Introducing the DHARPA Project: An interdisciplinary lab to enable critical DH practice: 1-4 June 2021

Research output: Contribution to ConferenceAbstractAcademic

Abstract

Traditional humanities research has been leveraged but also destabilised by the increasing accessibility of digitized sources and computational tools for analysis. As traditional close reading methods alone are no longer sufficient to analyse such an unprecedented mass of digital data, a plethora of platforms have appeared in order to help researchers query and visualise the networks and patterns latent in these sources. However, this flood of data and push-button technologies has also threatened to obscure through abundance and instill in scholars a false sense of mastery. Some scholars have criticized DH for its naive and starry-eyed application of computational techniques, citing not only how the uncritical adoption of black-box technologies affects substantive research but also how it reproduces a positivism at odds with the purpose of humanities inquiry (e.g., Liu 2012; Chun 2013; Jagoda 2013; Raley 2013; Allington et al 2016; Brennan 2017; Grimshaw 2018). Both uncritical DH practice and the software it employs can be compared to a “Mechanical Turk,” with the decisions and interventions made by the researcher hidden from view and only the well-oiled and seemingly autonomous product on display. These trends have constituted a crisis for humanities scholarship but also an extraordinary opportunity to transform the field. In this presentation, we introduce the Digital History Advanced Research Projects Accelerator (DHARPA), a diverse and interdisciplinary research and development laboratory based in the University of Luxembourg’s Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH). While software development is central to our project, our aim is not merely to build more tools but to encourage methodologies that self-reflexively examine the interaction of technology and historical practice. We want to show how the application of expertise works in tandem with technology to produce knowledge, how digitally enabled research is not a product but rather a process, reliant on the critical engagement of the scholar. We want scholars to open the black box and to be empowered to tinker with what’s inside. DHARPA is multifaceted: Software and infrastructure development: Our software will be free and open-source and backed by a long-term sustainability plan and training opportunities to encourage widespread and confident adoption. Users will be able to run the software remotely or to download the software for local use, and to rely on a generalizable hosting infrastructure that ensures privacy, portability, and sustainability. Built for both humanities scholars and social scientists, we plan to include modules for: data ingestion, data standardisation, textual analysis, network analysis, geographical analysis and bring them within a seamless environment, where work can flow between tasks from experimentation and modelling to presentation and dissemination. Developing best practice through design: Central to DHARPA is the creation of a Virtual Research Environment that will enable scholars to engage with their data while promoting critical historical practice. Our interactive software will cultivate the holistic practice of interweaving data, code, computational functionality, and metadata with a narrative of researcher’s choices and actions. Documenting academic labour makes its value evident, while also making it reproducible and keeping it honest: it allows scholars to take ownership of their interventions. Collaborations: DHARPA staffs a responsive laboratory that will rapidly prototype and launch applied solutions. We work with other academics at the C²DH and within a wider, international and interdisciplinary scholarly community. Training and outreach: As the project progresses, we will be introducing our software to the academic community through workshops at the University of Luxembourg and international conferences as well as through publications. Further to our ethos that scholarship is an iterative process, we welcome feedback to improve our software and specifications.
Original languageEnglish
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 16 Jul 2021

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