CDH Training Grants Take Grads Around the World for DH Workshops, Conferences

CDH Graduate Training Grants support Princeton graduate students who would like to expand their knowledge of data-driven and computational approaches to the humanities by taking advantage of courses, workshops, summer schools, institutes or other training opportunities offered outside of Princeton.

We asked recent Graduate Training Grant recipients about their experiences. 

Neal Bold (History)

Experience

HTR Winter School, Austrian Academy of Sciences (in collaboration with Princeton MARBAS and the Institute for Habsburg and Balkan Studies), Vienna

Tell us a little about your course.

I received training in using the text recognition programs Transkribus (a paid platform that is easier to use) and eScriptorium (a free and more versatile platform that has a greater learning curve). I worked with a team to train a new HTR model based on fourteenth-century Bohemian manuscripts written in Latin and Czech (I worked only on the Latin manuscripts). Together, we trained a model with an excellent 6.05% error rate. The experience was also good practice in medieval Latin language and paleography!

How does the course connect to your research?

While the central purpose of the course was to train researchers in using HTR techniques to aid in reading large quantities of unedited text, the use I found that I have already managed to put into practice on a few occasions is using these techniques to get a rough sense of unedited primary texts in languages I cannot easily read, even with a transcription. For example, I learned how to take scans of a given manuscript and run them through an open-source model (in Syriac, for example, for which existing models are very effective). I can then run the transcription through a translator in order to get a general sense of the text, which then allows me to identify important passages for close-reading.

Molly Brandt (Architecture)

Experience

“Spatial Visualization in/for Digital Humanities Research,” Digital Humanities Summer Institute (DHSI), University of Montreal

Tell us a little about your course.

This course offered an accessible introduction to mapping and spatial visualization as research tools in the digital humanities. This was important to me, as I came in with very little experience using mapping software. Rather than focusing on a single platform, the week offered hands-on training in mapping using QGIS and numerous other web mapping platforms. The workshops not only deepened my understanding of working with data, but also how different platforms can be used for data analysis. As a result, I was introduced to a range of mapping tools and critically evaluated their affordances, limitations, and potential to support my research. 

How does the course connect to your research?

As a PhD student in the History and Theory of Architecture program, I began using QGIS to support a seminar paper that focused on corporate funding and the spatial dimensions of investment in medical research, public health, and business pedagogy in the United States during the interwar and postwar periods. My pre-dissertation research focuses on the rise of the pharmaceutical sector in North America in the twentieth century, particularly its investment in graphic design and architecture.  Tracing the sector’s networks of investment, research, and manufacturing is important so my research can visualize not only the scale of pharmaceutical development but also its analytical and representational dimensions.

What did you do outside the course?

In addition to the course, I attended several lunchtime lectures and conference sessions that provided deeper insight into current projects and aims in the digital humanities.

Other Experiences Supported by Training Grants

• Sameeah Ahmed-Arai (English) took the “Black Speculative Futures” course at the University of Pennsylvania's DREAM Lab.
• Rachel Glodo (Music) and Fillippo Ugolini (EAS) took the “Text Analysis” course, also at Penn's DREAM Lab.
• Bennett Nagtegaal (History) traveled to Luxembourg for the Eighth Conference on Digital Humanities and Digital History, “AI Through History, History Through AI,” Nagtegaal co-presented “Embed and Seek: Tracking Quotations Across Sources” with CDH Assistant Director Jeri Wieringa. The presentation centered on the remarx text-reuse detection tool, a CDH Research Partnership led by Edward Baring (History / Center for Human Values) and CDH RSE Laure Thompson. See the slides here.

Graduate Training Grant applications for summer 2027 opportunities are due April 1.