Lectures

This page lists all the information we have about each of our morning lectures.

All keynote lectures and parallel sessions will take place from 09:30 to 10:30 at Wolfson College. There are plenary keynote lectures on Monday 8 July 2013 and Friday 12 July 2013. On Tuesday - Thursday students have a choice (made at time of booking) about which of the two parallel sessions they will attend.

Opening Keynote: What is the Value of the Digital Humanities?

Date and Location: Monday 8 July 2013, 09:30-10:30, Wolfson College Lecture Theatre

Speaker(s): Michael Pidd (Humanities Research Institute, University of Sheffield)

Abstract: This talk will explore the ways in which the Digital Humanities has a value far beyond its ability to transform humanities research methods and communication. The Digital Humanities - in the hands of the humanities researcher - has a relevance to the wider information society in which we all live, whether it be the techniques and methodologies for understanding and communicating complex knowledge domains, or the established practices for curating data and managing projects. Using exemplar projects from the Humanities Research Institute at the University of Sheffield this talk will present a tour de force of the Digital Humanities and demonstrate how a practical understanding of the subject can generate skills and employability that are of value beyond the Higher Education sector.

Parallel Session 1a: Varieties of Openness

Date and Location: Tuesday 9 July 2013, 09:30-10:30, Wolfson College Lecture Theatre

Speaker(s): Rowan Wilson (IT Services)

Abstract: This talk examines the various and sometimes conflicting uses of the word 'open' to describe the availability, mutability and potential for collaborative development of digital materials. In the process we will talk about open content, open educational resources, open data, open innovation and open access, their political and legal underpinnings, and whether we can enjoy them all simultaneously.

 

Parallel Session 1b: Studying People Who Can Talk Back: Social science insights into the humanities

Date and Location: Tuesday 9 July 2013, 09:30-10:30, Wolfson College Buttery

Speaker(s): Eric Meyer (Oxford Internet Institute)

Abstract: Are there lessons we can learn when social scientists turn their eye on humanities scholars, and when humanities scholars use social science methods to examine themselves and their disciplinary practices? In a series of projects starting in 2008, Eric Meyer and his colleagues at the Oxford Internet Institute have done research aimed at understanding the how digital tools and resources in the humanities are allowing scholars to reconfigure their research practices and questions. In this talk, we will discuss the key insights this work has uncovered about the changing nature of research in the humanities. We will also highlight case studies in which humanities scholars themselves were given easy-to-use social science tools to understand how people use digital collections; one historian commented that using these tools was the first time in their career that they "had studied someone who could talk back to me!"

 

Parallel Session 2a: Re-imagining the First World War: How can digital humanities move us beyond the trenches?

Date and Location: Wednesday 10 July 2013, 09:30-10:30, Wolfson College Buttery

Speaker(s): Kate Lindsay (IT Services)

Abstract: This presentation looks at a series of digital humanities projects undertaken by the University of Oxford that seek to reappraise the First World War in its cultural, social and historical context. In particular this session will introduce a model of crowdsourcing that has been used to build online community collection archives that address the global and diverse nature of this historical conflict.

 

Parallel Session 2b: CodeSharing: a simple API for disseminating our TEI encoding

Date and Location: Wednesday 10 July 2013, 09:30-10:30, Wolfson College Lecture Theatre

Speaker(s): Martin Holmes (University of Victoria)

Abstract: Although the TEI Guidelines are full of helpful examples, and other inititatives such as TEI By Example have made great progress in providing more access to samples of text-encoding to help beginners get started, there is no doubt that one of the biggest obstacles to encoders at many levels is finding out how other scholars and projects have chosen to encode a particular feature or use a specific tag or attribute. Many projects now share their XML code, but that in itself is only marginally helpful; it can take substantial time to sift through the XML code in a large project to find what you're looking for. At the same time, many other projects do not provide any access to their XML encoding.

This talk presents a simple specification for an Application Programming Interface, along with a sample implementation written in XQuery and designed for the eXist XML database, providing straightforward access both for applications and end-users to sample code from any TEI project. The API is modelled on the Open Archives Inititative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH), a mechanism designed to allow archival search tools to ingest metadata from repositories.

 

Parallel Session 3a: Agent-Based Computer Modelling for the Humanities

Date and Location: Thursday 11 July 2013, 09:30-10:30, Wolfson College Buttery

Speaker(s): Howard Noble (IT Services) and Ken Kahn (IT Services)

Abstract: In this session we describe how we have used agent-based modelling (ABM) to think about counter-factual histories of the Spanish Flu pandemic, modes of religiosity and the design of fisher institutions in Kenya. The aim of this session is to introduce the main ideas behind ABM, briefly describe how ABMs are constructed, and discuss the use of ABM in the humanities in general.

 

Parallel Session 3b: Best Practice for putting Content Online - The Digital Library Perspective

Date and Location: Thursday 11 July 2013, 09:30-10:30, Wolfson College Lecture Theatre

Speaker(s): Christine Madsen and Matthew McGrattan (Bodleian Libraries)

Abstract: This session will draw together many of topics covered in other sessions. We will discuss the direction that digital libraries are going in and the how the various technologies will take us there. In particular, it is unlikely that any single technical approach will be sufficient in the future so an integrated view is required. We will explore how scholarly discourse and communication is changing and how this affects the types of material that a library will need to hold and how practice, in terms of curation, preservation and discovery/re-use will need to evolve accordingly. Implicit in this is a shift from library-centric standards towards Internet standards that are more broadly-based and better supported. We will also deal with the practicalities of producing data management, curation and preservation plans which are increasingly required by funding-bodies as a condition of grant.

 

Closing Keynote: Digital Collections as Research Infrastructure

Date and Location: Friday 12 July 2013, 09:30-10:30, Wolfson College Lecture Theatre

Speaker(s): Lorna Hughes (National Library of Wales; Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru)

Abstract: Thanks to a significant investment in the creation of digital content, there now exists a substantial corpus of digital collections available to scholars across the disciplines. These valuable resources can enable ‘traditional’ research methods to be carried out more effectively and efficiently, and also enable the development of new research questions and creative ways of working with primary source materials. This presentation will discuss the significant impact that digital collections have had on research in the humanities, and address the concept of this material as an essential component of the research infrastructure that is essential to contemporary scholarship.