DHSITE 2023

Digital Humanities seeks to enrich our understanding of the human record through interpretation and analysis, through data management and preservation, through publishing and sharing research findings. This work is pressing, and we are unable to make informed environmental, political, or social decisions without understanding cultural and industrial systems around us.

DHSITE 2023 will take place over the week of May 23 to 25 and will feature a daily session focused on sharing strategies and best practices for building equitable, inclusive, diverse and sustainable futur·e·s for digital humanities. Each day’s activities will include a hybrid presentation, followed by an in-person session centred on community-building, research through acts of making/creating, and ethics of care. These sessions will create space for participants to ask questions about their research practices, share experiences, and learn from one another about how and why to share their work in new, open, creative and accessible ways.

Participants are encouraged to bring their lunch each day and remain on site during the breaks to have time to meet and chat with other digital humanists on campus!

Registration is open!

Day 1: Curating, Managing, Sharing Data.

Launch of “Data Primer: Making Digital Humanities Research Data Public”

Dr. Felicity Tayler, Research Data Management Librarian (uOttawa)

  • Tuesday, May 23, 2023
  • 11:30 to 12:30 (eastern)
  • CreatorSpace (PRZ 302) and Zoom
  • Bilingual presentation and round table

Making Digital Humanities Data Public is researcher-centred; each section begins with questions that were raised in workshop breakout groups. Those questions were then mapped onto a conceptual model that follows best practices in data management. But the researcher is just one actor in the flow of data; they are not the sole decision taker, nor the central one, when it comes to data curation planning. This panel brings together different perspectives in the data curation planning process, who have all contributed to the collective knowledge of over 30 humanities scholars shared in the Primer, and in related training materials. 

Join us for a presentation launch of the Primer by Dr. Felicity Tayler, who will then lead a round table discussion that covers the sticky situations of Humanities data curation management including: IP permissions and informed consent, data collection, metadata standards, file sharing, preservation (data deposit), and data publishing and digital projects using an Open data and access approach.

Data Management Therapy for Digitally Curious Humanists

  • Tuesday, May 23, 2023
  • 13:00 to 14:00 (eastern)
  • CreatorSpace (PRZ 302)
  • Bilingual session

Feeling confused, frustrated, and insecure in your data curation management challenges? You are not alone! In a fun, positive facilitated environment, participants will share their own data curation challenges with other researcher and data support professionals. Dr. Tayler and Fatou Bah will raise your local data support option awareness and work on your feelings about ethics and data security. 

This session takes places in-person (only) in the CreatorSpace (PRZ 302), no registration required.

Day 2: Unlocking Research.

Taking Stock of Open Access Publishing at the University of Ottawa

Dr. Stefanie Haustein, Associate Professor in the School of Information Studies (uOttawa)

Leigh-Ann Butler, Scholarly Communications Librarian (uOttawa)

  • Wednesday, May 24, 2023
  • 11:30 to 12:30 (eastern)
  • CreatorSpace (PRZ 302) and Zoom
  • Bilingual presentation

The landscape for scholarly communication continues to change. There are an increasing number of policies that require researchers to publish open access, both internationally and here in Canada. At the same time, the cost to publish open access creates inequities and barriers for many, particularly for researchers in under-resourced disciplines, like Arts and Humanities, those from under-funded institutions, and marginalized communities. The impact on the Francophone community is unique as well, as English continues to dominate as the lingua franca in publishing. What do these pressure points mean for researchers who adhere to certain disciplinary practices? How do researchers compete in this landscape?

In this session, Dr. Stefanie Haustein and Leigh-Ann Butler will discuss findings that demonstrate the increase in open access articles, share estimates in OA fees for articles published by large commercial publishers, and provide analysis of open access publishing patterns by authors at the University of Ottawa.

Group Therapy: Making Research Open Together

  • Wednesday, May 24, 2023
  • 13:00 to 14:00 (eastern)
  • CreatorSpace (PRZ 302)
  • Bilingual session

Following a short break, we will have an open and active exchange to identify ways to make the shift to OA equitable and sustainable in our university community. Bring your questions and concerns about barriers that you have faced, as well as your success stories about open access publishing! Stefanie and Leigh-Ann will facilitate group therapy and provide guidance on publication practices across disciplines.

This session takes places in-person (only) in the CreatorSpace (PRZ 302), no registration required.

Day 3: Research. Creation. Community.

Meme-ing the Resistance

Dr. Shana MacDonald, Associate Professor of Communication Arts (University of Waterloo) with her team from the Feminist Think Tank

  • Thursday, May 25, 2023
  • 11:30 to 14:00 (eastern)
  • CreatorSpace (PRZ 302) and Zoom
  • English presentation
  • Register now!

This workshop looks at how we can work with memes as data but also how to make memes as forms of research-creation projects. Dr. Shana MacDonald (University of Waterloo) and her team from the Feminist Think Tank will lead this two-part workshop. Centring our work together on gathering a shared collection of memes, we will explore the tactics and form from a variety of countercultural perspectives tied to the interests of workshop participants.

In the spirit of resistant meme-making, we ask that you wear your favourite themed t-shirt (if you have one) for inspiration!

Meme Therapy

  • Thursday, May 25, 2023
  • 1:30 to 12:30 (eastern)
  • CreatorSpace (PRZ 203) and Zoom
  • English session

In the second part of Meme-ing the Resistance, we will learn how to use various meme generators to make our own content tied to a shared theme or themes the group(s) want(s) to deep dive into. We will explore what makes memes both share-able media and community building digital ephemera. Anyone can then share those memes on FTT’s account on IG (@aesthetic.resistance).

*Day 3’s sessions are entirely virtual, but participants located in Ottawa are welcome to join us in-person in the CreatorSpace to work together.