Winter Institute in Digital Humanities

Being a person born in the 21st Century, more specifically 2002: I have always been around the digital world. My life has always revolved around technologies and their evolution: For example the evolution from internet explorer and Mozilla firebox and google chrome to Microsoft edge.

The Gen-Z has been gifted with an ever growing and impossible grand knowledge base, that one may access from almost everywhere. Perhaps, it can be attributed to the fact that I have had privileges. This also brings forth the point that many are left in the darkness: They do not have access to the wonders of the current times. There is an enormous digital divide which we often simply often overlook, while Apple brings out another i-phone, or Samsung another Galaxy. When can almost billions of people, who have been left void of the wonders of the versatile and volatile world of today, get a chance of being acquainted with the wonders of being able to access to questions in seconds of the asking, when can the human resource be equipped to keep up with the one tenth of the population. How is it that we do not stop, for our fellow humanity until they can tie their shoelaces, and run with us, motivate us to speed up while they do so themselves. I do not, not acknowledge the fact that there aren’t any efforts made to further the access to the beautiful and broad baseline that we continuously expand. However much is left untouched.

Digital Humanities can be seen as a concept that will enable us to bring that section of the population upfront, in a parallel to the “One-tenth population”. It is more than facing repercussions of losing out our humane nature for human life is but a dialogue between the past and the present, to enable our own-selves to foresee the future in such a way that will act as a guide for us to formulate a path for the better. That brings us to the question of what is better? If we have more sustainable lives, with Indian cities no longer being drowsed by a smog cover, if the rural youth are uplifted by getting access to speedy internet which in itself holds a myriad of possibilities, which they should as a matter of right, if we have a country where people do not fight over an almost unnecessary Citizen’s Amendment Bill, where all those wronged because the people at the top are exploiting the resources that belong to those at the grassroots, if the 21st Century kids aren’t so far into a baseless competition of the capitalist world of industries, and self-interests, if we could simply pause a moment and reflect upon our actions: We have been going so fast that we barely have time to look back at our mistakes, understand them, so that we do not repeat them, so that concepts of terrorism simply do not arise, a simple harmonized society, with a motivation for productivity, is what we look forward to.

An ode to the troubles of Humanities and Social Sciences students on the way of Digital Humanities (and Social Sciences?)

I shall pass by the question of differences between humanities and social sciences as mutually not that exclusive but methodologically variable disciplines and directly get into the question of absences. Why is it Digital Humanities, but not Digital Humanities and Social Sciences? Or rather, will social sciences as a term emerge separately through different methodologies adopted in the field? Shall we have expectations? These questions occurred to me when I saw my colleague creating accounts on dating apps, mentioning the fact that she is a researcher and approaching other users for interviews on their usage of these apps. The data I used to associate with the humanities part in Digital Humanities was the ‘data that is there to digitalize’ may it be from the discipline of history, philosophy, literature and the list goes on leaning more towards the textual or digital data which survive. When I state myself being from the Humanities and Social Sciences discipline with the emphasis on Humanities as I am more into philosophy, then this assumption gained more and more strength. Going back to my colleague who is not a dating app user, as a researcher!, the collection in data through online means in a completely digitalized setting puzzled me and now I wonder when did we have the cut after the title Digital Humanities? I commentary that I got as I was planning this post was that Humanities and Social Sciences are not separate and Social Sciences is not excluded from Digital Humanities. I would like to encourage this approach. Yet, I believe is important to pay attention to the times and circumstances in which we make the cuts or exclusions in titles of the freshly emerging disciplines. It surely should be considered crucial to look at the nature, the method, the target of data we are dealing with to find the middle ground and the missing or not fitting (due to the size, perhaps) ‘Social Sciences’ as there may arise instances when two individuals come together from the disciplines (or might be departments in some educational settings) and identify themselves with ‘Humanities and Social Sciences’ or ‘Digital Humanities’ and we are taken aback by the similarities in their way of collecting and approaching their data. Now again the question stands still, where is ‘Social Sciences’? Shall we wait for it? Do we need this addition or are we good with only Digital Humanities and the Social Sciences go without saying?

Great to see the ferment of ideas and reactions in all the blog posts appearing overnight!

