At the Electronic Textual Cultures Laboratory we conduct original research, develop new ways of disseminating information, and foster the innovative adaptation of existing tools. Our cross-disciplinary work in the areas of data-harvesting, textual content analysis, and document encoding puts us at the forefront of a global conversation about the future of communication. Led by Dr. Ray Siemens, Canada Research Chair in Humanities Computing at the University of Victoria, the ETCL develops reading environments for electronic scholarly texts that will facilitate activities central to humanities research. We are also actively involved in providing training and education for students, faculty, and administration. For more information, please see our mandate.

Our mandate

At the ETCL, we

  • conduct and communicate original research in the areas of data-harvesting, textual content analysis, and document encoding
  • explore and facilitate the innovative adaptation of existing textual tools
  • develop new models and mechanisms for information management and dissemination
  • provide training and support to graduate students, faculty, and administration involved in digital initiatives

We work closely with research centres and projects at the University of Victoria and beyond. Our activities complement projects underway in the U Victoria library community and the Humanities Computing and Media Centre (HCMC), including the CFI-funded Text Analysis Portal (TAPoR) project. Our affiliation with these projects and others—Synergies, CRKN, and beyond—strengthens our ability to attract new researchers and research initiatives and provides opportunities for significant collaboration within both local and global partners.

The ETCL supports the work of Dr. Ray Siemens, Canada Research Chair in Humanities Computing at the University of Victoria. Dr. Siemens' work is towards employing a humanities computing-derived model of scholarly interaction to develop a prototypical computing environment for the professional reading (and the electronic scholarly edition) that integrates activities central to professional involvement in humanities research, specifically in the areas of archival representation and critical inquiry.

Recently in the lab...RSS News Feed

November 9th, 2009 | by admin

CFP: DHSI 2010 Graduate Student Colloquium [New Deadline: Dec. 11, 2009]

[Deadline has been extended to December 11, 2009.]

Digital Humanities Summer Institute 2010
Graduate Student Colloquium
June 8-11, 2010

CALL FOR PAPERS: The DHSI will be sponsoring its second annual graduate student colloquium in June 2010. Graduate students attending the Institute are invited to participate in the 2010 colloquium entitled "Making Connections: Emerging Scholars in the Digital Humanities."

Abstracts are now being accepted for presentations focusing on all aspects of graduate student research in the digital humanities, including, but not limited to, the graduate student’s role in personal and institutional research projects, tool application and development, perspectives on digital humanities implications for their own research and pedagogy, etc. Read the rest of this entry »

November 3rd, 2009 | by admin

Award for Research Excellence

Nov 3

On November 3rd, Ray was awarded the University of Victoria Faculty of Humanities’ Annual Award for Research Excellence 2009. He delivered a talk about that research, titled “Research Foundations Toward a Future for the History of the Book.”

For more information, see the UVic Faculty Awards website. Congratulations, Ray!