Digitization initiatives in the humanities have increased the number of textual sources humanists have readily available to unmanageable levels. This new abundance of material means humanists are now faced with the problem of identifying the most relevant materials for their research amidst an ever-growing digital archive; this is a tricky challenge for many researchers. Someone studying the Irish in London, for example, needs to know if a historical document refers to an Irish person or not. Unfortunately documents are rarely this explicit. My PhD research tackles the problem of identifying relevant sources in large-scale electronic databases.
By applying the best of digital humanities and computer science to this traditional historical problem, I have been able to develop solutions to this problem. This has allowed me and fellow historians to generate new knowledge about the past while at the same time, provides a framework for future historians to explore computer programming as part of their research process. The type of work I do is not unlike that undertaken by the TEXTvre project, which features on your website and I too am motivated by the principles of your organization as I hope my application shows. |
