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Digital Humanities Skills Workshop Series
The DH Skills workshop series is a partnership between the Digital Humanities Innovation Lab (DHIL) and SFU Library’s Research Commons and is affiliated with the University of Victoria (ETCL, DHSI, and UVic Libraries) and the University of British Columbia (UBC Library and UBC Advanced Research Computing).
The workshops are free and open to to all, but registration is required. Links to register are included under each workshop description. Space is limited, so make sure to register soon to ensure a space.
Beyond the Cloud: Using Voyant Tools to Analyze Texts
Digital tools for text analysis can help humanities researchers see and query their data in new ways through word frequency, patterns, and context. However, while a word cloud might seem to offer straightforward information about textual data, researchers may wonder how, why, and when to best to utilize these tools. This workshop will offer an introduction to Voyant - free, online software that creates visualizations of text - and to digital text analysis more broadly. We will discuss the different kinds of textual data that are optimal for digital text analysis, and explore several of Voyant’s functions that may be of interest to humanities scholars.
Note: Please bring your own laptop.
Upcoming Workshops
| Dates | Location |
|---|---|
| Thursday, November 7, 2019 - 1:00pm to 3:00pm | Burnaby, Bennett Library, Rm 7010, Research Commons |
Introduction to Twitter bots with Tracery
Using the Tracery story-grammar generation tool, participants will learn how to turn simple JSON lists into full-fledged Twitter bots like @Gastwon, (https://twitter.com/gastwon) @TaySEliot (https://twitter.com/tayseliot) or even @SoftLandscapes. (https://twitter.com/softlandscapes). No programming experience is necessary.
Please bring a fully charged laptop.
Upcoming Workshops
| Dates | Location |
|---|---|
| Thursday, November 14, 2019 - 1:00pm to 3:00pm | Burnaby, Bennett Library, Rm 7010, Research Commons |
Introduction to Spatial Data in Humanities: Creating Story Maps
Many humanities researchers have some form of geographical information included in their research, such as objects, images, or texts from or about a particular place; narratives about a person’s movement or a place’s change over time; or information about networks of people or organizations. Whether places and spaces are at the heart of your research or are a part of it, mapping can help answer research questions and generate new ones by visualizing your data in new ways. It can help tell a story about place or space. This two-part workshop series will help humanities researchers map their place-based research with ArcGIS.
The Spatial Elements of Textual Analysis
The first workshop will cover the nuts and bolts of getting started mapping with ArcGIS. We will discuss how to extract data from your research, get it ready for analysis, and upload it into ArcGIS. The workshop will help humanities researchers explore and map the spatial elements of their research with ArcGIS.
Software: ArcGIS Online (participants will not need their own computer)
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
- extract data from their research;
- get their data ready for spatial analysis;
- upload data into ArcGIS Online;
- use some basic mapping techniques with ArcGIS Online.
Creating Story Maps
The second workshop will cover spatial analysis - the potential applications of your geographic information. We will demonstrate the analytic functions included in ArcGIS and discuss how to create context for your spatial data. We will also introduce Story Maps, an app that helps turn place-based information into narratives with a combination of maps, images, and text. Note: for this workshop, we will assume that you have already attended the first workshop or are comfortable with the material covered there.
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
- create a Story Map;
- extract spatial context from text.
Software: ArcGIS Online (participants will not need their own computer)
Workshop page (SFU Canvas): GIS workshops page includes workshop descriptions and suggested streams for different disciplines, handouts, slides, and example datasets
Upcoming Workshops
| Dates | Location |
|---|---|
| Thursday, November 21, 2019 - 1:00pm to 3:00pm | Burnaby, Bennett Library, Lab 2105 |
Introduction to Content Management Systems: Creating Exhibits with Omeka
Upcoming Workshops
| Dates | Location |
|---|---|
| Thursday, November 28, 2019 - 1:00pm to 3:00pm | Burnaby, Bennett Library, Rm 7010, Research Commons |
Digital Humanities Discussion Series @Us
You have a great set of research objects that you want to share publicly - but should you? You think it’s important to help your students share their work and engage in public conversations - but when should they be cautious? You want to share your research and your teaching practices on social media - but what about trolls?
While digital tools are helping researchers and teachers to share their work in unprecedented ways, they also raise questions about how to use them in ways that are ethical, productive, and safe.
@Us is a series of discussions that will take up these questions and more, offering participants a chance to think through issues, ask their own questions, share ideas and experiences, and get practical advice. We will suggest some optional readings to give participants some background for each topic. We will hold our discussion group at the Burnaby campus, on the first Thursday of every month, 1:30-2:30pm, through the Summer 2018 term; we are hoping to continue this discussion group beyond the term to create a space for ongoing conversations about critical DH for our community. Coffee and light refreshments served.
Digital Humanities Café
The DH Café presents a series of short workshops and informal discussion on topics relevant to the basic theories and methods behind digital research in the humanities. The courses cover a broad range of topics, from larger issues in digital research in the academy to specific tools and research techniques. The theme for Spring 2018 is How Do You Put the Digital in a Humanities Project?.
The workshops are free and open to to all, but registration is required. Links to register are included under each workshop description. Space is limited, so make sure to register soon to ensure a space.
The DH Café is a partnership between the Digital Humanities Innovation Lab (DHIL) and SFU Library's Research Commons and is affiliated with KEY, SFU's Big Data Initiative.
Past workshops
- Introduction to Twitter Bots with Tracery [Fall 2018]
- Using NVivo for Humanities Research [Fall 2018]
- Introduction to Spatial Data in the Humanities: The Spatial Elements of Textual Analysis [Summer 2018 and Fall 2018]
- Introduction to Spatial Data in the Humanities: Creating Story Maps [Summer 2018 and Fall 2018]
- Optimizing Your Digital Research Workflow with Zotero [Summer 2018]
- Beyond the Cloud: Using Voyant Tools to Analyze Texts [Summer 2018]
- Hacking the Scholarly Workflow [Spring 2018]
- Tools for Humanities Data Analysis [Spring 2018]
- Collecting, Organizing, and Describing Archival Research [Spring 2018]
- Open Publishing as Open Pedagogy: Creating a Course Journal using Open Journal Systems [Fall 2017]
- Getting Students to Read Critically through Online Annotations [Fall 2017]
- You Mean I Produce Data, Too? Managing Research Objects in the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences [Fall 2017]
- Intro to Preparing Character Data in R (Summer 2017)
- Digital Pedagogy at Victorian Studies Association of Western Canada conference (Spring 2017)
- Digital Storytelling using Twine (Spring 2017)
- Intermediate Podcasting (Spring 2017)
- Spatial Humanities (Fall 2016)
- Tableau for Humanists (Fall 2016)
- Podcasting for Scholarly Communication (Fall 2016)