Category Archives: Uncategorized

Digital humanities – minor subject study block (25 credits), University of Helsinki, Faculty of Arts, 2015-16

In 2015-16 we will pilot a Digital Humanities 25-credit minor subject study block at the Faculty of Arts for those University of Helsinki students who have completed their bachelor’s degree.

Also computer science students are encouraged to participate (with some carrots hidden in the agenda). If you are a CS student outside HY (f.e. Aalto) and would like to participate, please contact: mikko.tolonen@helsinki.fi.

For more information about DIGIHUM, read:

https://blogs.helsinki.fi/modulaariset/digihumanismi/

For more information in English (including information about courses), see also:

https://goo.gl/fRnLkN

You can find DIGIHUM also in Weboodi. Registration to some of the courses (including mandatory “Introduction to digital humanities”, 28.10-11.12.2015) has already begun:

Digitaalinen humanismi, 2015-16 

Please note that places to some of the courses are limited.

If you are interested to study DIGIHUM minor subject study block, register your interest also at: https://elomake.helsinki.fi/lomakkeet/62531/lomake.html

New courses might be added later to Weboodi (especially Spring 2016).

NB! Some courses (especially method courses) beside those listed in Weboodi at the moment can also be included to the study block based on case by case evaluation of the suitability of the suggested course.

In case you have any questions, ask away or contact through email: mikko.tolonen@helsinki.fi

Day of Digital Humanities at the University of Helsinki, Fri 15.5.2015

On Friday 15.5.2015 we will take a head start to “Day of Digital Humanities”.

At the University of Helsinki this will be celebrated at Minerva Square (Siltavuorenpenger 5A, ground floor)

Come and witness what are the results of a week long digital humanities hackathon in a grand gala!

Programme:

11-11.20 Introduction to DIGIHUM teaching module (25 credits), Mikko Tolonen & Eetu Mäkelä

11.20-12.00 Guest Lecture by Jaakko Suominen, Professor of Digital Culture

12.00-13.15 Lunch Break

13.15-16.00 DHH15, Digital Humanities Hackathon Gala, presentations of group work by the participants

Please sign up by Tuesday 12.5. by filling the following form:

 

http://goo.gl/forms/Z3FoNAFbf9

 

Digital Humanities Hackathon (DHH’15), 11.-15.5.2015

Five-day intensive activity

Time: Monday 11th to Friday 15th of May, 2015
Place: University of Helsinki, City Center Campus (exact locations will be announced later)
Credit points: 2 (or 4/5 if a follow-up report or some other form of continuation is included)
Organizers: Mikko Tolonen, Eetu Mäkelä, Timo Honkela and theme leaders
Registration: Sign-up for the event by 17.4.2015 using the online form: goo.gl/rS5LKI

Background and motivation

This course aims to bring together students and researchers of humanities, social sciences and computer science, for a week of active co-operation in groups under the heading of Digital Humanities.

Digital Humanities, as understood here, is the use of computer science to aid research in the humanities and social sciences (e.g. in fields like linguistics, literature, art, culture, history, sociology, and language philosophy). Currently, data of interest to researchers in the humanities is increasingly available in digital form. However, often the tools and understanding needed to turn that data into relevant conclusions are still lacking.

Here, collaboration across disciplines is essential. People in the humanities and social sciences have an in-depth understanding of their field, and are able to pose challenging research questions that could in theory be answered by digital collections. Computer scientists on the other hand are needed to solve the complex theoretical, algorithm and tool development challenges that currently stand in the way of such research.

Hackathon in practice

The idea of this hackathon is to offer students and researchers from different backgrounds an opportunity to approach digital humanities through hands-on practice. In particular, the hackathon will focus on asking and answering research questions based on the following materials:

1) A dataset of 18th-century letters and associated metadata from the Research Unit for the Study of Variation, Contacts and Change in English (e.g. studying the sociolinguistic evolution of the English language through text mining and statistical analysis)
– Tanja Säily, University of Helsinki, http://www.helsinki.fi/varieng/people/varieng_saily.html
– Jukka Suomela, Aalto University, https://users.ics.aalto.fi/suomela/

2) A dataset containing the full text and metadata for all newspapers published in Finland between 1771-1910 from the Historical Newspaper Library (e.g. studying how the meaning of a particular word changes in time through context clustering)
– Tuula Pääkkönen, National Library of Finland, http://digi.kansalliskirjasto.fi

3) A multimodal dataset of 2000+ double-page spreads from bilingual in-flight magazines (Finnair’s Blue Wings) (e.g. for studying how language and image interact in documents using computer vision)
– Tuomo Hiippala, Centre for Applied Language Studies, University of Jyväskylä, https://blogs.helsinki.fi/thiippal

4) A dataset containing text and metadata for Finnish technical and engineering journals 1880-1910 (Teknikern & Tekniska Föreningens i Finland Förhandlingar), from the Historical Newspaper Library (e.g. for studying changing technoscientific content and transnational connections, influences and interests during Finnish industrialization)
– Mats Fridlund, History of Industrialization & Innovation group (HIIVA), Aalto University & lecture on topic modeling the industrial breakthrough
– Petri Paju, University of Turku, http://www.utu.fi/fi/yksikot/hum/yksikot/kulttuurihistoria/oppiaine/henkilokunta/Sivut/petri_paju.aspx

Preliminary timetable

Monday 11.5.: Short introduction to digital humanities, introduction to the hackathon working mode and the concept of respectful communication, introductions of the participants, brainstorming and theme elaboration in groups, evening program
Tuesday 12.5.: Topic presentations, group formation, topic refinement in groups, topic presentations, constructive feedback
Wednesday 13.5.: Group work, social program
Thursday 14.5. (Ascension day): (Short presentations of intermediate results), group work
Friday 15.5.: Group work, pDigitalHumanitiesHackathonreparation for final presentations, presentation of results for course participants, supportive evaluation of project results by external visitors

Registration

Sign-up for the event by 17.4.2015 using the online form