Special Event: Stanford University's Zephyr Frank reveals what it takes to create a social/spacial history of nineteenth-century Rio de Janeiro - 6pm, 27 March 2014

Stanford University Spacial History Project

Digital Antipodes!

If you’re interested in the ways in which computers and data can bring a nineteenth-century city to life, you won’t want to miss Zephyr Frank’s upcoming Fred Alexander Lecture:

From Information to Argumentation: Rio de Janeiro, GIS and the Digital Humanities
Date: 27 March 2014
Time: 6pm
Venue: Gentilli Lecture Theatre, First Floor, Geography Building UWA

The Fred Alexander Fellowship is awarded by the History Discipline Group for the purpose of bringing a distinguished scholar in the field of modern history to UWA. Zephyr Frank was nominated by Ethan Blue and I think the selection of a digital humanist for the fellowship is indicative of the exciting possibilities offered by spatial, textual and visual analysis within the humanities at UWA.

Read more about the Stanford University Spacial History project:
'Our projects operate outside of normal historical practice in five ways: they are collaborative, use visualization, depend on the use of computers, are open-ended, and have a conceptual focus on space.'

Explore Zephyr Frank’s research project, Terrain of History:
'We are creating a geographically precise digitized map of 1866 Rio de Janeiro with historically accurate delineations of streets and property—which include over 15,000 parcels in the central parishes. More than 300,000 historic records including names, addresses, and other detailed information covering the period 1840-1890 are also being organized in a database to reveal interconnections, networks, movement, and change over time.'

Latest news from the Digital Antipodes

It's been an action-packed start to the year! We look forward to seeing you all soon and here are a few updates in the meantime.

1. Digital Humanities Australasia 2014 is just two weeks away!

UWA will be hosting the DHA2014 conference from 18-21 March and we're excited to see so many UWA postgrads and academics presenting papers and taking part in panel sessions. Most of the workshops are free - including the one I am helping facilitate - The #Altac track: Strategies to imagine and build alternative academic careers (only 5 tickets left!). Take a look at some of the other workshops here. You still have time be part of the event by presenting work-in-progress in poster form but you need to get in quick. Contact Jenni ASAP on jenni.harrison@uwa.edu.au.

2. The next meeting of the Digital Antipodes will be held 2-3pm on Friday 11 April (Arts 1.33)

You won’t want to miss this one. We’ll be discussing major themes and ideas from DHA2014. What were the main ideas that emerged? What do they mean in the context of our own research?

3. We’re looking for a new coordinator for the Digital Antipodes!

I’ll be overseas from mid April until September 2014 so we're seeking a volunteer to facilitate meetings over the next 6 months. It’s a great opportunity to get more involved in the DH community and it’s not too time consuming. You’d simply need to liaise with the group to choose a journal article, blog post or online portal to discuss at each monthly meeting, book a room and dispatch an email. The role has greatly enriched my understanding of the DH landscape and I highly recommend it. Send me an email if you are interested.

Could you be the next coordinator of the Digital Antipodes?

4. Want to learn to code?

Rail Girls is back! It is taking place  21-22 March and it’s free to attend. I attended the last workshop as a coding novice and enjoyed it immensely. Find out more here. The more experienced coders among you might be interested in a Trove hacking workshop that will be held at Spacecubed on Tuesday 18 March from 1pm to 5pm. The workshop will be run by Tim Sherratt - a man who spent so much time hacking Trove data that they gave him a job managing the entire website. Brilliant. He is going to be showing off the API for Trove (the National Library of Australia search tool) and giving participants a chance to discover the multitude of possibilities it holds. The event costs $15 and you can register here.

Don't miss the Digital Antipodes at DHA2014!

DHA2014 Perth

We’re absolutely thrilled to see so many of the Digital Antipodes delivering papers and running workshops at DHA2014. Take a look at the final event programme.

