The ability to capture the present changes the past and, therefore, the future. What becomes of the document, not to mention the document of record? Do trails of evidence matter to humanities scholars? How do people in the humanities think of documents and trails of documentary evidence in a world in which history is captured …
Category Archive: Session Proposals
Permanent link to this article: http://newengland2011.thatcamp.org/10/22/back-to-the-present-future-document/
Oct 21 2011
HistoryDeck prototype design crit
HistoryDeck—a prototype for American Experience—seeks to provide a bridge between current discussion and debate and historical reference, by way of an innovative, hybrid use of technology (video player + TweetDeck-like functionality). This session will critique and brainstorm taking HistoryDeck to the next level. [Note: If you missed our session, you can still send your input …
Permanent link to this article: http://newengland2011.thatcamp.org/10/21/historydeck-prototype-design-crit/
Oct 21 2011
Complex Networks
Complex Networks are an ubiquitous phenomenon that is studied in physics, computer science, biology, economics, social science, and increasingly the arts and humanities. While almost any conceivable link relation in arts and humanities data exhibits complex network properties an important question with regards to future directions of research remains to be answered: Can we list the truely interesting node …
Permanent link to this article: http://newengland2011.thatcamp.org/10/21/complex-networks/
Oct 21 2011
Text encoding (editing, modeling, metadata, TEI, skills, tools…)
Can’t help but offer this – a session in which to discuss the hows and whys of text encoding using XML and TEI. The discussion can also encompass databases used for digital text. This is primarily a practical discussion, to share how participants engage with text encoding, their methods and tools. However, it is important …
Permanent link to this article: http://newengland2011.thatcamp.org/10/21/text-encoding-editing-modeling-metadata-tei-skills-tools/
Oct 21 2011
Dinghies and Ocean Liners – DH projects of different sizes
DH activity, especially when it is based on creation or manipulation of digital materials, usually takes the form of a project – whether it is a dissertation, a grant, or a digital publication. Until recently, projects tended to be large and expensive, and to seek justification in words like “long term,” “sustainable,” “generalizable,” “infrastructure.” Such …
Permanent link to this article: http://newengland2011.thatcamp.org/10/21/dinghies-and-ocean-liners-dh-projects-of-different-sizes/
Oct 20 2011
Life and Scholarship in Plain Text
I’ve never met a person who liked Microsoft Word. Maybe I’ll meet that person this weekend, but I doubt it. Here is what Stephen Ramsay has to say about writing tools: “I don’t hear many people say that they love Word; people routinely say that they love Vim, Emacs, Scrivener, TextWrangler, and a few other …
Permanent link to this article: http://newengland2011.thatcamp.org/10/20/life-and-scholarship-in-plain-text/
Oct 20 2011
How Can Libraries Support Digital Humanities?
During THATCamp, I hope to learn enough to start proposing ways the library could support digital humanities scholarship on campus. The eScience movement is gaining momentum here at Boston College because a team of librarians (I’m one of them) is participating in an ongoing learning process designed by ARL and DLF: www.arl.org/rtl/eresearch/escien/escieninstitute/index.shtml. Concrete outcomes thus …
Permanent link to this article: http://newengland2011.thatcamp.org/10/20/how-can-libraries-support-digital-humanities/
Oct 20 2011
What can we do to help?
As a master’s student in Information Science, I want to know how I can help DH scholars and students. What skills do librarians and IT support folk need to support the growth of digital humanities? Since the projects are so varied and interesting, learning each individual tool seems like a hopeless venture, but how can …
Permanent link to this article: http://newengland2011.thatcamp.org/10/20/what-can-we-do-to-help/
Oct 19 2011
* Social Network Analysis (SNA) as an Analytical Research Method for the Humanities*
“From texts to models, then; and models drawn from three disciplines with which literary studies have had little or no interaction: graphs from quantitative history, maps from geography, and trees from evolutionary theory.” In his Graphs, Maps, Trees, Franco Moretti proposes three methods for literary studies. It is fascinating that he sees literary history as …
Permanent link to this article: http://newengland2011.thatcamp.org/10/19/social-network-analysis-sna-as-an-analytical-research-method-for-the-humanities/
Oct 19 2011
Student-Directed Learning
How do we institute and teach a humanities class where student-directed learning is at its heart? Having just attended the MobilityShifts Conference at the New School in New York City, I’ve come away with a strong sense that student-directed learning is a crucial component of 21st century literacy. Student-directed learning means that students have a …
Permanent link to this article: http://newengland2011.thatcamp.org/10/19/student-directed-learning/
Oct 19 2011
Digital tools for content and discourse analysis?
