I am pleased to announce the safe arrival of non-identical twin boys on the 26th November 2010 at 3am (just a few hours after I posted the entry below – they must have known…). It was all a bit of a mad emergency rush, but we are all fine, and after a week or so in special care the twins are thriving.

Left: Edward Buckminster Terras Ostler, 7lb. Right: Fergusson James Terras Ostler, 5.5lb.

I expect to be off radar until the spring…

Hey folks. My maternity leave starts tomorrow. I’m crossing off the to do list, battening down the hatches, making like a tree and leaving, etc etc. Twins are due in less than 3 weeks.

No doubt I’ll be hovering on email and twitter (@melissaterras) but anything I do from now, workwise, is a bonus rather than mandatory. Back to work full time in September 2011. (Who knows what state the blogosphere will be in by then?)

I’ll post here when there is any news – but probably nothing else terribly interesting for a few months. I hope to emerge in the spring sometime, when sleep routines should start to happen… fingers crossed. Wish me luck.

Sorry we’re closed by threelittlecupcakes on Flickr

You’d have to be hiding under a rock to not notice the attack on the Arts and Humanities in the UK, and beyond, recently.

As a response to the threads on Humanist in October on “industrialisation of the digital humanities” (http://lists.digitalhumanities.org/pipermail/humanist/2010-October/001644.html) and “digital humanities and the cuts (http://lists.digitalhumanities.org/pipermail/humanist/2010-October/001649.html), I am part of an international collective of digital humanists that Alan Liu is coordinating. We have started an initiative and Web site called “4Humanities: Advocating for the Humanities” (http://humanistica.ualberta.ca/)

(Members so far in the U.S., Canada, and U.K.): Edward Ayers, Cathy N. Davidson, Patrick Durusau, David Theo Goldberg, Tim Hitchcock, Lorna Hughes, Alan Liu, Andrew Prescott, Stephen Ramsay, Geoffrey Rockwell, Lisa Spiro, Me, and William G. Thomas, III.

The 4Humanities Mission Statement goes as follows (http://humanistica.ualberta.ca/mission/):

4Humanities is a site created by the international community of digital humanities scholars and educators to assist in advocacy for the humanities.

Government and private support for the humanities—for research, teaching, preservation, and creative renewal in such fields as literature, history, languages, philosophy, classics, art history, cultural studies, libraries, and so on—are in decline. In some nations, especially since the economic recession that started in 2007, the decline has resulted in major cuts in government and university funding. Leaders of society and business stake all the future on innovative and entrepreneurial discoveries in science, engineering, biomedicine, green technology, and so on. But the humanities contribute the needed perspective, training in complex human phenomena, and communication skills needed to spark, understand, and make “human” the new discoveries. In the process, they themselves discover new, and also very old, ways to be human. They do so through their unique contribution of the wisdom of the past, awareness of other cultures in the present, and imagination of innovative and fair futures. Many people care about the humanities, not just in the educational and cultural institutions directly affected by the recent cutbacks, but also in business, government, science, media, politics, the professions, and the general public. They believe that society will be poorer, not richer, without the humanities to help us grasp, and evolve, what it means to be “human” and “humane” in today’s complex world.

4Humanities is both a platform and a resource for humanities advocacy. As a platform, 4Humanities stages the efforts of humanities advocates to reach out to the public. We are a combination newspaper, magazine, channel, blog, wiki, and social network. We solicit well-reasoned or creative demonstrations, examples, testimonials, arguments, opinion pieces, open letters, press releases, print posters, video “advertisements,” write-in campaigns, social-media campaigns, short films, and other innovative forms of humanities advocacy, along with accessibly-written scholarly works grounding the whole in research or reflection about the state of the humanities.

As a resource, 4Humanities provides humanities advocates with a stockpile of digital tools, collaboration methods, royalty-free designs and images, best practices, new-media expertise, and customizable newsfeeds of issues and events relevant to the state of the humanities in any local or national context. Whether humanities advocates choose to conduct their publicity on 4Humanities itself or instead through their own newsletter, Web site, blog, and so on, we want to help with the best that digital-humanities experts have to offer.

4Humanities began because the digital humanities community—which specializes in making creative use of digital technology to advance humanities research and teaching as well as to think about the basic nature of the new media and technologies–woke up to its special potential and responsibility to assist humanities advocacy. The digital humanities are increasingly integrated in the humanities at large. They catch the eye of administrators and funding agencies who otherwise dismiss the humanities as yesterday’s news. They connect across disciplines with science and engineering fields. They have the potential to use new technologies to help the humanities communicate with, and adapt to, contemporary society.