Papers and panel sessions include:

• Brett Hirsch, Philip Mead (Debate): That Literary Studies Needs More Graphs, Maps, and Trees
• Ethan Blue (with Zephyr Frank) -  Mapping the Routes and Roots of American Deportation
• Jenni Harrison (with Darren Gibson) - The altruistic crowd – the ethics of using social data in humanist research
• Jo Hawkins - Historian to Hacker in 48 hours: Why do so few humanists attend civic hacking events?
• Patricia Alessi - Early English opera and the Digital?: The utilisation of digital approaches in historically- informed performance practice opera re-creations
• Susan Taylor Suchy - Engaging the "Quaint" Creative Writing Classroom in the Social Media Marketplace
• Toby Burrows - Mandelbrot, Braudel and Taleb: fractal geometry and randomness in history
• Toby Burrows (with Deb Verhoeven) - Deploying Ontologies in the Humanities and Creative Arts
• Toby Burrows (with Deb Verhoeven) - Integrating research in the humanities: the HuNI Virtual Laboratory

Getting a job after your PhD: Strategies to imagine and build alternative academic careers

DHA 2014, Perth.

Given the realities of the competitive academic job market - why aren't more postgrads discussing hybrid and alternative career options?

Register today to attend a free workshop

We're running a free workshop on Tuesday, 18 March (9am - Midday) exploring strategies and tools to help PhD candidates and early career researchers imagine and build alternative academic careers.

What is an 'alternative academic' career?

#Altac careers have been described as off the tenure track, but within the academic orbit.  These positions are serviced by “hybrid humanities scholars” who work in a diverse range of institutions including universities, cultural heritage bodies, libraries, museums, academic publishing, and the public sector. Roles often include a combination of administration, project management, teaching and research work.

About the workshop

The workshop will include a panel session with several practicing “alt-academics”, hands-on activities and plenty of lively discussion and debate.

We’ll be asking questions such as:

• How can PhD students better locate their research and work in an employable context?
• How can PhD students prepare for alternative academic careers during and after their candidature?
• What are the main opportunities and challenges associated with alternative academic careers?

Who should attend this workshop?

Postgraduate students and early career researchers.

How do I register?

This workshop is free of charge however  registration is required. Numbers are limited so register online today!

(In the event that tickets are unavailable, please email johawkins@gmail.com to join a wait list.)

Get involved! Volunteer for DHA2014 (18-20 March)

2014 is looking to be action packed! Our first meeting for the year will be held in early Feb. The blog will be updated soon with details. In the meantime, you may be interested in the opportunities below:

 

Volunteers are needed for Digital Humanities Australasia 2014

We’re seeking to recruit 10 volunteers to assist over the 3 days (18-20 March). Volunteers will receive an official DHA2014 t-shirt and are free to attend conference sessions associated with their volunteer stint. Responsibilities may include assisting with registration, distributing programs, showing people to events or simply helping ensure things are in the right place (e.g. chairing documents). We’ll work around your schedule. Just let us know which days/s you are free. Interested? Email johawkins@gmail.com.

 

Don't miss the Digital Antipodes at DHA2014!

We are absolutely thrilled to see so many of the Digital Antipodes delivering papers and running workshops at DHA2014. You can take a look at the event program here.
Papers and panel sessions include:

• Brett Hirsch, Philip Mead - Debate: That Literary Studies Needs More Graphs, Maps, and Trees
• Ethan Blue (with Zephyr Frank) -  Mapping the Routes and Roots of American Deportation
• Jenni Harrison (with Darren Gibson) - The altruistic crowd – the ethics of using social data in humanist research
• Jo Hawkins - Historian to Hacker in 48 hours: Why do so few humanists attend civic hacking events?
• Patricia Alessi - Early English opera and the Digital?: The utilisation of digital approaches in historically- informed performance practice opera re-creations
• Susan Taylor Suchy - Engaging the "Quaint" Creative Writing Classroom in the Social Media Marketplace
• Toby Burrows - Mandelbrot, Braudel and Taleb: fractal geometry and randomness in history
• Toby Burrows (with Deb Verhoeven) - Deploying Ontologies in the Humanities and Creative Arts
• Toby Burrows (with Deb Verhoeven) - Integrating research in the humanities: the HuNI Virtual Laboratory

 

Register for a free workshop at DHA2014 - The #Altac Track: Strategies to imagine and build alternative academic careers

How can PhD students better locate their research and work in an employable context? This free, 3-hour workshop will explore strategies and tools to help PhD candidates and early career researchers imagine and build alternative academic careers. It will include a panel session with several practicing “alt-academics”, hands-on activities and plenty of lively discussion and debate. This workshop is free of charge – however prior registration is required. Seats are limited! Register today.

