digital methods @ Montclair
Based on social media data and geographic information system software, this pilot project traces how concepts and ideas travel across virtual spaces regardless of the physical location of protest or social unrest.
Click on the map to open Carto-based visualization:
For the sixth annual Cres Summer School on Transitional Justice and Politics of Memory, researcher Benedikt Perak (University of Rijeka) and assistant professor, Arnaud Kurze (Montclair State University) gave an introductory lecture on the role of digital humanities for transitional justice and memory studies.
Students and participants had an opportunity to learn about the latest research application from the FRAMNAT project findings as well as get some hands-on experience with so-called “freemium” software, such as carto.com to visualize smaller, customized datasets for group project.
Humanistic social sciences have slowly started to integrate big data and innovative research methods to map and analyze sociopolitical processes. The lecture by both scholars was an incentive to introduce a non-expert audience to the benefits of digital methods and data visualization in social science research.
The paper is archived in the University of Luxembourg’s Open Repository and can be found here.
Abstract
This paper describes a prototype geo extension to an open source graph-based tool designed for analysing co-occurrence in large multimedia collections of historical resources. Employing an interdisciplinary approach, combining tools and practices from humanities and geography, we explore how it can be extended to facilitate both social and spatial enquiry. For the prototype development we use Instagram resources that reference the Via Francigena – a significant cultural route connecting Canterbury, UK and Rome, Italy. The resulting tool facilitates dynamic qualitative filtering and multilevel views to explore the social-spatial collective memory of this cultural route
On March 8 and 9, 2017, the University of Rijeka — in collaboration with Montclair State University and the University of Luxembourg — was hosting a digital methods workshop for scholars and students to discuss post-authoritarian and post-conflict accountability issues against the backdrop of innovative digital methods to study questions of individual and collective dealing with the past.
On the first day of the workshop participants focused on the link between geo-mapping and text analysis, based on open-source software called SVEN. Daniele Guido, Lead Designer at the University of Luxembourg, discussed his project histograph, highlighting the challenges associated with facial recognition and network analysis software to retrace the different relationships among political actors during the European integration process since 1945. Participants were then invited to test the different digital methods on their own post-conflict related case studies.
On day 2 of the conference, a renowned Croatian computational linguist, Nikola Ljubešić, affiliated to the Jožef Stefan Institute in Ljubljana, Slovenia, discussed the technical and conceptual challenges of collecting and analyzing large amounts of social media data, such as twitter feeds. The workshop concluded with a roundtable discussion on lessons learned and ideas on how to move forward.
Lead Designer, Daniele Guido, from the University of Luxembourg discussing a data visualization project “histograph”
Dr. Arnaud Kurze (standing), Montclair State University, conducting a workshop on digital methods at the University of Rijeka, Croatia.
On July 15, 2016, Dr. Arnaud Kurze, Assistant Professor of Justice Studies at Montclair State University, held a workshop on digital methods in post-conflict and post-authoritarian contexts at the University of Rijeka, Croatia. Participants were all part of a thriving initiative at the university’s Cultural Studies Department, which promotes digital research in the humanities. The aim of this workshop was to explore new ways of analyzing qualitative data and to provide digital tools for visualizing research findings.
The event was initiated by the former Chair of the Cultural Studies Department, Dr. Vjeran Pavlakovic, and provided an excellent platform for a transatlantic knowledge exchange and a thought-provoking scholarly discussion on recent trends in this emerging field. One of Dr. Kurze’s colleague from Rijeka, Dr. Benedikt Perak, for instance, shared some insights on his latest research, which he presented earlier this summer in Berlin, Germany, and Vienna, Austria. Dr. Perak has created a virtual ontology that looks at different discursive patterns, linking language, culture and behavior. His preliminary findings can be viewed on a web portal hosted by the University of Rijeka, which was created with Gephi. In addition, drawing from an open-source language software called SketchEngine, Dr. Perak was able to build and adjust his discursive and emotion-based ontology.
Using SketchEngine to retrace the roots and linguistic as well as cultural usage of the term terrorism.
A short lecture by Dr. Kurze on the open-source text analysis software SVEN for Dr. Perak’s research was thus crucial and very timely. While SVEN currently only processes data based roman-based languages and English, different database projects are underway to include slavic-based languages for future text analyses. One of them is called the ReLDI project, to collect and distribute various linguistic data and tools to support empirical research in Croatian and Serbian. It is an institutional collaboration including research centers in Croatia, Serbia and Switzerland.
ReLDI logo and website.
The Rijeka workshop was a great opportunity for researchers to explore a common ground for future research collaboration and exchange programs. With both universities in Montclair and Rijeka pushing for curricula to harness students with valuable tools and analytical skills, workshop organizers vowed to strengthen institutional ties and develop potential future coursework and guest lectures between the two digital humanities poles.
Croatian participants at a workshop on digital methods at the University of Rijeka, Croatia.