So how can you help? We are calling for participants and assistance from the digital humanities community. Some of the help we need most immediately is as follows:

(1) Before we become more public (i.e., recruiting talent and time from the general humanities community, itself a prelude to recruiting advocacy from people in the sciences, business, government, film industry, etc.), we need to build up more resources under the “Digital Resources for Advocacy” part of the site, (Lisa Spiro, for instance, will be helping by harvesting from her DIRT wiki: https://digitalresearchtools.pbworks.com/w/page/17801672/FrontPage)

(2) We are especially keen to begin collecting posts, images, podcasts, etc., in the currently empty category of “Students for the Humanities”–i.e., student voices.

(3) We’d really like to recruit some creative multimedia people to begin producing a video “advertisement for the humanities”–so that we don’t stay only in the realm of essay-like advocacy statements. Please write to Alan Liu at ayliu@english.ucsb.edu if you would be interested in helping. Please also help put out the word about 4Humanities.

A couple of weeks ago I had dinner with a friend of mine who had done his PhD (in Philosophy) at the same time I had done mine. He is now in the financial sector, but keeps his creative mind active. His latest hobby, he announced, was learning Old English.

What surprised me was that, although he had been searching for a while, he said that he was really disappointed with the level of provision of online materials for Old English. Of course, my hackles went up a little – OE really isnt my area of expertise, or even passing acquaintance – but surely the DH peeps into OE and Medieval studies must have made something that was available for learners, that was decent?

Let not the good name of DH be besmirched! I cried. I shall prove you wrong!

First port of call for me was twitter. Within a few hours, I had been pointed to various resources, from various scholars – none of which my friend had been able to find on a Google search.
– http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6072484486 for online teaching resources for Old English (via @hurricaneally)
– The electronic beowulf CD-ROM (via @dougreside)
– teachers upload Beowulf guides & other Old English resources to Woruldhord community collection http://projects.oucs.ox.ac.uk/woruldhord/ (via @RunCoCo)
– recommend search for Stuart Lee Old English lectures on iTunesU & Oxford podcasts http://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/ (via @ltgoxford)
– Peter Baker’s electronic intro to OE: http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/resources/IOE/index.html (via @Rwelzenb)
– Not sure how accessible it is: http://www.wordloca.com/ (via @iridium)

Sometimes, I just love twitter. How else would I have been able to find these things in such a short time, with so little effort on my part apart from a 140 character question?

Then, of course, there’s DH Questions and Answers, which I’ve just posted the question to to see if I’ve missed anything else. Again – what a resource! Populated by both experts and newbies – all of them enthusiasts.

Thanks, DH people. I feel like we’ve not only disproved a criticism, but also highlighted the helpful nature of our community.

My friend thanks everyone for the pointers. And said: “I really must join twitter!”.

Something on here has changed. What is it? 10 points if you can see…

I just updated my job title. I’m now proud to be the “Reader in Electronic Communication” in the Department of Information Studies at UCL.

Reader is one of those funny titles that no-one really knows how to place. You dont have to go for it – you can apply to be Professor straight after Senior Lecturer, but I am such a completionist I wanted to collect the set. I’m really proud to have been promoted so soon after Senior Lecturer – and just before a year off on maternity leave, too.

Time to pause and reflect on the next phase… and a nice glass of something in celebration will have to wait for a few months!

My plenary speech for DH2010, Present, Not Voting: Digital Humanities in the Panopticon, has just been translated into Japanese!

The translator was Satoshi Kodama Ph.D, a Lecturer at the University of Tokyo School of Medicine who teaches medical ethics. His research interests include the moral and legal philosophy of Jeremy Bentham – he can be found on twitter as @bentham.

Thanks to Satoshi, and to the International Institute for Digital Humanities for hosting.

We’ve been putting the final touches to our promotional material for the new MA/MSc in Digital Humanities at UCL. Here is our new poster!

We had to follow quite strict style guidelines from UCL communications. They tend to use a London landmark to publicise courses. I liked the idea of London Bridge – given that the degree will be bridging two disciplines -but didnt want to use the stock photo given. How could we demonstrate cultural heritage, plus digital transformations, using a picture of London Bridge?

How about, I thought, using a historic image. So I bought an out-of-copyright Victorian postcard off eBay that had the right feel. Experiments with pixelation were mocked up, and Rudolf Ammann, who designed the UCLDH logo, suggested this “look through the window” design, with one pixel skewed to add movement and suggest transformation. Comms did a good job in complying with our demands on making it look good as well adhering to the style guide.