I mentioned the book by Adluni and Bagchee about the state of textual scholarship on the Mabhabarata. You can read the introduction on Academia.

This is just around five months into my ever giant academic endeavor , that is, PhD , I happen to be a part of Winter Institute In Digital Humanities fondly abbreviated as #WIDH. This winter institute comprises of lecture series and a number of workshop sessions , some of them up till now , are on GIS , Georeferencing and Textual Communities organized from 8th December – 22nd December 2019 .This institute is as an academic service delivered by IIT Gandhinagar and University of Saskatchewan around a sweet , cool ,and breezy Indian winter of the birthplace of Mahatama. This blog is in reference to a short progress report of the academic aspirations or thirst I had when I derailed, and efforts of this winter institute and its commendable scheduled digital-assisted services , that helped a lot to quench a considerable amount of my academic thirst.

I happened to unwind the tilism regarding role of digital media by getting deeper insights into the young discipline of Digital Humanities. The discourses this Institute offers is how digital media perceived as a form of abuse now through efforts of Digital Humanities is shaping it into an ocean of enlightenment so profuse. Although traditional English Departments divorced themselves from technology , Digital Humanities and its framework , its dialogue or panel discussions with other fields of academia, provides substantial evidence , that there has been a history of collaborative idea like that of literature and psychology , literature and ecology , literature and linguistics etc. , so it is absolutely okay for the traditional field of English Literature to give a chance to digital world and its content for research collaborations and that it will also retrieve back in a positive manner , keeping their specificity intact.

This Institute also gave me a journey into the compartments of digital texts. What I from day one referred as a “question of text “ at its own pace, is fetching for argumentative answers. Web Archives as a digital text in itself , I learned should not look after for traditional print culture for the validity of its existence as a primary source in the process of research.

The case of HUMAN in the DIGITAL , is investigated through one of the tagline of this institute as focus on humanizing the digital world through academia. It is disheartening to note that due to lack of textual scholarship ,due to misreading of rotten manuscripts , people have died in the name of wrong religious or social revelation. Textual Communities , as the representatives of humans are making commendable efforts in painstaking jobs of reviving these manuscripts in digital forms , for the betterment of civilization at large. The use of AI not only has solutions regarding biological cure but also aims to humanize the unintended preys of juvenile delinquency.

There is a lot more in coming weeks of the winter school , a quick update on an further development in the field that I encounter readers ! , will surely be conveyed to your doors of memory. Wishing strength to you O Young Discipline !

The whole experience of the Winter Institute on Digital Humanities, almost a week in, and we have phased from Studying the interactions of AI with autistic kids (just the theory) to practically learning how to use GIS in projections and comparisons of Historic Maps and transition that both educators and learners face with respect to the fast paced development of technology. These concepts are accompanied by questions such as who would constitute the next billion users of technology will be.

We have also phased through questions which revolve around the idea of this being the age to analyse the culture of the ageing population, and the evolution of media around them.

How there is a concept of ageism, as similar to racism, and other such stereotypes and prejudices. The very idea of idolizing “looking young” to a point where the lives of people revolve entirely around that concept.

The Digital Humanities also circumvents the coding and decoding of text. Texts such as the Constitutions of different countries hold weight such that their various phases of transition are notably visible to the analyst.

A specific insight onto the GIS would lead us to the myriad possibilities that, using this inter-phase would allow us to consider starting from revolutionizing the way things are taught, to enabling a faster and easier learning process, to speediness and simpler presentation of data.

I would like to end by quoting Professor Srinivasan on what is the digital humanities: it is basically studying the humanities by making use of digital tools.

 

This is a work-in-progress. And comes as a researcher and facilitator in the areas of Information Systems / ICT-D / Management. Five days, 12 talks and around 12.5 hours of workshops introduced the different facets of digital humanities as an area of scholarship and research. In the following table, I try to put forth my key takeaways and insights, trying to map the talks in terms of their parent disciplines, and the role of digital. The purpose of doing so is to glean at the end of 15 days, the possible set of knowledge/ perspective, skill (both technical and non-technical) and attitude (including values) that scholars of digital humanities / digital studies should try to learn and imbibe.

