Welcome to DHRI@SMU 2024! Note:DRAFT#
Before DHRI begins, please do the following:#
Microsoft Teams#
As we are working to build a community of practice, we are exploring multiple ways of communication. For this institute, we will be using Microsoft Teams as the asynchronous communication method during the institute.
Join the already established Teams channel of DHRI@SMU (you will receive an invite in your email).
Optional#
The following links are designed to ensure that all incoming participants have a familiarity with core concepts in how computers and the internet work. They will introduce terms such as input, output, storage, CPU, hardware, software, bits, circuits, and the operating system, as well as wired, cables, WiFi, packets, DNS, IP addresses, packets and routing, HTTP and HTML, encryption, public keys, and how search works. The skills workshops will begin with an assumption that you are at least familiar with these concepts and terminology.
Code.org. Introducing How Computers Work.YouTube [Watch all 6 short videos.]
What Is the Internet? YouTube [Watch all 8 short videos.]
Process for DHRI#
What you can expect#
You will sit in groups at tables, We want to to work together to come to solutions and build a community of practice.
As you read each session please put questions/comments in the Teams channel.
If text appears blue in a repository, that just means it is a hyperlink.
These repositories are structured in such a way that they will direct our conversations during the institute, but also so that you can return to them later to review the material.
Introduction to DHRI@SMU 2024#
As part of our welcome process, we’ll provide some of the history of the project, review the schedule,establish the objectives for the Institute, and ask participants to engage in an introductions and ice breaker activity. We’ll review the objectives and the schedule for the next few days, sort out pedagogical practices, and set our ambitious course for our time together. Everything we do throughout the institute is collaboratively and community-driven.
Goals for DHRI#
Understanding of the importance of community in Digital Humanities and how that might differ from other types of scholarly communities.
Understanding that Communities of Practice are the structure of this workshop series, which means working together to improve everyone’s learning.
Acknowledging that Digital Humanities is inherently interdisciplinary and collaborative; by participating in activities with their fellow attendees, they will simulate the work done by digital humanists.
Creating a personal definition of DH that is useful for the individual’s work. This is essential because DH is so many things – what definition is useful for their research and scholarship?
Learning how to read a ‘bibliography’ of a DH project to see what went into it (about page).
Articulating more sophisticated questions about DH than previously.
By the end of the week, attendees will not be digital humanities experts, but they will be on their way to becoming full participants in a digital humanities community.
Logistics#
If you have any questions about this page, contact Rafia.
Location: In person, SMU campus#
SMU Campus, Ford Hall, Room 124 (Data Visualizations Lab).
Schedule#
All times listed are CDT (Central Daylight Time).
Introduction of our DHRI@SMU 2024 cohort#
We will begin this discussion in Teams and continue in our first synchronous session.
Introductions (full group)
What are your interests/areas of study?
What are you interested in learning?
What about DH is interesting to you?
Do you have a research project in mind?
Discussion of collaborative project experiences
Think of a group project you already have done in school/work.
If it went well, what made it go well?
If it went poorly, what made it go poorly?
Affordances & limitations apply at every step; every time you make a choice, it allows certain possibilities and precludes other options.
Instructors for DHRI@SMU2024#
Background on Digital Humanities Research Institute (DHRI)#
Click here for more background information on Digital Humanities Research Institute (DHRI) at SMU. This section goes over why the Institute is structured the way it is.
DHRI philosophy#
DHRI emphasizes foundational skills because we believe that it is the most effective path toward enabling digital humanities researchers to become self-teachers and mentors in their own right. Many bootcamp-style intensives prioritize instrumental outcomes, such as whether students can “write a for loop” or create a website.
While these results are desirable, we find that students who know how to use the command line, read technical documentation, and reason about systems are more self-sufficient and better prepared to approach technology (and technical rhetoric) with a critical eye. This leads to second- and third-order effects as students teach themselves and teach others, and also provides a common conceptual vocabulary and skill set that serves as a basis for forming strong collaborations in the future.
