Whether you are planning a new project or course, or thinking about refreshing an old one, there is a pleasure in testing out new methodologies—just as you might sample buffet fare before you decide which dish you would like to commit to for dinner. The DHSI@Congress 2.5-hour workshops on May 30 and 31 are like a buffet for Congress-goers who are curious about how Digital Humanities methodologies might complement, augment, or extend their research and teaching.
Now in their second year, the DHSI @ Congress workshops have developed out of the community model pioneered by Raymond Siemens at the Digital Humanities Summer Institute (DHSI) at the University of Victoria. Although the DHSI now draws over 600 participants to courses on a variety of DH topics led by established scholars and emerging leaders in the field, at its heart, the DHSI has maintained the community education model it developed in 2001, through which humanists share computing techniques with one another. The DHSI has grown, but maintains that community spirit: scholars from around the world gather for up to three weeks to take courses, attend lectures, and participate in colloquia, in short to share and learn from one another. The DHSI @ Congress borrows this model, bringing in experts in the field to discuss Digital Humanities research, methods, and techniques.
If you have ever wondered what you might learn about a historical streetscape if you could look at its bygone buildings in three dimensions, or what you might learn about an author's stylistic development if you could visualize patterns in his or her writing over a lifetime, these workshops are for you. Jason Boyd, an assistant director of the DHSI, sums up the excitement of learning new techniques, "Digital Humanities opens new perspectives on and raises new questions about our objects of study and our ways of studying and teaching them. These perspectives and questions can be eye-opening, perplexing, troubling, and playful, and as such, can lead us out of our comfort zones into places where we can imagine new horizons and futures for humanities research and learning." Whether you are interested in an introduction to DH, DH Pedagogy, edition production, databases, 3D modeling, text analysis, or desktop fabrication, if you are attending Congress we invite you to come sample the buffet and dine with us by registering for any and all workshops that engage your interest.
Full descriptions and registration information see http://dhsi.org/events.php#DHSI@Congress