The Libraries’ Digital Scholarship Department and Harpur College’s Digital and Data Studies program are thrilled to host the fourth biennial Digital Humanities Research Institute (DHRI). Taking place Monday, August 4 – Friday, August 8, this immersive program invites graduate students, faculty and staff to explore new digital tools and methodologies that enhance their scholarly and professional pursuits.
Designed for both beginners and intermediate learners, the DHRI provides hands-on experience with digital techniques, including data analysis, text analysis, data visualization and multimedia-based projects. Whether you are looking to incorporate digital tools into your research, develop new professional skills, or simply engage with a vibrant academic community, the DHRI is the perfect place to make new connections and explore new skills.
Integrating digital tools and methods into scholarship opens new pathways for inquiry, collaboration and communication. While the digital humanities (DH) is a constantly shifting field, it remains consistently engaged in investigating how technology can be used towards humanistic inquiry and scholarship. Data sets created and shared through DH projects benefit collaborative and public humanities, textual analysis can be applied to corpora to combine qualitative and quantitative analysis methods and multimedia projects can become critical public scholarship and digital stories through websites, podcasts or video.
Past DHRI participants had this to say about their time during the institute:
“It was a very welcoming and supportive workshop with a lot of enthusiasm from the participants and the instructors.”
“As a staff member, this was such a wonderful way to connect with our graduate students and faculty as we learned something new to us. I know I will use many of these skills to help students in my work and to augment what we offer digitally.”
“The workshop was very informative and presented a wide range of tools and approaches, as well as the existing groups on campus. The main outcome for me was a clearer understanding of the possible direction I would like to go with my research expressed digitally.”
“This was a great learning experience for me: informative and fascinating. All the sessions that I went to did really well in introducing the basics and explaining the rationale of each step in operating the tools.The logistics were really nice too!”
The DHRI team is excited for this year’s summer institute combining old and new workshops and ideas. Workshops will be focused around three central methods: Text Analysis, Data Visualization and Public Humanities. Throughout the week, participants will be introduced to tools, datasets and best practices for each method. Workshops will range from beginner to intermediate throughout the week and participants will have the opportunity to sample a range of tools and topics throughout the week.
In addition to the three method tracks, the DHRI team is introducing mini-project cohorts to this year’s DHRI program. Project cohorts will meet regularly throughout the week and build a mini-project applying the skills and best practices they have learned to create a small project. The mini-projects correspond to the three given tracks (Text Analysis, Data Visualization and Public Humanities) and teams will be provided with everything needed, including datasets and a rubric, to focus their sessions collaboratively applying their skills and create the project. At the end of the week, project cohorts will present their final project and what they learned while building it.
Applications to attend this year’s Digital Humanities Research Institute are open until March 31. To apply and learn more, please visit the DHRI’s website.