DHRI structure#
“Three structural elements are important for an effective DRI session: scoping, scaffolding, and purpose. Scoping is the art of choosing what—and especially what not—to include in a session. Scaffolding is the process of building later skill development on prior skill development. Purpose provides an answer to the participant who asks, “Why should I care about this?” - DHRI Curriculum style guide
Pedagogical approach#
“The DHRI curriculum places great emphasis on foundational technical skills, and roughly one-third of all sessions at the Institute could be described as foundational. … The difference between an instrumental approach and a foundational approach is often not immediately appreciated by participants, but over time they begin to change their minds. Although an instrumental approach satisfies a researcher’s most immediate need, a foundational approach takes into consideration the long term impact that learning core skills will have for the future professional and research needs of the scholar.” DHRI: Notes toward our pedagogical approach by Lisa Rhody, June 17, 2019
What affordances a foundational approach gives us#
There is a lot that personal computers allow us to take for granted when we do our work; however, knowing fundamentals can help humanities scholars become more confident users and critics of digital technologies.
Such knowledge leads not only to becoming a better self-teacher, but to more reflective and informed technology choices. It allows us to save time in creating projects when we know what a well-formed dataset should or could look like, when we know what the difference is between using proprietary software rather than open source, and what kind of support might be needed as projects grow.
Why use Communities of Practice (CoP) set up?#
CoP is the structure of this workshop series
CoP means working together to improve everyone’s learning
CoP allows participants to simulate the work done by digital humanists by participating in activities with their fellow attendees
The pedagogical logic of each workshop session, and how we expect them to build on each other.#
The goal of DHRI is to create a pipeline, so you know what next steps you want to take or what partners you want to seek out. There is a focus on foundational understanding, so you know what questions you want to ask.
What are the fundamental conceptual understandings/frameworks needed for:
Computational thinking?
Humanities thinking?
Computation humanities/digital humanities?
Collaborative work in the Humanities/interdisciplinary work?
What does each workshop do? How does the next one build on it?
Introductions to communities of practice and what is Digital Humanities? How do you determine what kinds of DH you want to do, and what skills does that type of DH require in terms of your skill building or what partners do you then need to seek out? No DH project is an island! (Unless maybe it is a veeeeeeery small island.)
Data literacies. “Data literacy includes statistical literacy but also understanding how to work with large data sets, how they were produced, how to connect various data sets and how to interpret them.” When we talk about data in the humanities, what do we mean? Big? Smart? Clean? Messy?
Coding is an introduction to the structure of computers, text editors and their logic.
Introduces conceptualization/helps to understand directory structure.
Helps understand how scripts work, so when you set up tools in the future, you can set them up to be useful for what you are trying to do.
The goal is that when you are setting up environments in something like Rstudio (and it asks you about regrex), you can make informed choices about the settings.
Python is one of the common languages used in DH, used for a wide range of tasks, including collecting and analyzing data in a variety of formats. We will go through how to get started in Python, using libraries and how you can continue to grow your skills after DHRI.
Tools. Understanding what data you need, and what you want to do with that, allows you to determine if you need a specific script/library package, or if you can use a DH tool for your specific question.
When a tool or program (such as Zotero or Voyant) asks you to set up an environment or choose a specific setting, you are making choices that will shape your results.
When you are setting up your tools, questions are being asked that will shape the answers/results you get. If the set up questions don’t make sense, you will have a better sense of what expertise you want to seek out to help you choose. * Note: Skills in programming or tools only grow when you are using them to complete a project (skill building is usually project-based).
Data Use & Re-use. When accessing or creating datasets; there are many considerations, including copyright, licensing, and ethics.
In the closing Project Planning and One Day Project Lab sections, we will work on applying what we have discussed to your specific research questions and projects.
To build a complete project or thorough expertise is beyond the scope of this institute, but we want to help you build the foundation, and perhaps even an outline of your goal. We want to help you get to a point where you are comfortable figuring it out (Stack Exchange) or, when you know you have a question, how to phrase it and find the expertise you want to draw upon (Community of Practice).