Hard to believe it’s been over two weeks since the first THATCamp Alabama. What a superb success that was! Thanks go to all of the planners from throughout the state and to all of the participants who made the time together productive. And to our sponsors.
While the spirit remains high, I want to share that a number of us think this should become an annual event. The UA Libraries is prepared to continue to support this effort as an ongoing effort to promote DH work in Alabama.
Our Post-Doc position is now posted at http://facultyjobs.ua.edu/. Please announce to the communities with which you are connected. Thanks. –Tom
The Alabama Digital Humanities Center at the University of Alabama (http://www.lib.ua.edu/digitalhumanities) is pleased to invite applications for a two-year post-doctoral fellowship in Digital Humanities. The Alabama Digital Humanities Center (ADHC) is a vibrant and dynamic community of over 50 faculty members and also a collaborative workspace created and maintained by the University Libraries. The post-doctoral fellow will hold a joint appointment in the University Libraries and the English Department in the College of Arts & Sciences. The fellowship offers the successful candidate support for independent research combined with the opportunity to play a leadership role in the expansion of the digital humanities community at the University of Alabama.
The successful candidate will begin the fellowship in August of 2013, with a 24-month appointment through the end of the 2014-15 academic year. The fellow will conduct his or her own research and work in conjunction with the ADHC staff to promote and develop the digital humanities community on campus. The fellow will deliver presentations on his or her research and on digital humanities topics more generally to University of Alabama faculty and will provide leadership in identifying, understanding, and evaluating emerging technologies based on their pedagogical, presentation, and research uses.
The committee welcomes all applicants with an active research agenda in English or a related discipline. The successful applicant will have attained a Ph.D. by June 2013 and will bring an active research project whose strong digital component could serve as a model for other faculty at the University of Alabama. The applicant should demonstrate an ability to engage broadly with digital humanities as an interdisciplinary community of scholars.
The University of Alabama is an Equal Opportunity Affirmative Action Employer. Women and minorities are encouraged to apply.
Candidates should consult the full position description posted at http://www.lib.ua.edu/digitalhumanities/post-doc and then apply at http://facultyjobs.ua.edu. Inquiries may be directed to Prof. Thomas C. Wilson, Search Committee Chair, tcwilson@ua.edu. Review of applications will begin July 22, 2013 and continue until the position is filled.
Here are resources we looked at during yesterday’s brown bag discussion on graduate student engagement with the ADHC. Thanks to all who came to discuss UA’s particular graduate students and programs and brainstorm some new approaches.
The Praxis Network: a coalition of programs that train students in digital work with a variety of goals and structures (for both graduate and undergraduate student)
http://praxis-network.org/
“Outside the Pipeline: From Anecdote to Data” from UVA’s Scholarly Communication Institute. Early results from SCI’s study on perceptions of career preparation in humanities graduate programs: http://www.scholarslab.org/announcements/outside-the-pipeline-from-anecdote-to-data/
“On (Actually, Really, Digitally) Supporting Humanities Graduate Students.” Blog post by Josh Honn, Digital Scholarship Fellow at the Center for Scholarly Communication & Digital Curation, Northwestern University: http://joshhonn.com/?p=2456
Thanks to Mary Alexander and Nathan Humpal for presenting at our May brown bag on “Metadata & Digital Projects”! Their talk led to a great discussion with lots of attendance! They have also shared these resources for people who missed it and/or want to learn more:
NISO’s Understanding Metadata: http://www.niso.org/publications/press/UnderstandingMetadata.pdf
Seeing Standards: A Visualization of the Metadata Universe
http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/~jenlrile/metadatamap/
Its companion, Metadata standard glossary, pamphlet form
http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/~jenlrile/metadatamap/seeingstandards_glossary_pamphlet.pdf
Check out these thoughtful tool reviews produced by members of David Ainsworth’s “ENG 500: Digital Humanities” graduate course. Visit the course website’s “Work” drop-down menu for interesting project reviews and theory reviews as well (http://digitalhumanitiesseminar.ua.edu/). Feel free to leave comments!