We like it. Hope you do too! If anyone out there wants physical copies to stick up at their institution, get in touch…

… whilst I was away for a few weeks, Transcribe Bentham launched. Hurrah! We’ve had a lot of publicity, and now have 156 registered users who have transcribed 150 manuscripts in the last couple of weeks. Progress is steady!

… do of course register and sign up, to see if you can help read Bentham’s handwriting!

If things have been quiet around here…. its because I’m getting quieter. Those who know me in person will be aware that I’m expecting twins at Xmas. The last few weeks have seen me trying to tidy up various things, meet with various people, and get various projects wrapped up into a state I can comfortably leave them in until I’m back up to speed after The Event.

Early you say! I’m not due til Xmas! … but I’ve just been medically signed off from commuting into London. I have a relatively rare condition in pregnancy that makes it increasingly difficult and painful to walk, as the ligaments in my pelvis overstretch. I’m not quite in my wheelchair yet – I still can leave the house under my own steam on crutches. But my world is gradually shrinking to house, shed (home office at the end of the garden) and hospital and physio appointments. That’s ok, we knew it would happen this time round. My job is to keep chipper over the next three months before the twins arrive, and the three or four months recovery time after, until I’m able to walk under my own steam again.

Its worth noting how much the Internet contributes to my general wellbeing, though. It is a godsend. I can still get on with work, still communicate with friends and colleagues, and still shop (given that twins are due, there is a lot of shopping to be done). I dont know what I’d do without it. Once again, I breathe a sigh of relief that I live now, and not 20 or 30 years or longer ago. On the Internet, no-one knows you are a disabled. Except for when you tell them. Whoops.

My teaching for the next 16 months will be covered by Julianne Nyhan, who we are glad to welcome on board to UCLDH. I’ll be hovering on email and twitter for the duration, no doubt. In the meantime, life goes on as normal, just increasingly physically localised.

(This is going to be a great project – looking at the use of 3D scanning in a Museum environment. We are working with a major London museum – cant reveal who until we have a memorandum of understanding worked out, but it will be a very interesting and innovative project. Do get in touch if you want to talk more about the project, or the EngD program.)

Engineering Doctorate Studentship

Understanding the Use of 3D Scanning in a Museum Environment

Applications are invited for an Engineering Doctorate (EngD) in the UCL Centre for Digital Humanities and Department of Computer Science in conjunction with a major London museum. This is a 4-year studentship, starting in October 2010, leading to the award of an Engineering Doctorate, which offers the opportunity to conduct research within a cultural heritage context.

The research will seek to understand more about how 3D scans of museum objects can be used in a physical or virtual exhibition space. Within this we wish to ask the following subsidiary questions: how does the use of 3D scans affect the user experience of visiting an exhibition? (For example the user’s level and type of learning, or how much they enjoy the experience.) Can users understand the relationship between the original and virtual object? Can users understand how such exhibitions should be navigated?

This EPSRC (UK Research Council) funded studentship is available to UK citizens and EU nationals if a relevant connection with the UK has been established (usually by being resident for a period of three years immediately before the EngD). Applicants must fulfil EPSRC eligibility criteria and the normal academic requirements for admission to study in the Department. This studentship will pay a tax-free stipend of approximately £18,000 per year, plus tuition fees. EU students without a relevant connection to the UK can receive an award to cover tuition fees only.

Applicants should have at least a high 2.1 in Computer Science, Human Computer Interaction, engineering or a related field. Applicants must also demonstrate an interest in cultural heritage, and the use of new media within a museum context.

Informal enquiries on the project can be made to Dr Melissa Terras (m.terras@ucl.ac.uk). For further information on the EngD Programme, see http://web4.cs.ucl.ac.uk/teaching/engd/ or contact Dr Jamie O’Brien, j.obrien@cs.ucl.ac.uk.

To be considered, you must fill in the general UCL application form. Please see http://www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/graduate-study/application-admission/, where you can download the forms and guidelines. Make sure you specify Supervisor (Melissa Terras), and EngD (“Understanding the use of 3D Scanning in a Museum Environment”) on the “Research Subject Area” part of the form. Please send the completed form to Naomi Jones & Melanie Johnson, Department of Computer Science, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT.

If you need further assistance regarding our application process, please contact the postgraduate administrators – Naomi Jones & Melanie Johnson (postgradadmin@cs.ucl.ac.uk).

The closing date for applications is September 1st 2010. Interviews will be held shortly thereafter.