Sl No	Title of the Talk	Anchor Discipline	Digital Artefact/ Role	My Key Takeaway / Insight
1	From Print Culture to a Digital World: The Case of Odisha (Jatindra Kumar Nayak )	English Literature	None	The necessity of anchoring DH/DS in a base discipline to understand the concerns, perspectives, approaches, methods and tools. Transitional challenges of digital immigrants for self; digital natives as co-learners and peers (attitude); Within the departments of humanities and social science, the challenge of negotiating the “digital turn” in scholarship
2	GIS, Digital Cartography, and History (Jim Clifford)	History	GIS. Instrumental use of technology as a tool	Within humanities, while literature took the lead in embracing the change in terms of creation of archives and study of text, maybe history took the lead in terms of applications – collecting data from various sources, analysis, presentation and dissemination
3	Diversity and the Digital Humanities (Barbara Bordalejo)	Gender	,-	Looking at DH as an area of practice. The talk was important in terms of articulating the perspectives / attitudes/ values that needs to be imbibed and taught Neutrality of technology; Algorithms as “logical steps” and as tools of discrimination, operation, inclusiveness and design/behavior of tech artefacts
4	Towards Critical Media Pedagogies: The DiverCity Webarchives (K.P. Jayasankar )	Media Studies	Technology as tool (video) and technology artefact as the end product (the web archives)	The blending of the mediums and methods; co-learners and co-producers; the web archives as technology artefact that can be used for further research. Critical perspectives, traditional research and analytical skills, making videos
5	Embodied Ageing, Culture and Media: Sociological Insights from India (Tannistha Samanta )	Sociology / Gender	Facebook Groups (area of research); Online surveys (tools)	Technology artefacts (apps) and technology mediated social interactions as new areas of research using traditional frameworks, approaches and methods like content analysis;
6	Textual Scholarship (Peter Robinson )	Literature	Archival technology as an artefact	The techniques of Evolutionary biology (transdisciplinary)
7	Encoding Digital Primary Resources (Barbara Bordalejo )	Literature		The many possible interpretations of written text while converting to digital. Granularity Vs Precision Collaboration / Credit sharing as a value in the field of digital humanities
8	Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Cognitive and Rehabilitative Technologies (Uttama Lahiri, IIT Gandhinagar)	Computer Science and Electrical Engineering	Assistive Technologies as technology tool and technology artefacts;   Sensors, virtual reality, apps etc.	Technology to address “human problem”, dipping into other disciplines – medical science, clinical studies and maybe psychology; More of multi-disciplinary in nature than interdisciplinary
9	Power and Pitfalls of Digital-Transnational History (Jim Clifford)	History	Technology as a tool	Traditional research skills in digital space; Assessing sources, data and their interpretations Skills and basic statistical knowledge of that students of humanities should learn – charts, frequency clouds and bars, tableau etc. (demonstrates how the “digital turn” can be negotiated for history)
10	The Rhizomatic Web: Educators and Learners in the Digital Era (Atanu Bhattacharya)	English language	Technology (blogs) as a tool (for educators) ; interactions and impact as new area of research	Demonstrated how the digital turn can be negotiated for English language. So while use of computer for language learning lab is a very institutionalized process, the “residual content” as data for research in English language. The possibilities of new areas of study on impact of technology on learning outcomes in multiple context. The blending of English with concepts from sociology and technology studies
11	Empowering the Next Billion People with Technology (Junaid Hashmi )	Information Products / Information System	Technology as artifact and technology as tool	Amply demonstrated the need for a critical political economy perspective on technology, privacy and regulations.

 

Considering that in India, graduate and post graduate level of courses in humanities and many social science areas (other than psychology and to some extent sociology) rarely have any component dealing with numbers (read statistics) or technology as a tool for methods (social network analysis, text mining and analysis), any humanities or social science departments (and for that matter departments of management and mathematics) might want to equip learners and researchers with following:

