[en] Finding and Interpreting Arguments: An Important
Challenge for Humanities Computing and Scholarly PracticeAndrew Ravenscroft, Cass School of Education and Communities, University of East London, UK; Colin Allen, History and Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh, USA; Philosophy, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China
Abstract
[en]
Skillful identification and interpretation of arguments is a cornerstone of
learning, scholarly activity and thoughtful civic engagement. These are
difficult skills for people to learn, and they are beyond the reach of current
computational methods from artificial intelligence and machine learning, despite
hype suggesting the contrary. In previous work, we have attempted to build
systems that scaffold these skills in people. In this paper we reflect on the
difficulties posed by this work, and we argue that it is a serious challenge
which ought to be taken up within the digital humanities and related efforts to
computationally support scholarly practice. Network analysis, bibliometrics, and
stylometrics, essentially leave out the fundamental humanistic skill of
charitable argument interpretation because they touch very little on the
meanings embedded in texts. We present a problematisation of
the design space for potential tool development, as a result of insights about
the nature and form of arguments in historical texts gained from our attempt to
locate and map the arguments in one corner of the Hathi Trust digital
library.
[en] Reading the Quan Tang
shi: Literary History, Topic Modeling, Divergence MeasuresPeter Broadwell, Center for Interdisciplinary Research, Stanford University; Jack W. Chen, University of Virginia; David Shepard, Scholarly Innovation Lab, UCLA
Abstract
[en]
The present paper addresses the problem of literary history as a problem of data
comprehensiveness and selection, seeking not to resolve the impossibility of
literary historical narrative, but to reframe it through a computational
perspective. Our focus is on the Quan Tang
shi
全唐詩 (Complete Tang poetry), the
massive comprehensive anthology of Tang poetry that was produced at the height
of the Qing dynasty (1644–1912). The sheer quantity of Tang poetry preserved in
the Quan Tang shi (over 50,000 poems
and poem fragments) exceeds the human-scale perspectives of close reading. To
make sense of the corpus as a whole, we will show how two related forms of
distant reading — topic modeling and divergence measures — allow us to reframe and
rethink these literary historical questions and provide a new perspective on
what it means to read Tang poetry.
[en] Decoupling Quality Control and Publication: The Digital Latin
Library and the Traveling Imprimatur.Samuel J. Huskey, University of Oklahoma; Jeffrey C. Witt, Loyola University Maryland
Abstract
[en]
With The Library of Digital Latin Texts (LDLT), the
Digital Latin Library (DLL) is set to publish critical editions as sets of data
independent of a presentational format. These datasets are meant to be reused
for a variety of purposes and in a variety of presentational formats, including
the DLL’s own user edition viewer and data visualization applications. It is
thus vital to have a way of certifying the data as published in accordance with
the DLL’s policies and procedures, central to which are its provisions for peer
review. Accordingly, to facilitate the use of an edition’s data in different
settings, and to promote a high degree of confidence in the quality of the data,
we have introduced the DLL Review Registry Service. The DLL Review Registry
Service offers a way of associating peer reviewed status with the text data
rather than within any particularly visualization of that data. Any
visualization of text data can consult this service and discover whether or not
this data has been reviewed. In this way, we free the “imprimatur” from its
association with any particular presentation and allow the indicators of quality
to “travel” with the data and be communicated to end users in a plurality
of visualizations.
[en] Changes in Lyrical and Hit Diversity of Popular
U.S. Songs 1956-2016Peter Meindertsma, Department of Language Technology - Computational Linguistics, University of Groningen, Netherlands
Abstract
[en]
To examine changes in the diversity of popular songs over time, I have analyzed
the lyrics of 99% of all songs sung in English that have appeared on the U.S.
Billboard Hot 100 chart from 1956 up to and including 2016 (n=27.108). I have
found the number of songs that reached the Hot 100 per year more than halved
between 1966 and 2002, which indicates a loss in diversity. I have also found
that the variation of valence (or level of pleasantness) in the
songs’ lyrics and the variation of a sampled Type Token ratio (an indicator for
lexical complexity) decreases over time. This indicates that lyrics of popular
songs become more similar and again signify a loss of diversity.
[en] Digital Collaborations: A Survey Analysis of
Digital Humanities Partnerships Between Librarians and Other AcademicsJessica Wagner Webster, Baruch College, City University of New York
Abstract
[en]
The present study will investigate the perceptions of information professionals
about their role in the work of digital humanities scholars, as well as the
perceptions of digital humanities scholars on the role of information
professionals in their research. While other scholarly literature has considered
collaborations between these groups via surveys or interviews with small project
teams, the present study will provide a large-scale analysis of collaborations
using survey responses from more than 500 scholars, librarians, and archivists.
Questions sought to determine the extent to which these groups collaborate with
one another on project teams; how these collaborations unfold and who initiates
them; whether IPs have begun to adjust and adapt their work to support specific
DH projects, or to make their content more appealing and easy for potential
future DH projects; and what administrative hurdles are faced during the
collaboration. The survey also address how information professionals and DH
scholars view the success of the collaboration after completing their work, and
whether they intend to collaborate in future. To conclude, the article will
consider what these responses tell us about how best to support all members of
these collaborations.
[en] “Cosmopolitanism”, “Japaneseness”, and Video Game Studies: A Review of Mia Consalvo's Atari to Zelda: Japan's Videogames in Global ContextsSteven Braun, Northeastern University
Abstract
[en]
The field of Japanese studies occupies many spaces of inquiry in popular culture and academic
scholarship alike, illustrating the diverse ways products of Japanese culture,
society, and technology have broadly influenced the global market. In Atari to Zelda: Japan’s Videogames in Global
Contexts, Mia Consalvo considers yet another lens through which to
understand Japan’s influence, namely video games. Exploring Japan’s video games in a
variety of contexts – ranging from how individual game players relate to the study
of Japan via encounters with video games to how the Japanese game industry designs
games for global consumption – Consalvo’s work considers intriguing relationships
between cosmopolitanism, notions of Japaneseness, and globalization which open new
directions of research for Japanese studies, game studies, and their
intersection.
[en] Creating a User Manual for Healthy Crowd
Engagement: A Review of Mark Hedges and Stuart Dunn's Academic Crowdsourcing in the Humanities: Crowds, Communities and
Co-productionSamantha Blickhan, Zooniverse & Adler Planetarium
Abstract
[en]
This piece examines Academic Crowdsourcing in the
Humanities: Crowds, Communities and Co-production, by Mark Hedges
and Stuart Dunn, and considers the role it plays within existing literature
about crowdsourcing and digital humanities.
[en] Persuasive Physical Computing: A Review of David
M. Rieder’s Suasive Iterations: Rhetoric, Writing, &
Physical ComputingNathan Sullivan, Texas A&M University-Central Texas
Abstract
[en]
Suasive Iterations seeks to expand the repertoire of
physical computing, rhetoric, and digital humanities research in an age of
pervasive technology and virtual reality. The book provides a collection of
theoretical frameworks with which digital humanists can craft projects to evert
the virtual and the real towards suasive ends. Rieder argues that digital
rhetors and authors should seek to use the affordances of technology to bring
the virtual and the real together to create reality altering experiences that
are persuasive and transductive. This book is an invaluable tool for those new
to the digital humanities as well as experienced scholars as it provides strong
theoretical guidance as well as project ideas to promote research in the
field.
