If we were to come up with a wish list of how a professional academic organization maintained its online presence, what would be on that list? In an age when the affordances of electronic communication are changing significantly the way we communicate, what are the best ways to maintain the best traditions of print culture while also pursuing the possibilities of digital culture? I’d like to propose a session in which participants collaboratively generate a list of recommendations. I learned a great deal as a participant in the process of revamping the web site and online presence of one scholarly organization (the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing, a.k.a. SHARP) and would be very interested in talking with others about this topic.

I’ve published a Google doc with notes for my workshop on Voyant Tools. The workshop will provide a very basic introduction to using computational text analysis tools using Voyant Tools. Continue reading →

I am always interested in hearing about new digital projects and pedagogical practices as well as learning new tools. For Wednesday I would like to hear from anyone who has used free 3D modeling tools such as Google SketchUp as well as from those who have experience with semantic or meaning-based search tools. In the UK JISC’s Historic Books enables meaning-based searching across ECCO and EEBO, and I am interested in comparisons with this type of searching and traditional keyword searching (see my EMOB post). Continue reading →

Come to this workshop session at ASECS! We’ll go over the basics of Omeka, an open-source tool developed by the Roy Rosensweig Center for History and New Media that allows you to construct descriptive archives of resources from images, to websites, to videos, and more. What’s better, our students can collaborate on an archive and learn, in the process, how scholarly knowledge is produced and made accessible in an electronic environment–this can give your students insight into the preconditions of research, cataloging conventions, and resource quality control, in addition to offering opportunities to begin a scholarly conversation on their own. Continue reading →

Eleanor Shevlin’s post on ASECS sessions pertaining to Digital History, Book History, and Print Culture is available on emob.  We welcome additions to this list.

It would be great to hear more from conference participants about how ASECS might modernize itself.  THATcamp is a great addition.   Are there other things we can do to bring ASECS into the twenty-first century and advance its relevance for students and faculty?

Jessica Richard (Associate Professor of English, Wake Forest) and I are currently working to envision, design, and launch a public digital humanities website, entitled The 18th-Century Common (www.18thcenturycommon.com).  We have been inspired by the success of Richard Holmes’ The Age of Wonder:  How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science (Knopf, 2009), a 576-page trade book which was on the New York Times’ list of Top Ten Books of 2009, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and winner of the Royal Society Prize for Science Books.  The public embrace of Holmes’ text revealed to us the widespread interest in the intersections among science, literature, and the arts during the long-eighteenth century–topics that we had (perhaps incorrectly) assumed to be “esoteric” scholarly research interests. Continue reading →

In addition to the self-organizing sessions at THATCamp ASECS2012 it would be good to have a workshop or two aimed at scholars who would like an introduction to using digital tools and methods for research and teaching. I would be happy to organize a workshop type session to provide anyone who’s interested with an introduction to the basics of using some simple text analysis software. This will be informal, but a little more structured than the usual THATCamp session. Continue reading →

I was hoping we might have a general discussion session on opportunities for crowdsourcing projects in eighteenth-century studies: what needs doing most, but also what people would be most interested in doing. Continue reading →

THATCamp ASECS 2012 is just a few weeks away!

It’s time to start proposing and discussing sessions! See thatcampdev.info/proposals for advice on unconference session proposals.

Log in at asecs2012.thatcampdev.info/wp-login.php and go to Post –> Add new to post your session proposal to the blog, and come back often to read and comment on others’ proposals.

Any questions? Please leave them in a comment below. Thanks!

Registration is now open for THATCamp ASECS2012.

On March 21, 2012 we will be holding a one-day THATCamp as a pre-conference event at ASECS. It will be an opportunity to discuss and debate issues in the digital humanities related to eighteenth-century studies in an informal and open environment. For anyone who is new to the idea of THATCamp, the event will be an unconference. THATCamps are self-organizing, free events ‘where humanists and technologists meet to work together for the common good’. For more information go to THATCamp.org. THATCamp ASECS will be an opportunity for anyone attending ASECS, and anyone else who wants to join in, to discuss the use of digital resources, tools and methods for eighteenth-century studies.

THATCamp will start at 8:30 and finish at 4:00. From 4:00 to 6:00 there will be a workshop for faculty, graduate students, independent scholars, and anyone who is interested about how to do research and publish peer-reviewed articles and scholarly editions in 18thConnect. To wind up what we’re hoping will be a very good day of digital eighteenth-century studies, the Initiative for Digital Humanities, Media, and Culture (IDHMC) at Texas A&M University will host a cash-bar with finger-food from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

So click the link to register, think about the sessions you might want to lead or participate in, and plan to be in San Antonio a day early for what should be an excellent day of the digital eighteenth century.