Humanities + Data Science

Call for Applications: Humanities + Data Science Faculty Institute

June 5-9, 2023
Application Deadline: March 10

Applied machine learning technologies—often branded as “artificial intelligence”—are now used for editing novels, assessing resumes, grading papers, and conducting psychotherapy. While humanists have been collecting data and analyzing it through computational methods for decades, the field of data science usually lacks voices from the humanities, who could bring their critical, historical, and contextual perspectives to bear on the emergence and use of these new technologies.

The Humanities + Data Science Faculty Institute (HDSI), run by the Center for Digital Humanities (CDH) and supported by a Humanities Council Magic Grant, will empower Princeton scholars from the humanities or humanities-adjacent social sciences to engage with the conceptual, practical, and ethical aspects of data science. Participants will receive $5,000 summer salary.

The five-day Institute will be accessible to faculty with no experience in coding or data. Participants will gain hands-on experience in emerging methods in data science. They will become informed interlocutors who can demonstrate the potential as well as the risks of computational analysis in their own fields. The topics and format for the June 2023 Institute will be similar to the first HDSI we ran in January 2023.

The HDSI will also serve as a project incubator. Each faculty member will develop ideas to advance their own project that engages with data science methods or concepts. This could include:

• a data-driven exploration in their own domain
• a course module
• a redesign of an existing course (such as a department’s introductory level undergraduate course)

CDH staff will offer regular consultations for these projects throughout the summer and following academic year, and participants will be well-positioned to apply for additional campus or external funding to continue developing their research or course-related project.

Faculty attendees may invite a graduate student partner to attend the Institute, who will assist with project development. Graduate students are expected to attend the entire Institute, and will receive $1,000 for participation.

Participants will be required to attend all five days of the Institute. In-person attendance significantly improves the learning experience for new technical skills and concepts, but the option to join the group remotely will be available if personal or public health circumstances require.

Participants will be required to do some preparatory reading and technical onboarding in advance, and, after the Institute, to attend 2-3 check-in meetings through the summer and academic year to share project progress.

Please submit a maximum 750-word proposal that includes:

• A statement of interest in data science, its application in the humanities, or its sociocultural impacts.
• A description of the data-driven, computational, or data science related research or teaching project you plan to work on during summer 2023 and the 2023-24 AY.
• A confirmation of your availability for a 2-hour orientation, onboarding, and technical setup on Wednesday, May 10. Please indicate what times you are available that day. In-person is preferred but joining remotely is an option.
• A confirmation of your availability for five, full day (10am-5pm), on-campus sessions during the week of June 5-9. Please let us know if it will be a hardship to attend in person either all or some of those dates, and if remote participation is preferred.
• Please confirm your availability for 2-3 periodic project check-ins (may be remote) during the 2022-23 AY.
• The name of a graduate student (if applicable) you would like to invite to join you at the Institute. Please indicate graduate student availability to attend in person or remotely.

Princeton faculty at all ranks are eligible to apply. Visiting faculty are not eligible.

To learn more about the HDSI, please see this write up of the January 2023 Institute on the CDH website .

Application material should be sent as a single PDF file to cdh-info@princeton.edu by 11:59pm EST Friday, March 10, 2022 with the subject line “HDSI 2023 application.” Applications will be reviewed by CDH staff and HDSI instructors. Notifications will be sent out by April 15, 2023.