First of all, let me say that I am also a THATCamp newbie like a lot of you, so I am looking forward to meeting up and have a DH crash course together! I’m planning on attending most of the workshops to gain my footing, but an unconference here and there would be really helpful …
Permanent link to this article: http://newengland2011.thatcamp.org/10/19/digital-tools-for-content-and-discourse-analysis/
Oct 19 2011
What about the “non-digital” natives?
I’m concerned for those who were left behind: scholars in their late 60’s and older, leaders in their field with valuable research & materials. Alot of these people avoided the digital revolution, muddling along without it because it was too much of a hassle and happened towards the end their careers anyway. They’re the digital …
Permanent link to this article: http://newengland2011.thatcamp.org/10/19/what-about-the-non-digital-natives/
Oct 19 2011
Timelines as a Nexus for Pedagogy and Research?
What do digital timelines offer us? We see their potential both as a vehicle for understanding complex events in history as well as a structure to which students can contribute materials and scholarship. In this way temporal and topical interrelationships are highlighted to make the material more attractive and enlightening. We’ve had some success with …
Permanent link to this article: http://newengland2011.thatcamp.org/10/19/timelines-as-a-nexus-for-pedagogy-and-research/
Oct 18 2011
DH in a LAM world
I consider myself brand new to digital humanities. Perhaps over the course of THATCamp I will find I know more than I realized. In the meantime, though, I am most interested in a session (discussion/brainstorming) about digital humanities techniques that can be adopted in a non-university environment. I work at a historical society. We are …
Permanent link to this article: http://newengland2011.thatcamp.org/10/18/dh-in-a-lam-world/
Oct 18 2011
The Having of Wonderful Ideas
Eleanor Duckworth’s essay “The Having of Wonderful Ideas” (The Having of Wonderful Ideas and Other Essays, Teacher’s College Press, 1987) proposes a radical way to support learning and intellectual development. In my paraphrase: her idea is to give the learner a relatively unstructured, but well-equipped space in which to explore, and create hypotheses, and construct experiments, …
Permanent link to this article: http://newengland2011.thatcamp.org/10/18/the-having-of-wonderful-ideas/
Oct 18 2011
Humanities, Technology and Engagement
I’d like to discuss how technology can be used both in the classroom and in museums to get people interested in the humanities, to engage with the subject matter and to encourage further exploration and learning. My interest in this topic began when I took a museum studies course and the professor required all students …
Permanent link to this article: http://newengland2011.thatcamp.org/10/18/humanities-technology-and-engagement/
Oct 18 2011
Immunity to Change Introductory Session
Immunity to Change is a self-improvement method used to help you do things you want to do but don’t. It comes from decades of research by Bob Keegan and Lisa Lahey of Harvard, most recently encapsulated in the eponymous and widely-available book. Here Oprah talks about it (hint: she likes it). I think it has …
Permanent link to this article: http://newengland2011.thatcamp.org/10/18/immunity-to-change-introductory-session/
Oct 18 2011
Breaking In & Finding a Home
I am the first to admit that prior to my immersion into Twitter, I felt that the way I teach was in a bubble and no where close to where/how my colleagues taught the same course. I integrated tech, mandated choice in topics, and more that seemed against the grain of my peers. Twitter has …
Permanent link to this article: http://newengland2011.thatcamp.org/10/18/breaking-in-finding-a-home/
Oct 18 2011
DH dating service
There’s a DH person or two at every school, kinda isolated, sad. They need to collaborate with other DH people at other schools. For lots of reasons. Let’s make a platonic DH dating service. You put your interests in a database and you get a recommendation of a project or people to work with or …
Permanent link to this article: http://newengland2011.thatcamp.org/10/18/dh-dating-service/
Oct 18 2011
the all-DH major
What if you had a major or a track or a school that was ALL-DH? How would you build that and what courses would be in it and what would people do with the degree during and after? Let’s imagine it! The outcome of this discussion will be the curriculum or program description of …
Permanent link to this article: http://newengland2011.thatcamp.org/10/18/the-all-dh-major/
Oct 18 2011
learning about learning
The trend of shifting from teacher-centric to learner-centric education is moving towards making the skill of learning itself part of the point of every class. Some might but most schools don’t have a course on learning. Which is silly, because it’s what we expect people to do while here. And helping them think about it …
Permanent link to this article: http://newengland2011.thatcamp.org/10/18/learning-about-learning/
Oct 18 2011
course communication dump & analysis
