USM Set to Host Inaugural Digital Humanities Conference

Mon, 04/05/2021 - 02:49pm | By: Van Arnold

In an effort to explore cutting edge research in digital humanities, The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) will host an inaugural conference titled, Digital Lagniappe, in a virtual format on Friday, April 16. The conference will take place over Zoom and anyone interested in digital humanities is invited to attend.

The conference includes five interactive roundtables featuring leading DH scholars from across the United States and the United Kingdom as they discuss their work and how DH methodologies help them advance related research.

The conference also includes a special presentation on some new technology in the field - DataScribe - that offers new approaches for transcription creation and analysis. Throughout the day, attendees will have the opportunity to pose questions about their own work to the panelists in a vibrant exchange of ideas.

Dr. Susannah Ural, Professor of History at USM, is helping coordinate the conference. She is the Director of her own DH project, “The Civil War & Reconstruction Governors of Mississippi.” Ural is hopeful that this initial event will be the first of many annual DH conferences at USM.

“We’re bringing together the latest work in the field to help scholars and students learn from each other’s efforts and discuss current challenges in DH,” said Ural, who is also a Co-Director of The Dale Center for the Study of War & Society. “The informal, welcoming nature of the conference also makes it a great place for non-experts to learn about DH and its possibilities in their own work.”

Digital Humanities is defined as an area of scholarly activity at the intersection of computing or digital technologies and the disciplines of the humanities. It includes the systematic use of digital resources in the humanities, as well as the analysis of their application. DH can be defined as new ways of doing scholarship that involve collaborative, transdisciplinary, and computationally engaged research, teaching, and publishing.

Ural invites readers with questions to reach out to her or to her conference co-hosts Dr. Stephanie Seal Walters (USM School of Humanities Digital Liaison) or Ms. Maeve Losen (USM DH graduate assistant).