Fall 2021
Making DH Projects Accessible
September 17, 2021This Morning Bytes presentation, with Kristine Hildebrandt (IRIS Co-Director), Meg Smith (IRIS Research Assistant Professor), and Daniel Flaum (Computer Science Major, Linguistics Minor, and collaborator on IRIS projects), covered accessibility in digital humanities projects. We talked about the whats, the whys, and the hows of implementing web accessibility standards.
Demystifying the Command Line
October 29, 2021While the smooth, point-and-click interfaces of modern operating systems offer one easy way of communicating with our computers, there’s a lot more that’s happening behind the scenes! This two-part workshop will introduce participants to the command line. This text-based interface (no mice!) offers users greater control, more direct access, and the ability to automate tasks. During the two workshops, participants learn what the command line is, a survey of essential commands, and how humanities and social science researchers can leverage the command line for working with big datasets or across multiple operating systems.
Part 1 covers core concepts for the command line.
Download workshop materials here:
Spring 2021
Dealing with Data: Finding and Using Humanistic Data
February 26, 2021The field of digital humanities offers exciting possibilities for using our sources in innovative new ways. But there’s a hidden challenge in taking humanistic data – from letters to law codes, poems to polemics – and extracting usable data for all those modes of analysis. In this Morning Bytes session, Dr. Meg Smith, research assistant professor in the IRIS Center, talks about finding data in historical, literary, and other humanistic sources and what we can do with it once we’ve got it.
WordPress in the Classroom
March 19, 2021In this Morning Bytes session, Dr. Jessica DeSpain talks about tips, tools, and things to consider when using WordPress in the classroom, including site design, creating content, and student assignments.
The Right Tool for the Job: Where to find DH tools (and what to do with them)
April 16, 2021So you’ve got an idea for a digital humanities project – it could be anything from quantitative analysis to a digital exhibition. But when you start looking for the best tool to implement your vision, either it seems like no one’s built the tool you need, or there are too many to choose from and no easy way to evaluate their pros and cons. In this Morning Bytes talk, Dr. Meg Smith will walk through some resources and strategies for choosing the right tool for your DH project. A Q&A and conversation will follow.
Spring 2020
Publishing Digital Scholarship with Scalar
January 24, 2020In this talk and workshop, IRIS Center Technician Ben Ostermeier discusses and demonstrates the Scalar content management system. Using scalar, students and professors can publish their scholarship online in unique ways using digital media. Ostermeier shows how to use Scalar and discuss what types of websites Scalar is best suited for creating.
Google My Maps: Locations, Pins and Labels
February 21, 2020Google Maps is not just for car navigation! You can create custom maps to plot, describe and label locations around the world in a variety of interesting ways. In this workshop, Kristine Hildebrandt, PhD, associate professor in the Department of English Language and Literature, shows the basics of creating a custom map.
Google My Maps: Mapping Multiple Locations
March 27, 2020In this presentation, which is a follow-up to the introductory Morning Bytes presentation from February 21, Kristine Hildebrandt demonstrates how you can import larger quantities of geo-referenced data in to Google My Maps from a spreadsheet or comma-separated-value file, and create maps with multiple layers of geo-coordinated information.
Fall 2019
Using Omeka: Strategies and Possibilities
October 25, 2019Assistant Research Professor Zachary Riebeling examines the basics of planning an Omeka archive website. Using the Exhibition Plug-in from the Rosenzweig Center for New Media at George Mason University, Riebeling explores how to create a self-reflexive and internally-differentiated digital exhibit.
The plug-in represents a creative means to bypass the restrictions Omeka places on items and collections, allowing for layered and intersecting exhibit levels. This presentation is especially designed for scholars new to Omeka.
Digital Community Engagement with Washington Park, Illinois
November 15, 2019Sociology and Environmental Science graduate students are working with Ms. Derissa Davis, an elementary teacher in the Village of Washington Park, to help materialize her vision of a community garden. Members of The Tiny Children’s Garden Team present a synopsis of their use of digital tools to practice applied sociology and to amplify the voices and desires of their collaboration partner and her community. The team provides an overview of the digital pieces and outline their role in the collaboration, including how they contribute to shifting the dominant deficit-based narrative of the community to one that highlights the community’s rich cultural capital.
Spring 2019
Creating Data Visualizations with Tableau
February 15, 2019In this workshop, IRIS Center Technician Ben Ostermeier demonstrates how to use Tableau Public to create interactive data visualizations. He shows a variety of examples of the different ways you can present information using Tableau. Ostermeier also leads an exercise on creating your own data visualizations using Tableau Public.
You can download and install Tableau Public for free at this link: public.tableau.com. No previous data visualization experience is necessary.