About
In recent years, digital methodologies have become an intrinsic part of research practices in the Humanities and Social Sciences. The application of formal, quantitative methods has substantial consequences on the questions asked and inferences drawn from data that is digitally stored, managed, and manipulated. These effects can only be fully understood if researchers develop a fundamental understanding of the underlying technologies. As critical readings of IT infrastructures and code aim to reveal and prevent (unconscious) biases, Digital Humanists need to reflect on the significance of their decisions: The collection of data, the development of tools and the provision of infrastructures all have lasting impact on the presentation, evaluation and interpretation of their research subjects.
In 2019, the annual "International Summer School" (ISS) of the MA program "Digital Methods in the Humanities and Cultural Sciences" jointly conducted by the Johannes Gutenberg-University and the University of Applied Sciences Mainz will put a special focus on the critical reflection of data, methods and algorithms within the Digital Humanities. The main goal of the summer school is to build up expertise on foundational concepts, methods and tools used in a broad range of disciplines. At the same time, participants are encouraged to take a critical look at the presented methodologies and discuss the implications of their application within the research process.
The schedule comprises introductory lessons on web-based collaboration and annotation tools (like structuring and writing text with Markdown, Git and GitLab) as well as classes on annotating texts and images or the encoding and digital presentation of music. Another block of sessions will cover network analysis and its application to historical sources as well as a critical evaluation of different data visualization practices. Finally, spatial analysis by digital means, tools like graph databases supporting data exploration and indexing and an overview over NLP (natural language processing) methods will complete the picture.
[ Schedule and participation ]
Schedule
Tuesday, 08.10.19, 15:00–18:00
| 15:00–17:00 | Guided tour through Mainz Meeting point: Ernst-Ludwig-Platz (Dativius-Victor-Bogen) |
| 18:00 | Get-Together in a traditional wine tavern (Weinhaus Wilhelmi) |
Wednesday, 09.10.19, 09:30–17:30
| 09:30–12:00 | Jörg Hambuch, Anna Neovesky Basic methods and tools (Markdown, Git, GitLab) |
| 12:00–13:00 | Lunch break |
| 13:00–15:30 | Max Grüntgens, Thomas Kollatz Critical annotation methods for text and images |
| 15:30–16:00 | Coffee break |
| 16:00–17:30 | Frederic von Vlahovits Methods and tools for annotating music |
Thursday, 10.10.19, 10:00–17:30
| 10:00–11:30 | Ingeborg van Vugt (Utrecht University) Are you in or out? An introduction to historical network analysis |
| 11:30–13:00 | Sarah Pittroff, Marjam Trautmann Visualisation: Methods and tools for critical reflections on data |
| 13:00–14:00 | Lunch break |
| 14:00–15:30 | Kai-Christian Bruhn Analysing Space in the Humanities |
| 15:30–16:00 | Coffee break |
| 16:00–17:30 | Andreas Kuczera Graph databases |
Friday, 11.10.19, 10:00–15:00
| 10:00–11:30 | Julian Jarosch, Patrick Toschka Graph tools for data exploration and indexing |
| 11:30–13:00 | Martin Prell (Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena) Historical sources of women in the Digital Humanities – overview and automated text analysis |
| 13:00–14:00 | Lunch break |
| 14:00–15:00 | Aline Deicke Wrap-Up |
Note: For students enrolled in the MA programme "Digital Methods in the Humanities and Cultural Sciences" the summer school starts one day earlier on Monday, 07.10.19 at 10:00 (also in the Academy of Sciences and Literature | Mainz).
Place
Venue
The summer school will take place in the Academy of Sciences and Literature | Mainz, Geschwister-Scholl-Str. 2, 55131 Mainz.
By car: Take the exit Mainz-Hechtsheim (Ost) from the A60, make a right turn into the Geschwister-Scholl-Straße and another right turn at the first crossing into the Emy-Roeder-Straße. After approximately 50m make a left turn into the parking area of the Academy.
With public transport: From Mainz main station take the tram lines no 50, 52 or 53 (towards Hechtsheim) or take the busses number 660 (towards Alzey) or 9 (towards Hechtsheim).
Food & Drink
For lunch there are some convenient facilities nearby. The REWE-Supermarket is just next to the Academy. The shops and restaurants at the Berliner Straße also provide good food.
Accomodation
We can recommend one of the following hotels for accomodation: The Hotel am Hechenberg (close to the Academy), the Intercity Hotel Mainz (close to the main station) or the Youth Hostel Mainz (reasonable prices).
Participation
Organisational notes
The summer school addresses an international audience and is open to all students and/or researchers with a BA degree in the humanities, cultural sciences, computer science or information science. For a successfull participation credits according to the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) will be awarded. Lessons will be held in German and/or English, depending on the amount of foreign speaking participants to a class.
The total amount of participants is limited to 40 persons. From this amount, 25 seats are booked for the students of the first semester of the MA programme "Digital Methods in the Humanities and Cultural Sciences" until the start of the semester. 15 seats are open for external application. We will maintain a waiting list to ensure a fair allocation if any of the seats is not taken by the start of the semester.
Costs
There is no fee for the summer school. Participants must cover their travel and accomodation expenses by themselves.
Application
Please apply via email (short motivation letter and CV) until 06. September 2019 to: ISS_mz@uni-mainz.de