Knowledge / Perspective	Skill (methods and tools)	Attitude / Values
Data and Information Literacy   Discipline specific perspectives and research concerns (mastering the old to negotiate/ develop the new)   “neutrality of technology”, “notions of empowerment thru technology” “role of the state” “privacy, rights and regulations”, “algorithms as organizing logics”   Technology as an instrument or as an artefact has an associated history (people, organizations, strategy)  and maybe politics associated with it (people it enables, people it excludes)	Basic Statistics Social Network Analysis Text Mining and Analytics – the simplest one being the word cloud Tools for Data Collection, Organization, Analysis (statistical, networks), Visualization and Dissemination, Archival Creative and Critical thinking – conceptualization, problematization and execution	Inclusiveness, genuine empathy, Understanding of privileges

 

It may take anywhere between 5- 10 years before digital humanities and digital studies develop as an independent, interdisciplinary area of research – primarily because it would need to create its own eco-system whereby the graduates and doctoral students can visualize their fit (in terms of jobs/careers). While the necessity to be interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary in perspective and approach is a much appreciated and recognized academic value, other than very-very few places, it offers very little space to “fit”.  A safer bet would be to anchor self in a base and mother discipline and then embark on the journey towards becoming a digital humanist by exploring the tools, taking up problems that gets generated as a result of technology – social, virtual spheres, or producing the artefact.

 

While the purview of Digital Humanities potentially encompasses the entire humanity – digital and perhaps otherwise too, the task of writing something on DH looks daunting but as it’s the need of the hour, I shall attempt it.

I am tempted to revisit a mini-study that I took up 2 years ago that was a part of my curriculum during my graduate school and find out how things have changed or not changed – as of today.

The Indian Startup Boom:

Post the recession period of 2008-09, the crème de la crème graduates of India began looking inwards instead of heading to the United States post the completion of their courses and that consequently became one of the most important reasons behind an entrepreneurial rise in India, which was similar to that of Silicon Valley boom in the US (Genome, 2012). Other reasons behind the start-up boom were the availability of seed funding, consolidation activities by a number of firms, evolving technology space and a burgeoning demand within the domestic market (NASSCOM, 2016). Touted as the third-largest start-up ecosystem, technology remained a popular domain for budding entrepreneurs. Cloud, Big Data and Analytics, Internet of things and machine learning were a few such advanced systems that were honed and also facilitated the ecosystem. In addition to employing 100,000 people, the maturing ecosystem contributed to enhancing the lifestyle of citizens and create technology that addresses key concerns such as Education, healthcare, energy utilities, financial inclusion etc. (NASSCOM, 2016). The emergence of start-ups led to a demand of qualified (tech-savvy) workforce along with an assistive workforce. A key feature of the emerging startup ecosystem was that they were located in geographical clusters and can be divided amongst leading ecosystems (Bangalore, National Capital Region and Mumbai) emerging ecosystems (Hyderabad, Pune and Chennai) and aspiring ecosystems (Kolkata, Cochin, Jaipur and Indore). With the IT employees at the helm, the mushrooming of jobs in start-ups also attracted women as a workforce. Distinct from corporates in their work culture (and also remuneration to an extent), start-ups have created a niche of their own and with initiatives like Start-Up India and Digital India, they got support and recognition from the government as well.

Women & Indian Startups – What Goes On?

As in Silicon Valley, women are a rare breed in India’s start-up ecosystem, too. Less than 9% of its founders are women, according to a 2016 study by start-up database Xeler8. And out of the 670 Indian start-ups that received funding in 2016, just 3% were founded by women alone. Although a similar skewed ratio is not seen when it comes to the male to female employee ratio in start-ups, yet there exists a good amount wage gap amongst the two sexes. Managerial and operations roles are often occupied by men and women remain limited to assistive and relatively lower-paying and in less important roles.

 

WHILE THIS IS WHAT I FOUND IN 2016, a quick internet search today showed this:

“Kool Kanya, a Mumbai-based startup aimed at creating an ecosystem of women in the workforce, surveyed 700 women across India to find out why many are leaving the workforce, and what needs to be improved in order to encourage them to continue working. The survey results were released as a report, titled Tipping the Balance, in June this year. According to the report, there are eight primary factors that have an impact on women in the workforce – work satisfaction, learning opportunities, salary benefits, female representation, safety, work culture, work-life balance, and maternity benefits.

Link to the report: https://koolkanya.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Survey-Report-Kool-Kanya.pdf

How does the Work Culture in Startups differ from that of its counterpart?

