Dear all,
The Rossell Hope Robbins Library at the University of Rochester is sponsoring two DH-focused sessions at next year's ICMS at Kalamazoo. Please see the descriptions below, and contact me with any questions that you might have.
Best wishes, Anna
*DH on a Budget: how to develop digital projects with limited resources (a roundtable)*
Sponsored by the Rossell Hope Robbins Library (University of Rochester)
Organizer: Anna Siebach-Larsen
Digital scholarship has been part of medieval studies for decades, and is only becoming more so, given the increased digitization of manuscript collections and the creation of new digital tools, alongside the heightened emphasis of digital skills in graduate training. Yet the development of digital scholarship requires resources – money, time, labor – that have always been limited and are becoming more so. This workshop panel will discuss on a practical level the kinds of digital scholarship and tools that can be developed with constrained resources, focusing on projects that can be built and supported across a range of institutions to meet a variety of research and pedagogical needs and interests.
We encourage the demonstration of digital tools and scholarship alongside a discussion of their costs (money, labor, time) and requirements, with an eye toward encouraging replication, innovation, and collaboration. Possible tools include 3D modeling, RTI scanning, digital editions, imaging, mapping projects, and more. Presentations might include hands-on demonstrations and participation, advice for grant applications, and discussions on the importance of collaboration in all its possible guises. We encourage acknowledgement and discussion of the constraints of funding models, precarity, academic and professional hierarchies, student training, institutional support, replication, and sustainability.
Please send proposals to Anna Siebach-Larsen ( annasiebachlarsen@rochester.edu) by *September 15, 2019.*
*The Present and Future of Digital Editing (a roundtable)*
Sponsored by the Rossell Hope Robbins Library (University of Rochester)
Organized by: Ashley Conklin and Anna Siebach-Larsen
In 2015, Elena Pierazzo argued that “cultural heritage texts are complex objects which have reached us inscribed on stratified, diversified and conflicting documents that require the cultural and dialectical intermediation of expert readers: the editors. This requirement has not changed with the advent of the Web: on the contrary, the easier it becomes to publish on the Web and the larger the quantity of textual materials available, the more important becomes the guidance of the editor.”[1] <#_ftn1> Her observations ring particularly true for digital editions of medieval texts, which often grapple with the material substrate of the texts themselves alongside the accretions of centuries of editorial traditions and practices. Yet, as has often been observed, we continue to grapple with the question of *what* a digital edition should be and *how* that vision might best be achieved. These questions remain at the forefront of digital editing on both a conceptual and pragmatic level: should a digital edition be a digital version of a print edition? what do we want our digital editions to do? how do different types of digital editions function in terms of research and the classroom, and how can and should they speak to each other? what benefits do new platforms such as Manifold offer for medieval texts and manuscripts? how can we fund the creation and support of digital editions? how might we best collaborate across projects and continue to build a community of practice?
This roundtable will explore present practices in digital editing and look to its future. We encourage participation from speakers who are engaged in editing or publishing digital editions, and/or who have used digital editions in their own scholarship and teaching. In other words, we hope to facilitate a discussion about the benefits and challenges associated with digital editing from the producers and users of digital editions. Some of the discussion topics may include but are not limited to: the drawbacks and benefits of various platforms, moving from print to digital (or vice versa), open-access, crowd-sourcing, pedagogy, encoding methods, the accessibility and use of metadata, sustainability, invisible labor, the politics of digital vs print editions, the usefulness of standard guidelines, interdisciplinary collaboration, and successes and failures.
Please send abstracts to Ashley Conklin (aconkli2@ur.rochester.edu) and Anna Siebach-Larsen (annasiebachlarsen@rochester.edu) by *September 15, 2019*.
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[1] <#_ftnref1> Elena Pierazzo, *Digital Scholarly Editing: Theories, Models and Methods* (Farnham: Ashgate, 2015), 2.
--- Anna Siebach-Larsen Director, Rossell Hope Robbins Library & Koller-Collins Center for English Studies annasiebachlarsen@rochester.edu