Each course at the NYU Abu Dhabi Winter Institute in Digital Humanities (19-22 January 2020) will be a learning intensive environment aimed at researchers and educators interested in the intersection of technology and the humanities.
The courses are designed for those involved in teaching, research and librarianship and (unless otherwise stated) do not require any prior technical experience. Each course consists of 6 sessions over 4 days, with a total of 14 contact hours. For this reason, participants in the Winter Institute in Digital Humanities will be allowed to enroll in one course only.
We are offering eight courses on the following topics. Each course will be closed when it reaches its enrollment cap.
1. Python Fundamentals for Humanities Research
Room 313
This course will introduce you to many of the techniques used to process, analyze, and visualize data derived from unstructured text. You will be introduced to the Python programming language (3.+) as well as some fundamental processes useful in the humanities research. You will learn how to wrangle text, scrape the web, make visualizations, and more. You will learn how to ask humanities based questions at scale and explore unstructured texts to answer questions related to literary style, genre, period, and authorship. You will also become familiar with the Jupyter Notebook development environment and spend time exploring the Python ecosystem on pypi.org. You do not need any previous experience programming to take this class. You will learn to program as a way to think about textual corpora that is exploratory and experimental in its approach. Our goal is to introduce the Python programming language in a way that is conducive for further learning and development, while also being able to make claims about large text corpora.
2. Data in/and the Humanities
Room 339
The current landscape of humanities scholarship, transformed by the expansion of computational and digitally assisted methods, opens the door to the concept of humanities data. What is humanities data, and why do we create it? How might we create humanities data and what can we learn from it? This course serves as a primer on the role of data in the humanities and is suited to true beginners. Hands-on lab work will enhance the participants’ computational skills in working with data while they develop a critical eye for the unique contributions that humanists can make in generating and interpreting data. We’ll focus on how to model humanities data in relation to the subject/object it seeks to represent and address concepts like data normalization and tidy data. We will consider the challenges and affordances of structured (especially tabular) and semi-structured (particularly text corpora) data. We will also analyze humanities data, and enhance our research workflows for managing our research data assets.
3. Digital Humanities in the Classroom
Room 360
Randa El Khatib / Najla Jarkas
This workshop includes theoretical discussions, hands-on skills learning, and lesson planning for the integration of digital methodologies to the study of texts in the classroom. To demystify computational approaches, we will walk participants through directed applications using sample datasets. On the one hand, we will address the research potential of using digital methods (text analysis, networks, mapping), basic concepts of such methods, and how they can contribute to critical pedagogies. On the other hand, we will also experiment with integrating DH methods of analysis into existing syllabi, creating lesson plans and assignments, and discussing assessment of digital work carried out by students, as well as making practical suggestions on setting up the classroom for digital work, establishing classroom expectations, promoting ethical use of digital content and dealing with privacy issues. Participants are encouraged to bring their laptops, any texts they would like to work with and existing syllabi they imagine integrating DH approaches in. This workshop is intended for total beginners.
4. Open Forms of Knowledge
Room 328
Alyssa Arbuckle / Jean-Christophe Peyssard
As per the Open Knowledge Foundation, Knowledge is open if anyone is free to access, use, modify, and share it — subject, at most, to measures that preserve provenance and openness. The objective of this course is to introduce participants to the basics of Open Knowledge, as well as to guide participants through the process of engaging with open content. We will do so by facilitating a thorough understanding of Open Knowledge, with a focus on the different types of open access to knowledge, best practices for licensing and disseminating open content, legal and ethical issues related to open content, and the open publishing process. This course will be geared toward students, librarians, scholars, publishers, government representatives, and others who are invested in the open development and sharing of research output. No prior knowledge or skill in the Open Knowledge domain is required.
5. Object-Based Digital Humanities for Cultural Heritage
Room 306
The translation of the power of computing to the study of humanities materials logical began with text and numbers, which were easily translatable into computer-readable forms. However, as the digital humanities have made inroads in the study of visual and material culture, scholars have had to reconcile questions of scale, three-dimensionality, and multi-sensory engagement when bringing objects online. By connecting with the ways in which “objects” in programming influence the nature of paradigms in computer science, this workshop will give participants the opportunity to both work with different platforms for dealing with visual and material culture as well as interrogating the questions of ontology, presence, and simulation that must be considered when translating three-dimensional culture through the digital medium. Furthermore, participants will look at projects from the field of cultural heritage (and public humanities more broadly) to consider some good rules of thumb and develop critiques of how to work with digital objects when engaging with different types of audiences. Along with readings and discussion, this workshop will address best practices and methodologies when dealing with metadata collection and organization, image management, digital exhibitions, and photogrammetry. Participants will also work with tools with which to study, analyze, and publish including Omeka, Agisoft Metashape, Sketchfab, GIS and geonarrative tools, among others. Participants should bring their own laptop with a mouse.
6. Image Analysis
Room 303
How can we use digital methods to analyze images such as films, manuscripts, paintings, and photographs? This workshop will explore how computers view images and methods for analysis including color, image similarity, and feature detection such as faces and objects. The workshop will use out-of-the-box toolkits and programming in R; it is designed for participants with no programming experience.
7. Spatial Humanities
Room 307
This workshop will provide a hands-on introduction to spatial humanities through the use of geographic information systems (GIS). By the end of this workshop participants will have a foundation of geospatial vocabulary, basic tools and workflows, and resources available for beginner spatial humanities projects and research. Activities during the week will focus on introducing effective strategies for organizing, creating, and sharing geospatial data and maps. Participants will learn how to make web maps such as the WIDH Visitor Map and this one. This workshop is best suited for participants with little to no GIS or geospatial data experience—however, experience with spreadsheet software (e.g., Excel, Google Sheets) is necessary. Experience working with other visualization and analysis tools such as Tableau, R, Google Fusion Tables, etc. is beneficial but not required. The primary software used in this workshop is QGIS3, but many other tools and software will be discussed.
8. Text Analysis of Arabic (advanced)
Room 329
CAMeL Lab, NYUAD (Nizar Habash, Ossama Obeid, Salam Khalifa, Dima Taji, Bashar Al Hafni, Fadhl Eryani, Go Inoue)
This course will introduce you to language-specific methods needed to explore Arabic texts computationally. Through a number of presentations about challenges of computing Arabic and hands-on exercises, participants will be introduced to a number of tools for Arabic language processing tasks such as manual annotation, morphological analysis, syntactic parsing and dialectal detection. Participants should have a reading knowledge of Arabic and some skills in programming (Jupyter notebooks, Python, command line, etc.). The course will also discuss corpora available to researchers who are interested in Arabic studies, however, participants are also encouraged to bring their own unstructured corpora for the hands-on activities.
