We’re delighted to welcome Patrick Burns as the next guest in our DH Speaker Series. Patrick J. Burns is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Quantitative Criticism Lab in the UT-Austin Classics Department working on computational literary criticism with a special focus on genre and style in Latin poetry—research that grew out of his 2016 Fordham dissertation on the influence of Latin love elegy on post-Augustan epic. A main focus at present is a book project called »Code/Model« which uses computer-assisted methods such as automated intertextuality detection, topic modeling, and word embeddings to test the conclusions of important works of Latin Literary criticism from the last 50 years. In addition, Patrick is a Research Associate at NYU’s Institute for the Study of the Ancient World where he previously worked as the ISAW Library’s Assistant Research Scholar for Digital Projects. Patrick is also the Latin tools developer for the Classical Language Toolkit, an open-source project dedicated to natural language processing research for historical languages.
“’Pragmatic’ Scholarship: What Coding Has Taught Me about Humanities Research”
In this talk, I’ll discuss coding as a research practice and how coding best practices (spec. those drawn from the work of Andrew Hunt and David Thomas, e.g. in their book “The Pragmatic Programmer”) can be applied, not just to DH programming, but to humanities research and writing in general.
Join us on Wednesday, February 24th, 2021 at 12:30pm to hear from one of the newer members of our community – Prof. Jaime Roots and Joey Dickinson ’22. Prof. Roots is a member of the German Department and spent last summer with Joey Dickinson in the Summer Research Scholars program gathering and visualizing data on gender in German fan fiction. We’ve been talking a lot about data in the humanities this year, and this presentation will be a great example of the ways humanities scholars can use data analysis methods in their work.
Coding for Trends: Author and Commenter Posting Trends in an Online Community
With the advent of the Internet, new means of communication and connectivity have developed. Like never before, individuals are able to join communities of like-minded individuals where they can connect and share their stories and experiences. Here I specifically explore the “Grimms’ Fairy Tales” fan fiction community on FanFiktion.de. Yet despite the many positive advantages presented by advances in technology such as the benefits of forming online communities with likeminded members, sharing stories and experiences quickly and easily with others around the world, the Internet likewise enables (and can often encourage) verbal attacks and discrimination.
In a world of Internet misogyny where users identifying as men are most often attacked based on their ideas, and those identifying as women based on their personhood or appearance, the “Grimm’s Fairy Tales” fandom on FanFiktion.de remains a place where women can outwardly express their ideas with few misogynistic attacks. In order to investigate this online community as a relatively safe space for women to express their ideas on topics such as the consent of male advances, I have created multiple data sets and applied data analysis to more objectively interpret trends within the online community. Through this work I have been able to analyze gender distribution among both writers and commenters in the online forum, the distribution of authors and the types of stories they posted online, the correlation between the types of comments posted and gender, as well as the distribution of feminist themes within stories posted online.
Ever thought “I need a database” but not sure where or how to start? Are the spreadsheets you use to organize your research becoming unwieldy? Maybe you’re just having trouble imagining your work as data. This workshop is for humanities scholars who are data-curious. Using case studies from W&L faculty projects, we’ll share practical tips for formatting your data and connecting your material with existing data sets, as well as discuss the effects of your decisions on your data and the material you study. You’re encouraged to bring your own data set or data-friendly project to workshop during this session.
We are excited to share the news that Niall Atkinson, associate professor of art history at the University of Chicago, will be visiting next week accompanied by his DH team member Carmen Caswell, Digital Humanities Research Liaison.
Professor Atkinson will deliver the Pamela H. Simpson Lecture in Art History on March 11 at 5 p.m. in Northen Auditorium.
In addition to the lecture, Atkinson and Caswell will visit classes and collaborate with members of the Florence As It Was team.
We’re back with another round of Digital Pedagogy lunches!
Are you curious about digital pedagogy methods but aren’t sure where to start? Do you enjoy hearing from colleagues about what’s worked in their classes? Do you need to eat lunch?
To guide our conversation, we’ll use Digital Pedagogy in the Humanities: Concepts, Models, and Experiments by the Modern Language Association. This resource is organized by keywords – each one is a pedagogical concept with annotated artifacts of curricular material. A faculty volunteer has selected a keyword of their choice and will be facilitating the discussion. Lunch is on us!
Here’s the plan: grab your lunch from the designated lunch location (let them know you’re with the DH Cohort) and head down to DH Workspace (Leyburn 218). We’ll eat, chat, and hopefully come away with new ideas for your classroom. It would be great if you could let Mackenzie Brooks, DH Librarian, know that you’re coming.
Are you curious about digital pedagogy methods but aren’t sure where to start? Do you enjoy hearing from colleagues about what’s worked in their classes? Do you need to eat lunch?
The Digital Humanities Faculty Cohort is hosting a new discussion series on digital pedagogy!
To guide our conversation, we’ll use Digital Pedagogy in the Humanities: Concepts, Models, and Experiments by the Modern Language Association. This resource is organized by keywords – each one is a pedagogical concept with annotated artifacts of curricular material. A faculty volunteer has selected a keyword of their choice and will be facilitating the discussion. Lunch is on us!
