The H2020-funded project DESIR sets out to strengthen the sustainability of DARIAH and firmly establish it as a long-term leader and partner within arts and humanities communities.
This video features a keynote speech given by Riccardo Pozzo, in his capacity as Chair of the DARIAH Scientific Board, during the final event for the DESIR project, held in Zagreb in November 2019. In it, he discusses co-creation and cultural innovation, and how research infrastructures play a key role in this.
In this lecture, Sally Chambers, Digital Humanities Research Coordinator at the Ghent Centre for Digital Humanities outlines how DARIAH as a Research Infrastructure works within Europe to connect with arts and humanities researchers. She elaborates on how such a European Research Infrastructure could start to work more widely internationally.
What skills, knowledge and workforces are needed into the future? This panel discusses interdisciplines and methods, emerging data practices and ‘Humanities 4.0’. It features presentations by Professor Jean Burgess (Director, Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology) on Digital methods and the future of communication and media research and Professor Joy Damousi FASSA FAHA (Lead Chief Investigator) on Future Humanities Workforce project and by Associate Professor Mitchell Whitelaw (Australian National University).
How do we design infrastructure that connects? This panel discusses collaborative platforms, partnerships between research and cultural sectors, and libraries as labs. It features presentations by Seb Chan — Chief Experience Officer, Australian Centre for the Moving Image and Dr Marie-Louise Ayres — Director General, National Library of Australia.
What are the big challenges and opportunities for data-intensive research over the next ten years? This panel discusses digital transformations in the humanities and arts, data ethics and sovereignty, and infrastructure with impact. It features presentations by Dr James Rose (Indigenous Studies Unit, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health) on Data Sovereignty in a Colonial Context: Towards an Integrated National Governance Framework for Australia, Dr James Smithies (Director, King’s Digital Lab) on Integrating DH into the longue durée: Research Laboratories, History, Methods.
In this lecture, Quinn Dombrowski shares her thoughts on Digital Humanities Infrastructure, with a special focus on sustainability. She argues that solidarity (i.e. recognition of the interests of the larger group) is a prerequisite for the sustainability of DH infrastructures.
This lecture by Mark Algee-Hewitt reflects on practices of doing research in the digital humanities and how the way in which we talk about research impacts upon the kind of things that we can do.
Professor Jennifer Edmond, President of the Board of Directors of DARIAH-EU, presents pathways to building sustainable infrastructure over time, future directions for DARIAH, the humanities and arts in Europe and beyond. She asks the audience to help DARIAH to think about what it means to be a European reseach infrastructure.
Maija Paavolainen explains the challenges of finding a 'common language' in the digital humanities. She finds that simply talking about this issue helps. Thus, experience in communicating across disciplines is a positive outcome of training initiatives in itself. The role of research infrastructures, she argues, is certainly in sharing tools and best practices. However, most importantly, it is also to create opportunities for people to meet and learn face-to-face. She explains that humanities scholars are more accustomed to using digital methods and tools in the initial (information gathering) and final (publication) stages of research. However, DARIAH, specifically, can help them to also use them in the core part of the research process - i.e. in organising, annotating, and enriching data.
In this video, Jennifer Edmond gives us insights into her background in critical theory approaches and German literary history, through a spell in technical support and research strategy in the humanities, and how this has impacted her work in DARIAH. She talks about the importance of pushing beyond the foundations of your academic training to do new things in the humanities. How can the system vaildate this kind of groundbreaking research, and make it possible for early career researchers to make the leap? She explains the unique role of DARIAH in this process.
Claire Clivaz explains how she has found that the tensions between disciplines in interdisciplinary work can be similar no matter what disciplines are being combined. Encounters between biology and computing, for example, can be as challenging as between humanities disciplines and computing. Dr Clivaz, herself, began her academic career in biblical manuscript studies but developed an interest in the digital humanities very quickly, at a time when the impact of computing was being felt in the humanities more widely. She explains the usefulness of the DH Course Registry in finding university-based, formal, DH training in Switzerland. However, she argues that informal opportunities to learn are crucial. One phrase that appears again and again in the digital humanities, she states, is: continuous training.
Building on an unusual interdisciplinary background that combined computer science and literature in equal measure, Frank Fischer found his place in the digital humanities. In this video, he explains how his background has enabled him to understand 'both sides' of a digital humanities project - i.e. the humanities and the technical. He discusses the distinction between formal and informal education, arguing that the more 'alternative' teaching methods used in the digital humanities (workshops, summer schools etc) are crucial in developing new skills. Finally, he discusses how research infrastructures are vital in providing this kind of hands-on training, since they synthesise the 'social' and the 'technical'.