Work culture in a start-up ecosystem is influenced by many factors such as the need for constant networking, ease in working with constantly evolving technology, working round the clock to raise funding, traveling across the country for operations etc. Hence, attending meet-ups/hackathons post working hours, bonding with colleagues, ‘working from home’ and practically living to work form an essential part of the start-up work culture. ‘Drinking beer on your desk while working’ is a known catchphrase in the start-up circle. This kind of work culture poses serious challenges for women with families, women from smaller towns (where the start-up culture hasn’t penetrated as yet) and women seeking work-life balance. The geographical clusters formed have led to the concept of ‘working from home’ and ‘freelance work’ which often leads to undervalued work and doesn’t gain as much recognition as an in-office work. This is another drawback of the work culture that severely adversely impacts women.

A very recent Deccan Herald article (a leading national daily) had this to say:

– Roles and responsibilities are not well-defined. In small teams, most employees are expected to do jobs beyond what is specified on paper. This implies working extra hours and effort for the same salary.

– There are no set rules and regulations or even yardsticks on how performance is measured.

-work culture, in the name of being ‘fun’, might actually be messy and disorganised. There is no order like in traditional MNCs. (similar to what I found in 2016 about bro culture in startups)
-Bosses might be unprofessional and inexperienced. Since they might be owners or co-founders, no one would question them. – The startup boom means that there are several companies competing for limited funds. Investors would want to see quicker results and higher profitability, resulting in intense pressure on the company and the employees.

Read more at: https://www.deccanherald.com/metrolife/metrolife-on-the-move/startup-work-no-fun-for-staff-724542.html

.… what I had found back in 2016? 

A leading digital business news outlet, Quartz, recently (back then) published an article titled “The Bro culture in India’s startups leaves no room for Gender Equality” which aptly describes the constraints women face in startups. For a startup to scale up and become a firm, a lot of investment, networking, unrelenting working hours and mentoring goes in which more often than not is not suitable for a woman trapped within cultural roles expected of her. Marriage and household responsibilities often act as the biggest structural constraints for women in taking up greater responsibilities and fully exploring their professional potential. Another interesting phenomenon to note is the technological know-how and the networking skills that are needed before taking up a role. The cultural capital that includes confident communication preferably in English, ease of working in male-dominated spaces leaving hesitation behind and a supportive family further deprives women from conservative backgrounds, an opportunity to work at these startups. Subroto Bagchi, CEO of Mind Tree Consulting, a global IT giant said – “A woman professional must also know that, at the top, life is very demanding and very desexed. It is just not possible to become an Indira Nooyi, Naina Lal Kidwai, Mallika Sarabhai or Vasundhara Raje Scindia by trying to juggle work, home, husband, mother-in-law and making pickle. The other part is that to get to the top, whether you are a man or a woman, you must travel a lot, sometimes work weekends, network outside the workplace, learn on your own initiative, engage continuously and, finally, give an awful lot more than you get…The opportunities in modern India are exploding. Therefore, what I’d like to say to the women is, please be comfortable with your gender”.

While this statement, on one hand, attempts to motivate women but on the other hand, fails to acknowledge the very tangible structural constraints that “modern India” poses on its women. It is this feigned “gender neutrality” that the modern world propagates which talks about equality at the cost equity.

… my stint with Digital Humanities in the winter school motivates me to understand this tryst of the technology in a deeper and engaging manner and possibly take-up a more concrete data-heavy comparative study between the Silicon valley in the US and in India and gauge its impact on women.

 

 

 

 

Hey, fellow #WIDH explorers!

I have tried to create a comic strip depicting the first three days of my #WIDH journey and how they’ve impacted me and made me think, academically and otherwise. In the past few days, I have realised how scary some new softwares seem to me and I have resolved to let go of that fear by putting myself out there and exploring the newer digital methods. This comic strip is my ridiculous way of engaging with the same. (Taking one step at a time, you see.)

I’m sorry I couldn’t figure out how to upload a high quality image over here, but have tried to do my best. I hope you all can see this clearly. If not, let me know. I’ll try and send it somewhere else. Or if you know how I can upload it in a much better way, please help!

Moreover, this is my very first attempt at making a comic strip, so pardon my naivete and be kind, please.