Here’s the plan: grab your lunch from the designated lunch location (let them know you’re with the DH Cohort) and head down to DH Workspace (Leyburn 218). We’ll eat, chat, and hopefully come away with new ideas for your classroom. It would be great if you could let Mackenzie Brooks, DH Librarian, know that you’re coming.
Keyword: Mapping Facilitator: Melissa Vise, History Tuesday, November 19th, 2019 11:45am-1pm Lunch location: Cafe 77
Keyword: Failure Facilitator: Sydney Bufkin, Library Wednesday, December 4th, 2019 11:45am-1pm Lunch location: Marketplace
Keyword: ? Facilitator: you? Let us know if you’d like to run a discussion in 2020!
Join us on April 2nd for capstone presentations from the students in DCI 393. Over the course of the semester they have worked to develop their own projects, which also include digital tools that are integrated into and essential to presenting their work. Katherine Dau ’19 will be presenting her project titled “The Atlantic Current” and MaKayla Lorick ‘19 will be presenting about “The Black General.”
We will also be coming together
to celebrate the (almost complete) first school year of the DCI minor! If you
are a DCI minor, taking any DCI classes, or are interested in learning more
about DCI and the types of projects completed through DCI classes, we would
love to have you come join us. We will have snacks!
DCI 393 Presentations and DCI Minor Celebration Tuesday, April 2nd, 2019 2:00-4:00PM Digital Humanities Workspace (Leyburn Library Level 2)
The Rewriting the Code: Women and Technology initiative held
a forum on March 1-2 at Washington and Lee University to bring together
speakers from a variety of disciplines to talk about how their work intersects
with technology. The six women spoke on everything from how technology can be
used to tell stories to addressing the wage gap to the role technology has
played in promoting social justice. Throughout the two days, many W&L
students, faculty, and staff dropped in to hear from the speakers.
Chelsea Barabas delivers the keynote address at the Rewriting the Code: Women and Technology Forum Photo Credit: Shelby Mack
The forum began with a keynote speech by Chelsea Barabas in the evening of March 1. Chelsea’s keynote, which was titled “Dodging Silver Bullets: Understanding the Role of Technology in Social Change,” covered some of the research she has done investigating algorithms purportedly created to help increase equality in the tech industry. She also discussed the pervasiveness of the idea that tech is meritocratic and therefore any disparity between the number of tech-focused workers of different genders or ethnicities is simply due to ability rather than bias. The keynote was well-attended by both W&L students and faculty and staff who stopped by Northen Auditorium to hear her speak. If you missed Chelsea’s keynote, you can watch the livestream or read more about her visit here.
Day two began with a welcome breakfast, allowing speakers, students, faculty, and staff to mingle together while enjoying a healthy breakfast. The day truly began a short while later, with the first panel titled “Technology and Social Justice.” The speakers on this panel included Chelsea Barabas, Sydney Boles, and Stephanie Stelter, and it was moderated by W&L accounting professor Megan Hess. The three speakers discussed topics including how their work fosters social change, the role of technology in creating that change, tech skills they feel would be useful for the audience to know, and ways that people can promote social justice even if their current job does not directly lead to social change.
The next panel, “Making History,” included Logan Jaffe,
Stephanie Stillo, and Diana Williams. This one was moderated by W&L history
professor Molly Michelmore and included conversations on how each speakers’
work engages with history, the current state of history in our culture today,
and the ways technology can be used to connect people to history.
The two panels were followed by a networking lunch, during which students were able to sit and eat lunch with a speaker. This allowed smaller groups of students to have more intimate discussions with the speaker they were sitting with. Some W&L faculty and staff also joined in for the lunch, which helped to create discussions that covered a diverse range of topics.
After the lunch, attendees got to hear from all six speakers
as they discussed “The Best Career Advice I’ve Ever Gotten.” The panel was
moderated by Kellie Harra, Post-Baccalaureate Fellow in Digital Humanities at
W&L. The speakers covered everything from the best career advice they had
received (or wished they had received) to addressing the wage gap in the
workplace to activities they do in their free time that help with relaxation to
overcoming the intimidation of learning and using technology. The audience was
especially involved during this panel, asking questions throughout.
The day finished off with a panel on “Technology and Storytelling” which involved Sydney Boles, Logan Jaffe, Stephanie Stelter, Stephanie Stillo, and Diana Williams, with W&L professor Toni Locy, from journalism and mass communications, as the moderator. During this panel, the speakers talked about who they consider their audience to be and how they make that decision, the process that leads to stories being told, and the hardest stories they’ve had to tell. Throughout these conversations, the use of technology was discussed in relation to the types of stories being told.
About the Speakers
Chelsea Barabas: Chelsea is a research scientist at MIT, where she examines the spread of algorithmic decision-making tools in the US criminal justice system. She also has explored a wide range of issues related to the use of emerging technologies to serve the public good. Common across all her work is a general interest in building and critically examining technologies that aim to serve the public interest.