Dropbox by Dallas Merritt: http://digitalhumanitiesseminar.ua.edu/work/tool-reviews/dropbox-tool-review/
Prezi by Cassandra Nelson: http://digitalhumanitiesseminar.ua.edu/work/tool-reviews/prezi-tool-review-nelson/
Edmodo by Rebecca Fil: http://digitalhumanitiesseminar.ua.edu/work/tool-reviews/rebecca-fil-edmodo-tool-review/
Zotero by Joseph Santoli: http://digitalhumanitiesseminar.ua.edu/work/tool-reviews/santoli-zotero-review/
Twitter by Alex Pieschel: http://digitalhumanitiesseminar.ua.edu/work/tool-reviews/twitter-tool-review-alex-pieschel/
Google Scholar by Lauren Liebe: http://digitalhumanitiesseminar.ua.edu/work/tool-reviews/google-scholar-review-liebe/
Registration is now open for THATCamp Alabama, a statewide event happening on August 9-10, 2013, at the University of Alabama. Organized by representatives from Alabama colleges, universities, and libraries, THATCamp Alabama (http://alabama2013.thatcamp.org/) is an “unconference”— a space to share skills and experiences with technology and humanities and brainstorm ways that we can work collaboratively on digital projects within our institutions and beyond. We are looking for technologists and humanists at all levels and hope to host a diverse group representing researchers, teachers, librarians, curators, archivists, and others. All participants play an active role in setting the event agenda by proposing sessions that reflect their interests.
If you or your colleagues would be interested in attending this event, please spread the word and visit our website: alabama2013.thatcamp.org. To sign up for this free event, please visit our registration page. Space is limited.
Hope to see you at THATCamp Alabama!
Here are the slides from Peter Leonard’s March 7 talk, “Topic Modeling the ‘Great Unread.'” He has done fascinating work with funding from Google on the Scandinavian Literature in the Google Books corpus. Topic modeling is also one approach to text mining worth knowing about. His talk includes many links and references to similar projects.
Andrew Torget’s February talk, “The Promise and Perils of Doing History in a Digital Age” is now up on iTunes U (listed as part of the Summersell Center talks):
https://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/promise-perils-doing-history/id571284817?i=137137108
If you were unable to attend this talk, this is a terrific resource for people interested in new DH projects as well as an overview of the field and its history.
Melissa Fortson Green (Gorgas Information Services) and Franky Abbott (ADHC) presented their “Creating and Managing Your Online Presence” today in the ADHC. Here is video of the workshop, their handout, and resources for more information (below).
Further Reading
Tools
Blogs/websites
These free tools make it easy to create and maintain blogs and websites with no HTML experience required. More advanced users or those seeking additional features might consider Drupal (http://drupal.org/), Joomla (http://www.joomla.org/), or WordPress.org (http://wordpress.org/).
Document-sharing sites
Document sharing sites rank highly in search results. Consider using Scribd (http://www.scribd.com/) to embed a resume on your blog or website and using SlideShare (http://www.slideshare.net/) to share your presentations.
People search
People search services (also known as peoplefinder sites), allow users to see lots of information about you, including your online profiles and photos. Consider using these tools to see what information about you is freely available online. UnlistMy.Info (http://unlistmy.info/) lists additional people search sites and offers directions on how to remove yourself from their results.
Personal homepages
These personal homepage sites (also known as microsites or splash pages) allow users to easily present bios, contact information, and links to social media channels.
SimpleWash
UA.edu
We’ve been working hard organizing for THATCamp Alabama, a humanities and technology unconference, which will be held in the Ferguson Center August 9 and 10, 2013. We are specifically interested in getting folks together from across Alabama to share ideas and resources about digital pedagogy, digital projects, and possibilities for inter-institutional collaboration. Funding the event is generously provided by the UA College of Arts and Sciences, UA Libraries, and UAB Libraries. Registration opens in early April.
For more information about this event and THATCamps in general, visit: http://alabama2013.thatcamp.org/