Please join us for two talks by Øyvind Eide, a professor in Digital Humanities at the University of Cologne who is currently a visiting researcher at the Electronic Textual Cultures Laboratory at UVic.
The first talk will be held in Mearns Centre – McPherson Library in room A308 (the Digital Scholarship Commons) from 12-1pm, on Wednesday, September 6, 2017.
Title: Modelling as an experimental practice in the humanities
Abstract: As in many scholarly and scientific disciplines, modelling is an important activity in digital humanities. While it is an important part of the practical work in our field, it can also be used for theoretical investigations. In this talk I will present a number of examples of modelling in areas such as geographical mapping, virtual reality, and cultural heritage. Modelling as an activity and as a theoretical framework will be seen in the context of how it is used in other disciplines, including natural and social sciences. It will also be explored in the light of the long tradition of representation in the humanities, with a focus on media studies and semiotics.
The second talk will be held in Mearns Centre – McPherson Library in room A314 (the Electronic Textual Cultures Laboratory) from 4-5pm, on Thursday, September 7, 2017.
Title: Digital Humanities and Institutional Structures: U Cologne’s Programming in the Humanities
Abstract: Digital humanities has a long history in Cologne, with study programmes going more than 15 years back in time. Currently we have around 400 BA and 50 MA students in our four core study programmes. In the introduction I will present some basic aspects on how we teach digital humanities in Cologne, which includes obligatory courses in object oriented programming (C++ or java) at basic BA level. I will then show how these study programmes, run by the Institute for Digital Humanities, are only a part of the whole DH environment in Cologne, showing how it interacts with a IT Certificate, other study programmes, two DH centres as the Faculty of arts, as well as units at the university.
Bio: Øyvind Eide is a professor in Digital Humanities at the University of Cologne. He holds a PhD in Digital Humanities from King’s College London (2013). He was an employee in various positions at The University of Oslo from 1995 to 2013, working on digital humanities and cultural heritage informatics. From 2013 to 2015 he was a Lecturer and research associate at The University of Passau. He is the chair of The European Association for Digital Humanities (EADH) and also actively engaged in several other international organisations such as The Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations (ADHO), ICOM’s International Committee for Documentation (CIDOC) and Cultural Literacy in Europe (CLE). His research interests are focused on transformative digital intermedia studies, using critical stepwise formalisation as a method for conceptual modelling of cultural heritage information. This is used as a tool for critical engagement with media differences, especially the relationships between texts and maps as media of communication. He is also engaged in theoretical studies of modelling in the humanities as well as beyond.