The following workshops and events are open to the community at Duke and beyond. The Libraries’ Digital Humanities Consultant also collaborates with researchers, instructors, and units to design area-specific workshops. Subscribe to our Newsletter to receive updates on workshops and other opportunities.
Digital Humanities: A Gentle Introduction
The phrase “digital humanities” is applied liberally across many fields and contexts. But what is it? Why might scholars engage technologies as part of their humanities research? How can graduate students get started in digital humanities?
This workshop offers graduate students a gentle introduction to the theories, ethical concerns, and methods of digital humanities and provides resources for future learning and engagement. We will consider various definitions, reasons why scholars might pursue digital humanities research and/or pedagogy, and various modes of participation. Participants will engage with digital humanities principles and practices such as data feminism, multilingualism, and minimal computing through case studies and established evaluation guidelines.
By the end of this workshop, you will be able to
- describe what digital humanities is in your disciplinary context;
- explain why and how you might or might not integrate digital humanities into your research and/or teaching;
- identify and access digital humanities resources at Duke and beyond; and
- use and critique established guidelines for evaluating digital humanities scholarship.
This workshop will be facilitated by Hannah Jacobs, Digital Humanities Consultant with Duke Libraries.
Location: West Campus Bostock 121 (Murthy Digital Studio)
Participation: General discussion, structured activity, and time for questions.
Audience: Humanities graduate students. RCR credit is available for GS714.
Digital Humanities: A Gentle Introduction
The phrase “digital humanities” is applied liberally across many fields and contexts. But what is it? Why might scholars engage technologies as part of their humanities research? How can graduate students get started in digital humanities?
This workshop offers graduate students a gentle introduction to the theories, ethical concerns, and methods of digital humanities and provides resources for future learning and engagement. We will consider various definitions, reasons why scholars might pursue digital humanities research and/or pedagogy, and various modes of participation. Participants will engage with digital humanities principles and practices such as data feminism, multilingualism, and minimal computing through case studies and established evaluation guidelines.
By the end of this workshop, you will be able to
- describe what digital humanities is in your disciplinary context;
- explain why and how you might or might not integrate digital humanities into your research and/or teaching;
- identify and access digital humanities resources at Duke and beyond; and
- use and critique established guidelines for evaluating digital humanities scholarship.
This workshop will be facilitated by Hannah Jacobs, Digital Humanities Consultant with Duke Libraries.
Location: East Campus Music Library Seminar Room
Participation: General discussion, structured activity, and time for questions.
Audience: Humanities graduate students. RCR credit is available for GS714.
Data Management for Humanists
[Online] Humanists work with and generate various digital media, content and materials (sources) as part of their research. This workshop will introduce practices for humanities scholars to consider and apply throughout the research lifecycle to manage the various electronic files and digital data they generate. Good data management practices pertaining to planning, file organization, documentation, storage and backup, sharing, citation, and preservation will be presented through a humanities lens with discipline-based, concrete examples. While general good data management practices are relevant across disciplines, participants working specifically within the humanities are the intended audience for this workshop. This event is open to non-Duke participants.
This workshop is eligible for 2 hours of Graduate School RCR Credit and 200-level faculty and staff RCR.
A zoom link will be sent via email to registered participants to join the workshop.
The content of the workshop may be recorded. If you are uncomfortable with a recording being published, please contact the instructor at any time prior to the conclusion of the workshop.
Data Management
Research Image Management for Humanists
Organizing, annotating, and tagging research images not only enables effective data management but also can support humanities analysis and writing. This workshop will introduce humanities students and scholars to methods for organizing their research images—be they photos and scans of physical manuscripts, digitized artworks, or born-digital imagery. Participants will learn the what and why of research image management; learn to use Tropy, free and open source software designed for research image management; and consider the possibilities and challenges of integrating machine-based image tagging into their research process. Participants are encouraged to bring a laptop and a set of images with them.
By the end of this workshop, you will be able to
- describe the importance of managing images and the affordances of digital annotation and tagging for their research processes;
- employ Tropy’s basic features and continue their Tropy learning through online resources;
- describe how machine-based image tagging works and whether/how it might support their research.
This workshop will be facilitated by Hannah Jacobs, Digital Humanities Consultant with Duke Libraries.
Location: West Campus Bostock 121 (Murthy Digital Studio)
Participation: General discussion, structured activity, and time for questions.
Audience: Humanities faculty & graduate students. RCR credit is available for both.
Research Image Management for Humanists
Organizing, annotating, and tagging research images not only enables effective data management but also can support humanities analysis and writing. This workshop will introduce humanities students and scholars to methods for organizing their research images—be they photos and scans of physical manuscripts, digitized artworks, or born-digital imagery. Participants will learn the what and why of research image management; learn to use Tropy, free and open source software designed for research image management; and consider the possibilities and challenges of integrating machine-based image tagging into their research process. Participants are encouraged to bring a laptop and a set of images with them.
By the end of this workshop, you will be able to
- describe the importance of managing images and the affordances of digital annotation and tagging for their research processes;
- employ Tropy’s basic features and continue their Tropy learning through online resources;
- describe how machine-based image tagging works and whether/how it might support their research.
This workshop will be facilitated by Hannah Jacobs, Digital Humanities Consultant with Duke Libraries.
Location: East Campus Music Library Seminar Room
Participation: General discussion, structured activity, and time for questions.
Audience: Humanities faculty & graduate students. RCR credit is available for both.
Text Data Processing for Humanists
Humanities researchers can amass a considerable number of primary and secondary text-based sources for their research. These may include scans of archival documents such as manuscripts, newspapers, books, and other materials. They may also include varying-quality scans of secondary sources on loan from their own or other libraries. While close reading of this material is key for many humanities researchers, making use of so much data can also be supported by computation: by using computational tools to transcribe handwritten and printed text, scholars can query their text data to quickly find information. These processes, optical character recognition (OCR) for printed text and handwritten text recognition (HTR) for handwritten text, have improved significantly in recent years with machine learning and generative artificial intelligence. In this workshop, we will examine how these technologies work, practice using several tools for OCR and HTR, and consider the opportunities and challenges that can arise when using these technologies with different page layouts, languages, and scripts. Participants are encouraged to bring a laptop.
By the end of this workshop, you will be able to
- describe how OCR and HTR work in general terms;
- identify possible opportunities and challenges when applying OCR and HTR technologies to different page layouts, languages, and scripts;
- implement several OCR and HTR technologies in your research; and
- assess accuracy, clean up processed text, and document workflows for transparency.
This workshop will be facilitated by Hannah Jacobs, Digital Humanities Consultant with Duke Libraries.
Location: East Campus Music Library Seminar Room
Participation: General discussion, structured activity, and time for questions.
Audience: Humanities faculty & graduate students. RCR credit is available for both.