The second annual Digital Humanities at Berkeley Summer Institute (DHBSI), August 15-19, 2016, grew to offer 6 courses to 100 participants. Geospatial Analysis, Data Workflows and Network Analysis, Database Development Using Drupal, and Computational Text Analysis were offered again, while Intro to Digital Humanities and Qualitative Data Analysis were offered for the first time.
In addition to individual courses, DHBSI included daily events, open to the campus community. On Monday, Eleanor Dickson and Peter Organisciak from the HathiTrust Research Center (HTRC) presented on computational text analysis and methods for accessing the data in the HTRC collections. That evening featured a keynote by noted digital humanities and new media scholar Tara McPherson (USC), entitled “DH by Design: Alternative Origin Stories for the Digital Humanities.” McPherson’s talk highlighted the importance of keeping theory and methods together in DH.
On Tuesday afternoon, participants attended the panel “Critical Approaches to Digital Humanities,” featuring presentations by UC Berkeley scholars: Abigial De Kosnik, "CancelColbert: Suey Park's Asian American Diva Citizenship,” Michael Dumas, "Antiblackness and the Untimeliness of Black Childhoods: Some Notes Against Linearity in the Investigation and Analysis of Racial Progress in Education,” José R. Lizárraga and Arturo Cortez, "#QueeringThePresent, #QueryingTheFuture: The learning, identity, and performativity of new possible futures through digital queerness online,” and Alisa Bierria, "Third World Liberation Front Interactive Digital Timelines.” The panel and discussion were moderated by Francesco Spagnolo.
Wednesday’s event was a talk by Michael Winckler, the Administrative Director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing at Heidelberg University, entitled "Are you still searching – or do you compute already? Computational Methods in Digital Humanities," which presented three examples of areas where computational methods opened the door into science-inspired workflows for research and scholarly collaboration in the humanities.
Two of Digital Humanities at Berkeley’s postdoctoral scholars presented on Thursday. Adam Anderson’s talk, "The Tale of Šišaḫšušar," explored the impact of cultural migration on the female population in and around Kanesh, Assyrian colony in 1970-1720 BC, through the use of social network analysis. Justin Underhill presented on his ongoing work using 3D modeling for digital documentation and cultural heritage, specifically his reconstruction of the context for Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Last Supper,” as it first appeared in a refectory in Milan.
On Friday, after the conclusion of the individual courses, participants met for an unconference session, followed by a series of lightning talks where the instructors highlighted the content of their courses.
The participants’ responses to the post-institute survey were overwhelmingly positive, with over 98% of respondents indicating they were satisfied or very satisfied with the experience. Digital Humanities at Berkeley will hold the third iteration of the institute in August 2017.