating the findings visually. The data visualizations I find most interesting are industry-based, like Graphic Designers Surveyed by LucienneRoberts+ and Stefanie Posavec, or Posavec’s blog-turned-book Dear Data. Partnering with Giorgia Lupi, Dear Data catalogs a weekly data visualization based on the personal aspects of Lupi and Posavec’s lives. My favorite week was “A week of getting dressed” (see above). Despite…
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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.