Archives to Networks and Back Again

Archives to Networks

and Back Again

the other parts of DH

THATCampHSS, 12/11/2017

Charles H. Pence@pencechp

Department of PhilosophyLSU Institute for Ethics

Outline

1. Focus, time, and trouble in DH projects2. Some small, �nite number of morals for the other

parts of digital humanities projects2.1 Framing your research question2.2 Processing your results2.3 Generating future work

�e take-home: Don’t let yourself become too tool-centric!You can get lots more out of your digital projects.

Charles H. Pence 2 / 18

DH Project Structure

Charles H. Pence DH Project Structure 3 / 18

1. Generating a research question2. Obtaining your data3. Curating/annotating your data4. Tool availability5. Tool usage6. Processing your results7. Generating further work

1. Generating a research question

2. Obtaining your data

3. Curating/annotating your data4. Tool availability

5. Tool usage6. Processing your results7. Generating further work

1. Generating a research question2. Obtaining your data

3. Curating/annotating your data4. Tool availability5. Tool usage

6. Processing your results7. Generating further work

Some Morals

Generating Research

Questions

Charles H. Pence Generating Research Questions 8 / 18

How do I know I have a project that’ssuitable for digital analysis?

�ink counterfactually,work backwards, and dream big.

• �inking counterfactually and workingbackwards

• What questions do I wish I could ask?• What kind of data would I need to ask them?

• Dreaming big• Don’t worry that you don’t have the data, ordon’t know how to get the data.

• Especially don’t worry that you don’t have thetools, or don’t know how to use the tools!

• �inking counterfactually and workingbackwards

• What questions do I wish I could ask?• What kind of data would I need to ask them?

• Dreaming big• Don’t worry that you don’t have the data, ordon’t know how to get the data.

• Especially don’t worry that you don’t have thetools, or don’t know how to use the tools!

Processing Results

Charles H. Pence Processing Results 12 / 18

Strike a balance betweenhypothesis-driven work and letting

yourself be surprised.

• Hypothesis-driven research• Vital: Every dataset has random patterns, andyou can’t let yourself be led astray.

• �e role of surprise• But! �at doesn’t mean that you can’t �ndinteresting things by accident.

• �ink about ways that you can validate thepatterns that you stumble upon.

Generating Further

Charles H. Pence Generating Further Work 15 / 18

�ink in advance about how your workcould open up new research questions.

• Ask yourself, early on, what new avenuescould be opened up if you’re successful.

• Could you apply the same analysis to di�erentdata?

• If you got more data, could you broaden theconclusion?

• What about applications to other areas? Is therea general trend here? (Is there. . . gasp. . . anintegrated-HPS conclusion in philosophy ofscience?)

Questions?

[email protected]://charlespence.net

@pencechp

Archives to Networks and Back Again

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