Digital Humanities expert Miriam Posner, assistant professor in information studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, will be on the Athens Campus March 18–19. As part of the Digital Humanities project, Posner will be giving a keynote address, leading workshops, and presenting a graduate student colloquium during her time in Athens.

“I’m new to the Digital Humanities (DH) and I’m eager to learn more from Dr. Posner as she’s a dynamic and engaging voice in the field,” said Nicole Reynolds, associate professor of English and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies in the College of Arts and Sciences. “DH is transforming the way humanists create and share knowledge and I think it’s important—especially for our graduate students, as emergent teachers and scholars—to be conversant in DH theories and methods.”

Details for Posner’s events are as follows:

March 18

• Keynote address —10:00 a.m., 304 Tupper Hall
• Graduate student colloquium — 1:30–3:00 p.m., 319 Alden Library

March 19

• Digital Humanities workshop #1 — 9:30 a.m.–11:30 a.m., 251 Alden Library
• Digital Humanities workshop #2 — 12:30 p.m.–2:30 p.m., 251 Alden Library

Posner’s keynote address is titled “Digital Humanities: What It Is, Where We’ve Come, and Where We Might Go.” She will discuss how Digital Humanities has been practiced for the last few decades, how it’s been used in the classroom, and unsolved problems with DH and the opportunities they offer scholars.

“We're at a moment when large swathes of the cultural record are being digitized,” said Posner. “The question now becomes, what do we do with the products of that digitization? Are there specifically humanistic modes of interacting with digital cultural resources, or should that be left to people in other disciplines? This is the point where we have to decide what stance we'll take to the digitized human record.”

Posner’s first workshop is titled “Understanding and Evaluating Digital Projects,” and she will discuss how to get started in exploring digital tools and assessing others’ projects. Her second workshop, “Data Visualization and Mapping with Tableau,” is a hands-on session for those who are new to working with data and want to get started with Tableau.

Faculty, staff, and students are invited to attend the keynote address and both workshops, and graduate students are invited to the graduate student colloquium. You can register for each event here (the keynote does not require registration):

• Workshop #1: Understanding and Evaluating Digital Projects
• Workshop #2: Data Visualization and Mapping with Tableau
• Graduate student colloquium

“I am very eager for Dr. Posner’s visit to OHIO as she offers us multiple perspectives related to Digital Humanities,” said Kelly Broughton, assistant dean for research & education services in the Ohio University Libraries. “As a DH practitioner, she can speak to the very interesting practicalities, tools, ethics, and social justice issues surrounding DH projects. As an academic program coordinator, she also can help us learn how to use DH to frame new modes of inquiry and the impact it is already having on research, teaching, and publication.”

Posner’s visit is supported by the Libraries and the Office of Instructional Innovation, as a component of the Digital Humanities proposal submitted to the Academic Innovation Accelerator in 2017. This project has involved a partnership with Marshall University, with faculty and staff participating in multiple instances of The Humanities and Technology Camp (THATCamp).

For more information, reach out to Michele Jennings.