Vacancy: Research Associate (Digital Palaeography)

2010-12-07 digitalmedievalistnewsLeave a comment

The Centre for Computing in Humanities (CCH) seeks a suitably experienced Research Associate for a new four-year project on digital palaeography.

The post holder will be based at CCH, an academic department in the School of Arts and Humanities focusing on research into the possibilities of computing for arts and humanities scholarship. The project, ‘Digital Resource and Database of Palaeography, Manuscripts and Diplomatic’ is funded by the European Research Commission (FP7). Its primary aim is to create an online resource for palaeographical study, discovery and citation, emphasizing the vernacular scripts of eleventh-century England.

The post holder will work closely with the Principal Investigator and others in the project team to work with original manuscripts to compile palaeographical and codicological data, to prepare this data and the associated images for online delivery, to contribute to innovative ideas about the display and interrogation of palaeographical data on line, and to help disseminate the project’s findings through conferences and colloquia.

A PhD or equivalent on a relevant medieval topic involving the study of manuscripts is essential, as is an appreciation of the potentials and limits of humanities computing. A high level of skill in palaeography and codicology is required, as is working knowledge of Old English and Latin. Some experience working with XML, databases and/or digital images is desirable.

The appointment will be made, dependent on relevant qualifications and experience, within the Grade 6 scale, £33,070 inclusive of £2,323 London Allowance, per annum. Benefits include an annual season ticket loan scheme and a final salary superannuation scheme.

This post is fixed term until 30 September 2014.

For informal enquiries please contact Dr Peter Stokes on +44 (0)20 7848 2813, or via email at peter.stokes.

Further details and application packs are available on the College’s website at cass-recruitment. All correspondence should clearly state the job title and reference number G6/AAV/629/10-HK

The closing date for receipt of applications is 5 January 2011.

Posted by: Peter Stokes (peter.stokes@kcl.ac.uk).

Survey request

2010-11-27 digitalmedievalistnewsLeave a comment

Librarians at Western Michigan University are developing a Dublin Core application profile which will provide a simple template for describing pre-modern manuscripts. This simple profile uses Dublin Core, which works with a variety of software systems (for example, CONTENTdm), and the profile was developed to allow the creation of standardized, shareable metadata and Web-accessible digital images. The perceived audience for this project includes librarians who are not specialists of pre-modern materials, small institutions and medieval scholars without metadata experience. We invite your participation in a survey of the current version of this profile at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PR5CL6N .

This profile was developed to fill a need tied to our participation in the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo, Michigan, which brings over 3,000 medieval scholars to Western Michigan University annually. WMU Libraries and its digitization program have participated in workshops for the Congress which highlighted the problems of small institutions (holding only one or two items) and individual scholars who wish to provide metadata for digitized manuscripts, but do not have the right combination of technical and subject skills.

Posted by: Daniel Paul O’Donnell (daniel.odonnell@uleth.ca).

Call for submssions to Opuscula: Short Texts of the Middle Ages and Renaissance (OSTMAR)

2010-11-13 digitalmedievalistnewsLeave a comment

The Editorial Board of
Opuscula: Short Texts of the Middle Ages and Renaissance (OSTMAR) is pleased to announce the official launch of its website.
http://opuscula.usask.ca

We seek single-witness editions of Medieval and Renaissance texts under 6,000 words accompanied by a brief introduction (1000-1500 words) and translation. We invite submission of a broad range of pre-modern texts including but not limited to literary and philosophical works, letters, charters, court documents, and notebooks. Texts should be previously unedited and the edition must represent a discrete text in its entirety.

For more information or to view a sample edition, go to opuscula.usask.ca or write Frank Klaassen, General Editor at editor@opuscula.usask.ca.

OSTMAR is an on-line and open-access journal published by Classical, Medieval, and Renaissance Studies at the University of Saskatchewan under a creative commons license. All submissions are subject to a double-blind peer review and must be accompanied by readable digital facsimiles of the original documents.

