Workshop Details
The DH@Guelph team is thrilled to announce the 2024 Summer Workshops, which will take place in person in the McLaughlin Library at the University of Guelph from May 14th- 17th.
All workshops are four-days in length and therefore each participant can only register for one workshop. Please explore the workshop options below, then head over to our Eventbrite page to register.
The DH@Guelph Summer Workshops are proudly partnered with the new Canadian Certificate in Digital Humanities (CC:DH). Click here to find out more information.
The workshops available in 2024 are:
1. Making Connections: The Semantic Web for Humanities Scholars
Instructors: Susan Brown, Kim Martin, Alliyya Mo, and Sarah Roger
Location: McLaughlin Library, Room TBA
Description: This modular workshop offers both a conceptual overview of Linked Open Data (LOD), a set of standards and practices that allow data to contribute to the Semantic Web, and a series of modules that will introduce participants to working with LOD, from workflows for data cleaning, creation, and publication to interacting with LOD through various interfaces for browsing, querying, and visualization. An initial introduction will cover how LOD works in theory and practice, and provide an overview of various projects and interactive tools. This introduction will be followed by modular sessions focused on various aspects of LOD creation and use, many featuring tools and workflows supported or hosted by the Linked Infrastructure for Networked Cultural Scholarship. The modular sessions will allow participants to focus on areas of interest or need, including ones related specifically to creating LOD from structured data (spreadsheets/databases), XML including TEI, and natural language, led by members of the LINCS team.
Those desiring a broad introduction to LOD and the Semantic Web, as well as those wishing to work with LINCS tools or preparing data for publication through LINCS, will benefit from this workshop. Sample data will be provided for those without their own datasets. If you plan to bring your own data, please be in touch with instructors in advance. Attention will be given throughout to scholarly perspectives on Linked Open Data and the challenges and opportunities it poses for humanities scholars as far as modeling, context, nuance, and honouring difference and specificity are concerned.
Topics include: Introduction to LOD fundamentals, projects, and tools; ontologies and vocabularies; data preparation, cleanup, and reconciliation; getting going with the SPARQL query language; exploring, refining, and creating data in ResearchSpace; exporting LOD to other tools; structured data conversion with X3ML; from TEI to LOD with XTriples and the LEAF-Writer XML editor; and how LINCS can create LOD from content in the Canadian Writing Research Collaboratory and other instances of LEAF (The Linked Editing Academic Environment).
2. Introduction to Python Data Analysis
Instructor: Paul Barrett
Location: McLaughlin Library, Room TBA
Description: This course introduces students to core concepts in Python programming, data creation, and data analysis. The course assumes no prior programming or Python knowledge. Students will be introduced to the Python programming language and will use Python to collect, curate, and analyze data. They will create data structures, use programming libraries to manipulate and work with data, and develop their own functions. Students will learn to use APIs to connect their programs to external libraries and data sources and will engage in distant reading of social media.
3. Approaching Media Archaeology from a Digital Humanities Perspective: Introduction, Tools, and Techniques
Instructors: Arun Jacob and Paula Sanchez Nuñez de Villavicencio
Location: McLaughlin Library, Room TBA
Description: This workshop enables participants to examine the ways in which media archeology works as an effective research methodology for Digital Humanities (DH) scholarship. Extending from DH scholars such as Alan Liu (2012; 2013) and Matthew Kirschenbaum (2013), this course examines how media archeology is crucial to reckoning with the historical and ongoing targeting of marginalized and vulnerable individuals and populations, in particular those who are racialized and gendered, and sourcing what Ezikiel Dixon-Roman calls “hauntings” (2017) of technical progress, funding, data practices and other historical trajectories within contemporary media technologies.
As outlined by Erkki Huhtamo and Jussi Parikka, media archaeology is cross-disciplinary and nomadic, and its nimbleness and tolerance for multi-pronged analysis allow for a greater understanding of digital media’s “interactivity, navigability, and digital representation and transmission” (3; 2012). Media archeologies thus enable DH scholars to engage in inter-/cross-disciplinary conversations with scholars in science and technology studies, philosophy of science, DH and other disciplines. This course is intended for a wide audience interested in learning about media archeology as a digital humanities method to approach questions of knowledge and power. We welcome undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty to explore techniques of analyses that integrate digital humanities tools with historical research.
4. Uncovering Hidden Trends & Patterns Using Data Visualization
Instructor: Jennifer Marvin
Location: McLaughlin Library, Room TBA
Description: Effective data visualization can make information consumable, convey important concepts and ideas and even make your arguments more persuasive. In this workshop we’ll examine the data visualization lifecycle. Learn to gather, create, clean, process, visualize, and share complex data: from numerical to text to network.
In this four-part workshop we will cover:
- Finding and Getting Data - Learn how to find existing data, and strategies for creating your own.
- Cleaning and Processing Data - Understand the process of identifying and fixing dirty data.
- Visualizing Data - Use best practices to design, create, and refine data visualizations.
This workshop will have engaging demonstrations and participants will have a chance to practice with data and hands-on exercises related to the Digital Humanities. Participants will be required to bring their own laptop and software installation instructions will be provided prior to the workshop. At the end of the workshop, participants will be comfortable with using various tools to harvest, clean, and visualize. Core tools will include OpenRefine, Exploratory.io, Tableau, Voyant and Gephi.
5. Simple 3D Animation for Digital Humanities
Instructor: Ar Ducao
Location: McLaughlin Library, Room TBA
Description: One of the most engaging ways to represent multidimensional phenomena — from the tiniest handheld objects to the largest edifices of the built environment and beyond — is through 3D animation. In this course, we will find 3D humanities data and put them in 3D motion to explain humanities concepts. We will focus on the process, workflow, navigation, basic coding, sensitivity, and problem-solving skills that are valuable for telling many kinds of stories in many kinds of humanities contexts.
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to: Navigate a virtual 3D CAD (computer-aided design) interface, model and animate 3D geometry, lights, cameras, and surfaces, acquire and prepare real-world data to build 3D environments, discuss the conceptual and spatiotemporal limits of using 3D data, and develop awareness for the cultural considerations and biases that underlie 3D tools and productions
6. A Safer Internet for All: Self-Care and Community Care in Online Spaces
Instructor: Chelcie Juliet Rowell
Location: McLaughlin Library, Room TBA
Description: What is digital violence? How do our online communities replicate and amplify the complex racialized, gendered, and intersectional power dynamics of our offline communities? What are strategies for prevention and response? Digital violence has intensified since the beginning of the global pandemic. This array of harmful behavior includes (but isn’t limited to) sharing intimate images without consent; doxing; hijacking online events; impersonation; and cyberstalking. Digital violence impacts all communities, but new adults most commonly experience online abuse. This course will focus on you and your online communities. You will identify what online privacy protection is relevant and necessary to you. Your culminating project will then ask you to engage in the practice of visionary fiction to envision your ideal online community. What practices of care make an online community safe and inviting for people who are most vulnerable when participating? Our time together will inspire, empower, and energize us to create and participate in online communities characterized by strong cultures of consent and liberated participation in online spaces.