Sydney Boles: Sydney is a digital and radio journalist for WMMT and the Ohio Valley ReSource, based in eastern Kentucky. She also works for Appalshop, which works to revitalize Appalachia and tell stories that challenge the stereotypes about the region. Sydney’s work covers economic issues in the Appalachian coalfields. Her stories have also appeared in the Detroit Free Press, NPR’s All Things Considered, and Red State Blues, from Belt Publishing.
Logan Jaffe: Logan is the engagement reporter for ProPublica Illinois. She previously worked as an “embedded mediamaker” on the New York Times’ Race/Related newsletter in collaboration with the documentary showcase POV, in which she reported and produced a crowdsourced project confronting the pervasiveness of racism through everyday objects. In 2014, she was a recipient of Chicago Filmmakers’ Digital Media Production Fund for “Battle Flag,” an interactive documentary about the role of the Confederate battle flag in America today.
Stephanie Stelter: Stephanie graduated from W&L in 2009 and is now the Associate Director of Technology and Operations for the Coalition for College, where she uses her database administration and communication skills to unite 150 member colleges and universities in the mission of making college a reality for all students. Her vast experience and skills helped the Coalition grow from a startup non-profit to an established organization with a national presence.
Stephanie Stillo: Stephanie is the Curator of the Lessing J. Rosenwald Graphic Arts Collection in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division at the Library of Congress. After receiving her PhD in the Early Modern Atlantic World from the University of Kansas, Stephanie served as the Visiting Mellon Fellow of History and Digital Humanities at W&L. She also served as Mellon Fellow for the Council on Library and Information Resources in history and technical studies at the Library of Congress.
Diana Williams: Diana is the digital editor and strategist for BackStory, the American history podcast. She creates, curates, and edits content for all of BackStory’s digital platforms and creates and implements strategies for broadening BackStory’s reach and engagement. This includes managing and monitoring meta descriptions, like keywords and image tags, to increase visibility and improve search engine results. Diana also uses advanced digital skills, including coding and data analysis, to review and analyze results, inform decisions, and refine marketing and communications techniques.
The forum came to a close on Sunday morning, March 3, with some of the speakers, plus a few students, faculty, and staff members attending a breakfast at Niko’s Grille in Lexington. This allowed for one final opportunity to review the discussions from the previous two days and learn more from the speakers about their life experiences.
Throughout the three days of the forum, students were actively involved in the conversations, frequently asking questions of the speakers. The synergy of the speakers also worked to create a fun yet serious atmosphere, where learning and reflection could take place. We are especially grateful for the willingness of the speakers to join us and for helping to make the forum an exceptional event.
Report on Rewriting the Code by Annie Echols ’21
Rewriting the Code is made possible by support from: Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Class of 1963 Lecture Fund, University Lectures Fund, Digital Humanities Cohort, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Dean of the College, Dean of the Williams School, Department of History, Department of Computer Science, Department of Journalism and Mass Communications, and University Library.
– Kellie Harra ’18, Digital Humanities Post-Baccalaureate Fellow
On February 9, a group of young women from across W&L gathered in the IQ Center to learn together at the “Coding 101” workshop. Using a presentation based on the Netflix original series The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Professors Mackenzie Brooks and Sydney Bufkin started with the basics, answering questions like “what is code?” and “how do I use Python?” After that, we were eager to get started coding for ourselves.
Beginning with the classic program printing “Hello, world!” many of the women wrote their first Python program on repl.it. From there, we moved onto variables, arithmetic, and string methods. Then came our first challenge: write a Mad Libs program. The user would input four words: a verb, a noun, an adjective and a curse word. The program would insert those words into a customized story, and it was necessary that we use string methods to ensure the curse word was in all capital letters and the first letters in the sentences were capitalized. Proud of their work, many participants swapped laptops with their neighbors to show off their final product.
Following a delicious lunch, we moved onto loops and conditionals. We tried out for and while loops, as well as nesting conditionals. As a final challenge putting everything we had learned during the workshop together, we programmed a Potion-Curse-Incantation game with rules based off of Rock-Paper-Scissors. We were engrossed in our work, trying to figure out the most efficient and effective way to code the program.
As the workshop came to a close, we reflected on how much we had learned in such a short time. Many of the students had coded for the first time. The support from the other women, Professors Brooks and Bufkin, as well as visiting computer science students, gave us confidence to try.
Finding Fake Followers and Watching the Watchers: New Approaches to Investigative Journalism
Dance is a journalist and editor working at the cutting edge of news. Based in New York City, Dance is currently deputy investigations editor at The New York Times. Previously, he was a managing editor at The Marshall Project, a non-profit investigative journalism startup focusing on crime and punishment in the United States. He was also the interactive editor for The Guardian and worked on a team of journalists with whom he won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for coverage of widespread secret surveillance by the National Security Agency. His work has also won two Emmy awards for New Approaches to News and Documentary, an Alfred L. DuPont award, a World Press Photo award, and several others.
This event is co-sponsored by the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications and the Digital Humanities Cohort.