DHA 2014 (18-20 March)

Don't miss our final meetings for 2013: The #alt-ac Track

Last week's session on alternative academic careers was extremely well attended - so we decided to run two follow-up sessions to help generate outcomes for our upcoming #alt-ac career development workshop at DHA2014.

Don't forget to put these meeting dates in your diaries:

Lost in translation: Preparing CVs for alternative academic careers

Fri 22 Nov, 2-3pm, iVEC boardroom (in Physics Building, opp Reid Library)

 

Questions for discussion

• How can we translate academic skill-sets into CVs for non-academic jobs?
• What additional experience and competencies are most advantageous - and how can we develop these during our candidature?
• Technology has lowered entry barriers to develop technical skill-sets and make your ideas a reality. You don’t need to ask for permission to unleash your creativity. Take a look at Digital Humanist Tim Sherratt’s website and Wraggelabs as an example.
• Is your digital footprint the new CV?

How should I prepare?

• Search for a job you think may be suited for a digital humanist and bring along the selection criteria - or imagine a new role that doesn't exist yet
• http://www.seek.com.au/
• http://www.jobsearch.gov.au/
• http://www.unijobs.com.au/
• Read the list of graduate attributes for PhD graduates (p.55-57) in 'The Changing PhD: Discussion Paper, Group of Eight, March 2013.’ (PDF Document, 540KB).

Imagining new spaces: Strategies to conceptualise and build alternative academic careers during your PhD

Fri 13 Dec, 2-3pm, Location TBC (Likely to be the UWA Club - pls bring a laptop or tablet)

 

Questions for discussion

• Are there 'new rules' for completing a PhD in the humanities?
• If so, how do they differ from conversational wisdom?
• How can universities better prepare PhD candidates for non-academic careers? Can postgraduate students contribute to this kind of structural change?
• Much of the literature regarding #alt-ac careers originates from North America. What specificities are unique to Australia?

How should I prepare?

• Review the readings from our first #alt-ac session.
• Many digital humanists have personal websites. Browse a selection of websites and consider how and why scholars express their values, experience, research interests and skills.
• Tim Sherratt - Manager of Trove
• Jason Ensor - Digital Humanities Research & Technical Development Manager, University of Western Sydney
• Paul Arthur - Professor of Digital Humanities at the University of Western Sydney
• Bethanie Nowviskie - Director of Digital Research & Scholarship at the University of Virginia Library
• Seb Chan - Director of Digital & Emerging Media, Smithsonian Museum, New York
• Ryan Hunt - Postgraduate Student, University of Western Ontario

Next Fri 8 Nov - “Tenure is broken. Please give me tenure.” Exploring alt-ac careers in the humanities

Why humanities PhD progs can't ignore #alt-ac career paths anymore: MT @briancroxall: Graduate school: just don't go! http://t.co/DbAyRJqj
— Amanda Watson (@amndw2) December 30, 2011

PhD candidates and early career researchers in the humanities are often advised that few will secure tenure-track positions. Given the realities of the competitive  academic job market - why aren't more of us discussing hybrid and alternative career options? Join us next Friday to investigate a growing movement towards alternative academic (alt-ac) careers.

When: Friday 8 November, 2-3pm
Where: Arts room 1.33 (CHE meeting room).

Questions we'll be asking include:

• What does an alt-ac career look like?
• What are the most effective alt-ac career building strategies?
• What are the main challenges associated with hybrid careers and how might they be overcome?
• What is the relationship between Digital Humanities and alt-ac?
• How could UWA better prepare early career researchers in the humanities for non-academic careers?

Readings:

Bethany Nowviskie, The #alt-ac Track: Negotiating Your ‘Alternative Academic’ Appointment, Chronicle of Higher Ed, August 31, 2010.

Brian Croxhall, Five Questions and Three Answers about Alt-Ac,  7 January 2012.

Lisa Spiro, What Is *She* Doing Here? Crafting a Professional Identity as a Digital Humanist/Librarian, #Alt-academy, 7 May 2011.

Tom Scheinfeldt, Toward a Third Way: Rethinking Academic Employment, 6 May 2011.

Source: HASTAC

Also see:

http://www.gradhacker.org/

http://versatilephd.com/