7:30am - 9:00am Registration and Coffee

9:00am - 9:30am Introductions and Setting the Stage
Speakers:
Elisa Lanzi, Director Imaging Center, Project Manager, Digital Asset Management & Preservation
Ann Whiteside, Librarian, Assistant Dean for Information Resources, Harvard Graduate School of Design

9:30am - 10:00am Dead End Data
Speaker: Dana Leibsohn, Priscilla Paine van der Poel Professor of Art History, Faculty Director, Five College Digital Humanities, Department of Art, Smith College

In this presentation I focus on situations in which the “movement” of digital data (images, texts) reaches a troubling threshold: it has become easier to recreate (or simply leave by the wayside) than to move. Drawing examples from faculty and student projects in the humanities, this talk seeks to throw light on the challenges and possibilities for creating and sustaining mobility in, and for research.

10:00am - 10:30am Break out Session

10:30am - 10:45am Coffee Break

10:45am - 11:00am "Not My Job": Digital Humanities and the Unhelpful Hierarchies of Academic Labor
Speaker: Tom Scheinfeldt, Director-at-Large Roy Rosenzweig Center for History & New Media, George Mason University

Digital humanities are increasingly in the public eye. The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Economist all have published feature articles on the subject recently. Some of this coverage has been positive; some of it modestly skeptical, but almost all of it has focused on the kinds of research questions digital humanities can (or maybe cannot) answer. How digital media and methods have changed humanities knowledge is an important question. But practicing digital humanists understand that an equally important aspect of the digital shift is the extent to which digital media and methods have changed humanities *work* and the traditional labor and power structures of the university. Perhaps most important has been the calling into question of the traditional hierarchy of academic labor which placed librarians "in service" to scholars. Time and again, digital humanities projects have succeeded by flattening distinctions and divisions between faculty, librarians, technicians, managers, and students and by stifling the chorus that rings all too frequently in academic corridors: "not my job." This paper will explore how digital humanities undermine traditional hierarchies, rendering them obsolete and revealing them as ultimately unhelpful and counterproductive, not only for digital, but also for traditional, humanities knowledge production. It will offer examples of digital projects that have succeeded by breaking down unhelpful hierarchies of academic labor and some that have failed by reflexively maintaining them. Finally it will make suggestions for how these hierarchies could be flattened further to the ultimate benefit of all scholarship in the digital age.

11:00am - 11:30am Hammers and Nails
Speakers:
Jean Bauer, Digital Humanities Librarian, Brown University
Elli Mylonas, Senior Digital Humanities Librarian, Brown University

Digital Humanities is often identified with the use of software tools for interacting with data and with other students, colleagues and faculty. Although this is a defining characteristic, it's important to look beyond particular tools, and understand the methods that govern how we use the tools, and how they further our research questions and insights. In this discussion, we'll introduce some of the factors that go into choosing tools and approaches for a digital humanities project, including open source tools, tools hosted elsewhere, issues of longevity and persistence, the tensions between data and interface, between robustness and quick results, and between customization and ease of maintenance. Issues not covered in the presentation can be taken up in the group discussion.
 

11:30am - 12:00pm Break out – Case Studies

12:00pm - 1:00pm Lunch

1:00pm - 1:30pm The Sticky Wicket Paradigm: Preserving Digital Humanities for the Foreseeable Future
Speaker: Jessica Branco Colati, Digital Initiatives Librarian, The George C. Gordon Library, Worcester Polytechnic Institute

What preservation actions can we undertake to ensure the incredibly diverse range of digital humanities output persists for future generations to explore, reference, and interpret in new ways? How do we know if they are the “right” choices? What happens if we change formats or switch servers? With some many factors to consider - including many, many unknowns - it can be a daunting task to begin to implement a preservation strategy for any type of digital collection. By understanding new definitions of preservation, considering new models for preservation policies and practices, and exploring available tools to guide and support preservation actions today, curators of digital humanities works (and, ideally, creators, too!) can begin to make informed, responsible, and sustainable choices to better ensure today’s works will still be there tomorrow. This presentation will briefly explore the many aspects of digital preservation as they relate to the digital humanities with the goal of offering a very basic primer, or, possibly, an emergency response kit!

1:30pm - 2:00pm Rights and Permissions in the Digital Humanities
Speaker: Christopher Bavitz, Asst Director, Cyberlaw Clinic, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Clinical Instructor and Lecturer on Law, Harvard Law School

This session will provide an overview of legal challenges associated with digital humanities scholarship, with an emphasis on legal issues that arise in connection with the use of third-party content.

2:00pm - 2:45pm Round tables
Speakers will work on problem-solving in groups with participants

2:45pm - 3:00pm Wrap –up and Take-aways

3:00pm End