Posted by: Brent Nelson (brent.nelson@usask.ca).

Digital Humanities in the Computer Science Department at Tufts University

2010-11-05 digitalmedievalistnewsLeave a comment

Digital Humanities in the Computer Science Department at Tufts University PLEASE CIRCULATE

Computer Science has played a critical role in many areas of inquiry, but nowhere are the potential implications greater than in the Humanities. We are transforming the ways in which we can relate to the past and understand the relationship of that past to the world in which we live. We need a new generation of researchers who can develop new methods from the computational sciences to advance the intellectual life of humanity.

The presence of the Perseus Project (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu) at Tufts since 1992 has allowed Tufts play a significant role in the emerging field of Digital Humanities. The Tufts Department of Computer Science (http://www.cs.tufts.edu/) now provides unique opportunities for emerging researchers with an interest in the Digital Humanities to develop those interests within the department of Computer Science, combining rigorous course work with opportunities to develop projects relevant to various areas within the humanities. Tufts can support a wide range of backgrounds and career goals.

Undergraduates at Tufts and elsewhere with an interest in Digital Humanities are encouraged to combine either a major or a minor in Computer Science with another area of the Humanities. Such a combination will provide a foundation for undergraduate research projects of tangible value.

Students who have a strong humanities background and wish to develop a rigorous foundation in Computer Science for subsequent Digital Humanities work are encouraged to consider the Post-Baccalaureate Minor Program in Computer Science (http://www.cs.tufts.edu/academics/cs_minor_grad). The Post-Bac CS Minor will enable students either to pursue subsequent graduate work in Computer Science or lay the foundations for Digital Humanities research within a graduate program in the humanities.

More advanced students may consider the Masters Program in Computer Science. This can either lead to a Phd program in Computer Science or an area within the Humanities but it can also prepare students for work developing the digital infrastructures within libraries, cultural institutions, and major media.

The Tufts Phd Program in Computer Science provides a framework in which students with a strong background in some area of the Humanities can develop research and teaching agendas that bridge the gap between Computer Science and areas within the Humanities. A Phd in Computer Science at Tufts can give you a unique position in revolutionizing the intellectual life of humanity. More information will become available with an update on http://www.cs.tufts.edu. For more information, students can contact digitalhumanities@cs.tufts.edu.

Posted by: Daniel Paul O’Donnell (daniel.odonnell@uleth.ca).

Medieval Manuscript Studies in the Digital Age (MMSDA) 2011

2010-11-04 digitalmedievalistnewsLeave a comment

For PhD students based in the UK:

Medieval Manuscript Studies in the Digital Age (MMSDA): 2-6 May 2011

The Institute of English Studies (London) is pleased to announce the third year of this AHRC-funded course in collaboration with the University of Cambridge, the Warburg Institute, and King’s College London.

The course is open to arts and humanities doctoral students registered at UK institutions. It involves five days of intensive training on the analysis, description and editing of medieval manuscripts in the digital age to be held jointly in Cambridge and London. Participants will receive a solid theoretical foundation and hands-on experience in cataloguing and editing manuscripts for both print and digital formats.

The first part of the course involves morning classes and then visits to libraries in Cambridge and London in the afternoons. Participants will view original manuscripts and gain practical experience in applying the morning’s themes to concrete examples. In the second part we will address the cataloguing and description of manuscripts in a digital format with particular emphasis on the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI). These sessions will also combine theoretical principles and practical experience and include supervised work on computers.

The course is aimed principally at those writing dissertations which relate to medieval manuscripts, especially those on literature, art and history. There are no fees, but priority will be given to PhD students funded by the AHRC. Class sizes are limited to twenty and places are ‘first-come-first-served’ so early registration is strongly recommended.

For further details see http://ies.sas.ac.uk/study/mmsda/ or contact Dr Peter Stokes at mmsda@sas.ac.uk.