I think we’re at the point that we can capture just about all communication in a course. Via email, yes, and via any journals and via and submitted papers (as in Word, etc.). But also (!) by recording things spoken in class and transcribing those spoken things with the aid of cutting-edge software (perhaps donated …
Permanent link to this article: http://newengland2011.thatcamp.org/10/18/course-communication-dump-analysis/
Oct 18 2011
syllabus analysis machine
Greg Crane had this idea to gather all syllabi, encode them, mark them up a bit, and then analyze them as a data set that could show learning “tracks” or assumptions or ways of thinking about learning or patterns of supporting information usage or varieties of instruction of key points. And THAT analysis could …
Permanent link to this article: http://newengland2011.thatcamp.org/10/18/syllabus-analysis-machine/
Oct 18 2011
imagine a commoditized university
The threat of the Khan Academy is looming over higher ed. Of course this is the idea of wholesale, direct-to-consumer, commodification of learning “chunks,” that the individual might subscribe to at a distance at their convenience without needing to enroll in all the trappings of the university/college and at great personal cost savings. Sooner or …
Permanent link to this article: http://newengland2011.thatcamp.org/10/18/imagine-a-commoditized-university/
Oct 18 2011
Learning Organization Academy
NERCOMP is helping sponsor an interesting new professional development opportunity that might appeal to DHers trying to instantiate their work into an academy that doesn’t yet know how important DH is. It’s basically an intensive support structure for people developing projects that improve learning in their organizations; it is comprised of a 1-week intensive project-development workshop …
Permanent link to this article: http://newengland2011.thatcamp.org/10/18/learning-organization-academy/
Oct 18 2011
Discussion of Learning Analytics Project Development Workshop
New Media Consortium and the NorthEast Regional Learning Analytics group are organizing a collaborative let’s-think-about-possible-learning-analytics-projects opportunity Halloween week. Teams from 5 organizations will develop and give feedback on each other’s ideas; there is room for another. It’s a great place, if you have a feeling that you might have the spark of the germ of …
Permanent link to this article: http://newengland2011.thatcamp.org/10/18/discussion-of-learning-analytics-project-development-workshop/
Oct 18 2011
Digital Scholarship and Strengthening Regional Connectivity
THATCamp New England, MCN NE SIG: Museum Computer Network Northeast Special Interest Group, NERDS: Northeast Regional Digital Scholarship Group, and NERCOMP: The Northeast Regional Computing Program. In one way or another (unconference, forum, peer group, or program), these groups serve the northeastern regional community engaged in digital scholarship, technologies, humanities, projects, and practices in an …
Permanent link to this article: http://newengland2011.thatcamp.org/10/18/digital-scholarship-and-strengthening-regional-connectivity/
Oct 18 2011
Local TV News use in digital humanities
I’d like to discuss how large local tv news collections that are on-line might be used in the digital humanities. There are several potential avenues of use. The first is to use the large digital library collection of news materials to teach research skills and how to maneuver through large digital libraries of media. We’d …
Permanent link to this article: http://newengland2011.thatcamp.org/10/18/local-tv-news-use-in-digital-humanities/
Oct 18 2011
Give me your metadata, your text…
your scribbled notes yearning to breath free… the wonderful refuse of your scholarly process… send these, the ephemeral, tempest-tost to me.. I lift my lamp beside the golden repository! Scholars use archives. Scholars take notes. Scholars produce based on these archives and notes. How can the archivist and librarian make use of this process to …
Permanent link to this article: http://newengland2011.thatcamp.org/10/18/give-me-your-metadata-your-text/
Oct 18 2011
Using video in the digital humanities
This topic has a couple of different facets. One is encouraging scholars to use video as primary source material in their research and work. Discuss why this isn’t done more often and what we can do to help encourage it. The other is the technical challenge of using video in digital humanities. Is it not …
Permanent link to this article: http://newengland2011.thatcamp.org/10/18/using-video-in-the-digital-humanities/
Oct 18 2011
Publishing with time-based media
I’m interested in scholars making use of media archives and multimedia sources. I’d like to explore new modes of publication and how digital humanists can embed/cite/integrate time-based media into their digital publications. Besides simple citation, what are some examples of scholarly works integrating external audio/video/games/flash into their products? How can the archives and content sources …
Permanent link to this article: http://newengland2011.thatcamp.org/10/18/publishing-with-time-based-media/
Oct 17 2011
Virtual Material Culture
