Welcome to Digital Humanities for Chaucer Scholars: A New Data Event presented as part of the New Chaucer Society 2021 Expo.
Rationale:
By necessity, we as scholars and teachers have become far more at ease with computer-based knowledge exchange than we were just a year ago. The NCS Expo event will capitalize on the new-found proficiency among our membership with the digital medium to find new ways to explore the sources we know so well.
To be sure, many scholars already have a spreadsheet of “their data” (on whatever topic it may be) hidden somewhere in their files or laptops, just waiting for the day when they might do “something digital” with it. Or perhaps they have wondered for years how to analyze a certain text or group of texts using machine-based tools, or how mapping might help them understand the sources they work with most often.
Now, then, is the time to take a step toward digital scholarship, to find new ways to use and teach with either well known (and often cherished) or completely new materials that have yet to find a scholarly expression. The goal of the event is to encourage NCS scholars arrive at a moment of discovery with their sources using the many digital tools now at our disposal.
Event:
Data event leaders Benjamin Albritton and Laura Morreale will work with a select group of NCS scholars to ask questions about how to query their sources, how to produce clean data, and how to bring it to life using easy, freely-available software, following a pre-set timeline.
A limited group of willing scholars, chosen from the Call for Data respondents, will work with Dr. Albritton and Dr. Morreale to go from the “data in the laptop” or “imagined data” phase to the “visualized data” stage, then present these findings in short 5-7 minute lightning talks at the NCS Expo in mid-July, 2021, to track how digital tools allow us to see the materials we know so well in a different light. If participating scholars agree, they can also link the materials created during the data event to the society’s website as one of the Expo outcomes .
Participating scholars will be chosen from those who respond to the Call for Data form, with an initial due date of February 28, 2021. Come join the fun!
