Digital Humanities: Connect & Collaborate @Otago
This guide supports Digital Humanities scholarship & practice at the University of Otago, by connecting people to the methods & tools, projects & other people transforming humanities scholarship in the digital realm
Getting started
New to the Digital Humanities@Otago? Start here:
Digital Humanities Hub | Te Pokapū Matihiko o Te Kete AronuiThe Digital Humanities (DH) Hub – Te Pokapū Matihiko o Te Kete Aronui, is a shared Humanities Division resource, open to staff and students. Located in room 1W4 on the first floor of the Arts Building on the University of Otago's Dunedin Campus, the DH Hub can be booked for use by students and staff. It also hosts weekly Open Hours drop-in sessions on everything from using new DH tools to critiquing new DH discourse.
Advice on ...
The Otago staff below are willing to offer advice about digital humanities projects in their areas of expertise.
Data - mining, analysing & visualising
Damien Mather | Senior Lecturer in MarketingDamien can provide advice on both text and data mining. He has experience using SAS Enterprise Miner and Text Miner, and supports the teaching of data and text mining to postgraduate students in the Departments of Marketing and Information Science.
Mathew Parackal | Senior Lecturer in MarketingMathew has expertise in the generating and mining of big data, including social data. He also has experience designing and developing web-based applications for research.
John Shaver | Associate Professor in ReligionJohn can provide advice on the use of R to analyse and visualise your data. John self taught himself R and has been using it for a number of years.
Data - accessing & preserving
n/a
Funding & PBRF
Donna Hendry | PBRF and Publications ManagerDonna is available to talk to you about your Digital Humanities project and how any outputs might be applicable to PBRF.
GIS
Tim Thomas | Senior Lecturer in ArchaeologyTim has experience in using Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and through various research projects has been working with new digital forms of data collection, documentation and dissemination - including the use of a drone to map and 3D model landscapes. He also has familiarity with using Digital Humanities techniques and tools within teaching.
Chris Garden | GIS & Graphics TechnicianChris is available to talk to any humanities researcher interested in using Geographical Information Systems (GIS). Chris is based in the Department of Geography.
Research methodology
Ben Daniel | Associate Professor and Head of Department HEDCBen is available to talk to any humanities researcher about research methodologies, data and content analysis, and educational technology.
Teaching
Gwynaeth McIntyre | Senior Lecturer in ClassicsGwynaeth can provide advice on integrating the Digital Humanities into classroom teaching. She has experience digitising artifacts, encouraging student engagement with Digital Humanities, and setting up small-scale digitisation projects.
David Ciccoricco | Associate Professor in EnglishDave has expertise in incorporating Digital Humanities techniques and tools, particularly around digital narratives, into teaching.
Projects and research centres @ Otago
Marsden Online Archive [digital text archive] | Hocken Collections & CROCCThis digital text archive provides access high resolution images of nearly 600 of CMS missionary Rev. Samuel Marsden’s letters and papers resulted from a collaboration between the University of Otago Library and the University’s Centre for Research on Colonial Culture. These papers are held at the Hocken Collections and were transcribed by retired Associate Professor Gordon Parsonson.
AKI [iOS & Android app] | Katharina Ruckstuhl - School of Business & Poia Rewi - Te TumuAKI (to encourage) is a free, interactive Te Reo Māori vocabulary and phrase learning game, that emerged from Te Iho Reo, a Ngā Pae o Te Maramatanga-funded research project led by Katharina Ruckstahl, Poia Rewi and late Dr Tamar Murachver. The app was developed in association with App Lab as part of a toolbox to support language transmission and maintenance.
Showband MixOMatic [iOS app] | Louise Kewene-Doig - Music, Theatre and Performing ArtsThis is an educational iOS app for teaching and learning Māori popular music history and digital music creation. It takes short musical loops from a rerecorded version of the 1963 Māori Showband song “Poi Poi Twist” By Rim Paul and the Quin Tikis, and lets the user remix them in any combination on an app-sized reproduction of a 1960s analogue studio mixing desk.
AKI Hauora [iOS & Android app] | Suzanne Pitama - Māori and Indigenous Health Institute (MIHI), UO ChristchurchAKI Hauora is a free, interactive Te Reo Māori language learning game for everyone, with a focus on supporting interactions within health environments and clinical settings. Based on the AKI app, AKI Hauora was developed by Suzanne Pitama at UO Christchurch’s Māori & Indigenous Health Institute (MIHI) in partnership with Te Tumu at UO Dunedin, with technical development by Monkeywise & AppLab.
Dunedin Flat Names Project [blog] | Sarah Gallagher - Dunedin School of MedicineBeginning as a collection of photos of signs, Sarah Gallagher’s Dunedin Flat Names has turned into a project to share and curate information about this ephemeral print culture that is the naming of student flats in Dunedin.
Tell us about your projectWe would like this guide to showcase Otago Digital Humanities projects. Please get in touch with us if you would like your research project highlighted here!
University of Otago 1869-2019 ~ writing a historyThe University of Otago/Te Whare Wānanga o Otāgo, New Zealand’s first university, was founded in 1869 and celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2019. This blog was run by historian Ali Clarke from 2013 to 2017, as she researched and wrote a new history of the university. From 2018 this blog is being managed by the Hocken Collections and includes contributions from University of Otago history students.
Centre for the BookThe Centre for the Book interprets ‘book’ broadly to encompass every aspect of written or printed communication, including physical representations and the cultural impact of the written word. The Centre aims to:
- Enhance the wide range of book-centred activities that take place throughout Dunedin
- Emphasize Dunedin’s rich cultural heritage in print, as producer, consumer, and preserver of books
- Encourage research in all facets of the book (in its broadest sense) by utilizing the diverse resources available
- Promote interaction and communication on the book within the University of Otago, and other local, national and international institutions.
- Enhance the wide range of book-centred activities that take place throughout Dunedin
CorpusCorpus is a forum for conversations about medicine and life. We publish a wide range of perspectives on health and medical practice, especially reflective or creative work which fleshes out the biomedical version of illness and disability.
Centre for Research on Colonial CultureThe Centre for Research on Colonial Culture was launched at the University of Otago in July 2012. It consists of a particularly productive network of researchers of international standing seeking to produce new historical understandings of colonialism, the development of colonial cultures, and the role of empires in shaping the modern world, with particular relevance to New Zealand and the Pacific region.
Performance of the RealThe Performance of the Real Research Theme is an interdisciplinary project that investigates what it is about representations and performances of the real that make them particularly compelling and pervasive in our current age. At its core is the study of how performance/performativity, in its many cultural, aesthetic, political and social forms and discourses represents, critiques, stages and constructs/reconstructs the real.
We want your feedback!
This guide continues to evolve, and we really welcome your feedback so we can continue to improve it. Please let us know if you find:
- Incorrect or irrelevant details, tools that don't work, dead links or otherwise unhelpful information
- Helpful details, tools, links or information that you think need to be on the guide, but aren't currently.
We'd also love to hear from you if you want to have your project featured on the guide, or would like to be profiled on the Connect&Collaborate@Otago page. Email Alexander Ritchie, with any comments or suggestions on how we can improve it.
Viva Digital Humanities!