From Side-Line to Specialization: the Rise of Computational Humanities

1. From Side-Line to Specialization: the Rise of Computational Humanities Gregory CraneProfessor of ClassicsEditor in Chief, Perseus ProjectWinnick Family Chair in Technology and Entrepreneurship

2. A Digital Library for the Humanities • Ancient Egypt (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) • Early Modern Critical Editions (New Variorum Shakespeare Series) • History and Topography of London (Tufts Archives) • History of Mechanics (MPI Berlin for the History of Science)

3. Technology and Humanities • Strategic Goals of the Humanities • Preserving and Enhancing the Memory of Humanity • Disseminating this Memory as rigorously and broadly as possible • Information Technology • Affects each goal individually • Establish tensions / synergies between each

4. The Challenge • Technology is a catalyst for strategic change • No one knows how to serve current goals • What goals will emerge in the future? • The path of least resistance is not an option

5. Models for Change • Established organization seeks to enhance a tactical objective • The “amplification” leads to such quantitative effects that qualitative changes ensue. • The catalytic process feeds back into the original organization

6. The Parergon Process • Pericles and the Peloponnesian League • Naval power not a parergon, “side-task” • Naval power takes over the system • Application of Computing to Classics • 1982: Presented as “consulting” experts • Evolution into a full-time specialty • Analogues: Bioinformatics

7. “Pre-cognitive Systems” and Intellectual Inquiry • Computational Humanities and Bioinformatics — particular cases of a more general phenomenon • National Science Digital Library reflects commonality of problems • Long term: study of IT and all intellectual inquiry • Short term: evolution from disciplinary origins to common subject

8. Classics and the Humanities • Transformation is a long-term process • Structural effects only now starting to be felt • Change does not come from the center • We are only now beginning to understand what is happening • Driving force: Zipf’s Economy of Effort

9. “New Humanities” • Larger Research Projects — “big science” • Eastern Mediterranean rather than simply Greece, Egypt etc. • History of Mechanics • More emphasis on collaboration • Face to face laboratories • Virtual collaborations

10. Three Dimensions of Impact • Improving Traditional Scholarship • Making classicists etc. more “productive” • Stimulating better interdisciplinary work • E.g., non-classicists working directly with Greek • Invigorating relationship between the humanities and society as a whole

11. Different Priorities • Generation of Power From Fusion • Research predominant • AIDS research/Environmental Studies • Research and outreach balanced • Humanities Research • Outreach ultimately justifies research • Consequences for Computational Humanities

12. Computational Humanities • Experimental Dimension needs Technical infrastructure • Requires access to and control over large bodies of data • Requires heterogeneous data — simulating a library • Requires rights to disseminate so as to study usage by the broader population

13. Computational Humanities (cont.) • Must study many domains: e.g., classics vs. 19th century history; monolingual vs. multilingual • New Interdisciplinary alliances: GIS, 3D design, spatial cognition, text comprehension, cross-language IR, CHI, etc. • Still at an early stage: no strong theoretical program yet.

14. Problems • In the US, “Disneyfication” — resistance to public funding of cultural heritage. • No departmental home for computational humanities: • CH overlaps with, but is not subsumed by Computer and Information Science, various disciplines in the humanities • Progress made despite institutional boundaries

15. Greatest Challenges • How do we train researchers in this field? • Postdocs that lead to disciplinary jobs • What about true specialists in this area? • Where can they acquire a “Phd”? • Economic challenges: • What is optimal balance between public/private? • How do we pay for development without exacerbating the “digital divide”?

16. Successful Models: US • National Endowment for the Humanities and NSF collaboration on Digital Library Inititative • Ad hoc rather than permanent, but v. important • Provides incentives and environment for true interdisciplinary collaboration • National Science Digital Library • Extensible to the humanities and social sciences

17. Possible Model: Germany/MPG • “Max Planck”Institute Technology and Inquiry with teams for • Humanities • Social Sciences • Natural Sciences • “Core Integration System” (as with NSDL)

18. Conclusions -1 • Identifying new areas of research: A genuinely hard problem — how often do disciplines change from within vs. in response to external stimuli? • E.g., Cold War and US Research Industry • In our first decade of work, we had to succeed despite the established reward system.

19. Conclusions -2 • Monitoring Progress • Tenure and Promotion do not simply count publications, prestigious venues and citations • Multiple experts look beyond superficial features • Yearly raises etc. more mechanical • Main problem: “start-up costs” • It may take years to develop a coherent research agenda

20. Conclusions-3 • Exploiting the Potential of IT • Reward strong disciplinary starts • Stimulate new interdisciplinary collaborations • Foster new areas (e.g. Bioinformatics)

21. Conclusions-4 • From Social Pressures to New Research • Popular Revolt in US against NEH/NEA • Challenge to Rethink Role of Arts and Hum • Revived Debates on Old Topics • Research into complex role of IT as catalyst and tool • Technology important because it forces the Humanists to study their traditional goals from new perspectives.

22. Big Picture • Previous Great Shift: • Monastery to the University • Current Shift: • From University to some new network based community • Just as profound but much faster • Greatest opportunities and challenges for humanists in five hundred years.