Archives to Networks and Back Again the other parts of DH THATCampHSS, // Charles H. Pence @pencechp Department of Philosophy LSU Institute for Ethics
Archives to Networks
and Back Again
the other parts of DH
THATCampHSS, 12/11/2017
Charles H. Pence@pencechp
Department of PhilosophyLSU Institute for Ethics
Outline
1. Focus, time, and trouble in DH projects2. Some small, �nite number of morals for the other
parts of digital humanities projects2.1 Framing your research question2.2 Processing your results2.3 Generating future work
�e take-home: Don’t let yourself become too tool-centric!You can get lots more out of your digital projects.
Charles H. Pence 2 / 18
DH Project Structure
Charles H. Pence DH Project Structure 3 / 18
1. Generating a research question2. Obtaining your data3. Curating/annotating your data4. Tool availability5. Tool usage6. Processing your results7. Generating further work
Charles H. Pence DH Project Structure 4 / 18
1. Generating a research question
2. Obtaining your data
3. Curating/annotating your data4. Tool availability
5. Tool usage6. Processing your results7. Generating further work
Charles H. Pence DH Project Structure 5 / 18
1. Generating a research question
2. Obtaining your data
3. Curating/annotating your data4. Tool availability
5. Tool usage6. Processing your results7. Generating further work
Charles H. Pence DH Project Structure 5 / 18
1. Generating a research question
2. Obtaining your data
3. Curating/annotating your data4. Tool availability
5. Tool usage6. Processing your results7. Generating further work
Charles H. Pence DH Project Structure 5 / 18
1. Generating a research question
2. Obtaining your data
3. Curating/annotating your data4. Tool availability
5. Tool usage6. Processing your results7. Generating further work
Charles H. Pence DH Project Structure 5 / 18
1. Generating a research question
2. Obtaining your data
3. Curating/annotating your data4. Tool availability
5. Tool usage6. Processing your results7. Generating further work
Charles H. Pence DH Project Structure 5 / 18
1. Generating a research question
2. Obtaining your data
3. Curating/annotating your data4. Tool availability
5. Tool usage6. Processing your results7. Generating further work
Charles H. Pence DH Project Structure 5 / 18
1. Generating a research question
2. Obtaining your data
3. Curating/annotating your data4. Tool availability
5. Tool usage6. Processing your results7. Generating further work
Charles H. Pence DH Project Structure 5 / 18
1. Generating a research question
2. Obtaining your data
3. Curating/annotating your data4. Tool availability
5. Tool usage6. Processing your results7. Generating further work
Charles H. Pence DH Project Structure 5 / 18
1. Generating a research question
2. Obtaining your data
3. Curating/annotating your data4. Tool availability
5. Tool usage6. Processing your results7. Generating further work
Charles H. Pence DH Project Structure 5 / 18
1. Generating a research question2. Obtaining your data
3. Curating/annotating your data4. Tool availability5. Tool usage
6. Processing your results7. Generating further work
Charles H. Pence DH Project Structure 6 / 18
Some Morals
Charles H. Pence DH Project Structure 7 / 18
Generating Research
Questions
Charles H. Pence Generating Research Questions 8 / 18
How do I know I have a project that’ssuitable for digital analysis?
Charles H. Pence Generating Research Questions 9 / 18
�ink counterfactually,work backwards, and dream big.
Charles H. Pence Generating Research Questions 10 / 18
• �inking counterfactually and workingbackwards
• What questions do I wish I could ask?• What kind of data would I need to ask them?
• Dreaming big• Don’t worry that you don’t have the data, ordon’t know how to get the data.
• Especially don’t worry that you don’t have thetools, or don’t know how to use the tools!
Charles H. Pence Generating Research Questions 11 / 18
• �inking counterfactually and workingbackwards
• What questions do I wish I could ask?• What kind of data would I need to ask them?
• Dreaming big• Don’t worry that you don’t have the data, ordon’t know how to get the data.
• Especially don’t worry that you don’t have thetools, or don’t know how to use the tools!
Charles H. Pence Generating Research Questions 11 / 18
Processing Results
Charles H. Pence Processing Results 12 / 18
Strike a balance betweenhypothesis-driven work and letting
yourself be surprised.
Charles H. Pence Processing Results 13 / 18
• Hypothesis-driven research• Vital: Every dataset has random patterns, andyou can’t let yourself be led astray.
• �e role of surprise• But! �at doesn’t mean that you can’t �ndinteresting things by accident.
• �ink about ways that you can validate thepatterns that you stumble upon.
Charles H. Pence Processing Results 14 / 18
Generating Further
Work
Charles H. Pence Generating Further Work 15 / 18
�ink in advance about how your workcould open up new research questions.
Charles H. Pence Generating Further Work 16 / 18
• Ask yourself, early on, what new avenuescould be opened up if you’re successful.
• Could you apply the same analysis to di�erentdata?
• If you got more data, could you broaden theconclusion?
• What about applications to other areas? Is therea general trend here? (Is there. . . gasp. . . anintegrated-HPS conclusion in philosophy ofscience?)
Charles H. Pence Generating Further Work 17 / 18