I’m a Roman historian and would like to develop some pedagogy that would use technology to give students access to material culture. Right now, I’m thinking about Roman coins, because the web-based resources are quite good, but in theory the issues relating to software tools, web-based content, and pedagogical genre (lab, game, mapping, etc.) would …
Permanent link to this article: http://newengland2011.thatcamp.org/10/17/virtual-material-culture/
Oct 17 2011
Helping Students Negotiate Private and Public Boundaries Online
The following topic might work best as a general discussion: The digital native’s difficulty with negotiating personal and professional boundaries. Online, one of the few ways to maintain the distinction between our professional and private lives is to keep the personal offline altogether. All the protections offered to us are illusory. Anyone who wants access to …
Permanent link to this article: http://newengland2011.thatcamp.org/10/17/helping-students-negotiate-private-and-public-boundaries-online/
Oct 17 2011
Writing with DH Tools
I want to start off by saying that I’m very much looking forward to my first THATCamp, particularly given the range of interesting proposals so far and because I’m quite new to the digital humanities field and excited to learn about how others have used and benefited from its methods and tools. I would be …
Permanent link to this article: http://newengland2011.thatcamp.org/10/17/writing-with-dh-tools/
Oct 17 2011
From Projects to Program
Do you have a Digital Humanities Center on campus? A major or certificate? A course? Or, as is more common, a collection of scattered projects that occur on an ad hoc basis, in different departments under different funding models, with very little continuity or memory of the past? I’d like to talk about the process …
Permanent link to this article: http://newengland2011.thatcamp.org/10/17/from-projects-to-program/
Oct 17 2011
Tools for scholars for preparation and publication of texts: LaTeX, BibTeX, MakeIndex.
Posted on behalf of John Burt LaTeX is an open-source, free typesetting system for producing beautiful books. It is available for almost every operating system, and is a stable, mature product with a large user base. With it, you can make camera-ready pdf’s of books and theses, plus other documents of many kinds. It has too …
Permanent link to this article: http://newengland2011.thatcamp.org/10/17/tools-for-scholars-for-preparation-and-publication-of-texts-latex-bibtex-makeindex/
Oct 17 2011
Is a Simple, Straightforward Syllabus for “Intro to DH” Possible? Is it even desirable?
By now, there are dozens of courses that introduce students (undergrad & graduate) to the digital humanities, representing a wide variety of approaches, disciplines, and with different degrees of sophistication and technical prerequisite knowledge. Whereas even a couple of years ago there was little coordination or consensus, some broad definitions of the field seem to …
Permanent link to this article: http://newengland2011.thatcamp.org/10/17/is-a-simple-straightforward-syllabus-for-intro-to-dh-possible-is-it-even-desirable/
Oct 16 2011
Digitizing Texts: Re-Presenting Time and Space
This could be a “General Discussion” session, a “Working Session,” or a little bit of both (see Session Genres). Basically, I want to talk and learn more about different ways of representing or re-presenting time and space in digital formats, whether in specific literary works, corpora, or other varities of texts (I myself study literary …
Permanent link to this article: http://newengland2011.thatcamp.org/10/16/digitizing-texts-re-presenting-time-and-space/
Oct 16 2011
Data Visualization: From Discovery Tools to Visual Arguments
I would like to propose a session on data visualization. How we do it (programs, techniques, etc.) and why we do it (data cleaning, discovery tools, visual arguments)? The conversation will hopefully range from theories of information design (Edward Tufte/Ben Fry) to case studies brought by the participants. What kind of data visualizations have you …
Permanent link to this article: http://newengland2011.thatcamp.org/10/16/data-visualization-from-discovery-tools-to-visual-arguments/
Oct 14 2011
“Training the Trainers” for DH
I am interested in developing/learning about new (painless and fruitful) techniques regarding introducing and familiarizing librarians and archivists with Digital Humanities and Digital History resources in order to help them better inform and engage with both DH resistant and enthusiastic teaching faculty. A “training the trainers” methodology.
Permanent link to this article: http://newengland2011.thatcamp.org/10/14/training-the-trainers-for-dh/
Oct 14 2011
Best Practices and New Ideas for Open-Access Publications
The academy needs open-access. As Bethany Nowviskie has pointed out in a memorable (and revolting) phrase, much of the intellectual product of the academy is “fight club soap.” We produce scholarly work at great cost to our institutions and the donors and governments that fund them, only to hand them over to for-profit publishers, who …
Permanent link to this article: http://newengland2011.thatcamp.org/10/14/best-practices-and-new-ideas-for-open-access-publications/
