Dr Barbara McGillivray is a Lecturer in Digital Humanities and Cultural Computation at King’s College London at the Department of Digital Humanities. Expert in computational and quantitative methods and research questions in the Humanities.
1. How do you define Digital Humanities?
For me, Digital Humanities are a methodological laboratory for the humanities, where researchers can experiment with new computational and quantitative methods to answer old and new questions in the humanities.
2. How did you become interested in DH?
I became interested in DH during my PhD in computational linguistics, when I worked on adapting techniques from computational linguistics to the study of the Latin language. I gradually realised the potential of using these methods beyond linguistics research, which has given the opportunity to work in many interdisciplinary projects.
3. Tell us about one of your DH projects?
One of my favourite projects took place in 2018-2019 and was funded by a small grant by The Alan Turing Institute (described here). I put together a team involving two statisticians, a digital humanist, and a classicist to study the change in meaning of words in ancient Greek using Bayesian statistics. It was the first time I led such a diverse team to study an old phenomenon with new methods.
4. Tell us about a DH project you particularly like?
I have worked on historical newspapers and I particularly like the Impresso project, which has digitized and enriched a vast collection of European historical newspapers, enabling researchers and the public to explore rich archives through advanced text mining and analysis tools. I like it because it democratizes access to valuable historical materials, fostering new ways of doing historical research.
In 2020, the university established the campus-level entity ‘Peking University Digital Humanities Research Center’ and simultaneously formed the Peking University Digital Humanities Open Laboratory. Starting from March 2022, it began accepting donations from ByteDance to engage in research on the intelligent information processing and utilisation of ancient book resources (Research Centre for Digital Humanities of PKU, 2024). Following this donation, the laboratory was renamed ‘Peking University-ByteDance Digital Humanities Open Laboratory’ and operates under the Institute of Artificial Intelligence at Peking University. Current research includes natural language processing, deep learning, ontology and knowledge graph, information visualization, interaction design, and user information behaviour research. In addition, the Research Center for Digital Humanities of PKU is an interdisciplinary research institution where research mentors from various departments of Peking University jointly guide students in the laboratory, such as History, Computer Science and Technology, Chinese Language and Literature, Foreign Languages and Literatures, Earth and Space Sciences, Philosophy, and Information Management.
Teaching
Peking University’s Digital Humanities Center primarily focuses on advancing research and education at the doctoral level, engaging PhD students with comprehensive supervision from a diverse pool of professors across various disciplines. While the center also hosts workshops and training programs open to a wider audience, including graduate and senior undergraduate students, and young teachers.
Doctoral students are jointly supervised by professors from various disciplines including the Department of Information Management, Institute of Artificial Intelligence, Department of Philosophy, Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Department of History, School of Foreign Languages, and others.
Key Academics
Prof Jun Wang, Professor at the Department of Information Management at Peking University. He also serves as the director of the Peking University Digital Humanities Research Center.
Dr Qi Sun, associate professor with a dual appointment at the Institute of Computational Linguistics. Her primary research interests lie in the fields of natural language processing, computational linguistics, and corpus linguistics.
Dr Hao Yang, assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy and serves at the Center for Compilation and Research of Confucian Classics.
Dr Hong Wei, assistant professor with a Ph.D. in Computer Science. He holds positions at both the Department of Information Management and the Peking University Digital Humanities Research Center.
The ‘Song-Yuan Study Case Knowledge Graph System’ has carried out text processing and analysis on the 2.4 million characters of the ‘Song-Yuan Study Case’. It extracted entities such as people, time, locations, works, and their complex semantic relationships from the study case to construct a knowledge graph. This system provides functionalities such as visualization, interactive browsing, and semantic queries, enabling users to explore the relationships and information within the text in a more intuitive and structured manner.
A visualization analysis system for the relationships between similar books and bibliographies among catalogues of ancient Chinese texts, developed jointly by the Peking University Digital Humanities Research Center and the Institute for the History of Natural Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Jointly undertaken by the National Library and the Peking University Digital Humanities Research Center, from August 2021 to August 2022.
This knowledge base system combines interactive visualization technology with semantic correlation techniques to enable multidimensional querying and exploration of the ancient texts included in the “National Catalogue of Precious Ancient Books.” It showcases the distribution of valuable ancient texts across different types of literature, scripts, historical periods, versions, and geographical regions. This aims to highlight Chinese culture, providing guidance and clues for the public to understand and study Chinese classics.
Jointly undertaken by the National Library of China Publishing House （NLP Press, nd） and the Peking University Digital Humanities Research Center, from August 2021 to August 2022. The overall goal of the ‘Yongle Encyclopedia’ High-Definition Image Database System is to utilise high-definition images and corresponding texts of the ‘Yongle Encyclopedia’ as its core materials. This is supplemented with information on the format, compilation process, historical context, and dissemination of the ‘Yongle Encyclopedia’ itself. By employing digital humanities techniques and leveraging the expressive power of multimedia dissemination, the system aims to fully present the cultural, literary, and artistic value of the ‘Yongle Encyclopedia’.
The platform gathers full-text data from over two hundred classic works of ancient Chinese philosophy, providing detailed information about their respective eras, authors, and more. Utilizing deep learning algorithms, it automatically segments and analyses vocabulary, identifies sentence structures, and thus explores the temporal and spatial dimensions of the literature. The aim is to elucidate the evolution of ideas and culture within the intricacies of words and sentences, serving as a valuable aid to humanities research.
Funded by the Publishing Bureau of the Central Propaganda Department, in 2020. Second Edition of the ‘China Biographical Database’ (CBDB) WEB Retrieval System, developed from 2010 to 2020. The China Biographical Database (CBDB) is a freely accessible relational database. As of May 2020, it contained approximately 470,000 biographical entries spanning from the 7th to the 19th century. Apart from serving as a reference for biographical information, the database also aims to facilitate statistical and spatial analysis.
An output of the ‘Peking University-ByteDance Digital Humanities Open Laboratory’ this platform is dedicated to the intelligent development and utilization of ancient book resources, aimed to develop a ‘Recognizing Classics’ reading platform based on intelligent processing of ancient texts. This platform will be freely accessible to the public, providing access to and utilization of digitized ancient book resources. The ‘Recognizing Classics’ platform aims to explore various aspects such as retrieval methods, variant character support, text quality, reading assistance, and browsing experience. The goal is to establish a platform for reading ancient texts that is characterized by high-quality text, rich functionality, and excellent reading experience.
Other info
Digital Humanities Summer Workshops, taking place every year on different topic. The most recent ones include:
Peking University, Harvard University, and Princeton University have jointly established the Digital Humanities Summer Workshop’. This program, open to students worldwide, is based on face-to-face teaching that rotates between the campuses of Peking University, Harvard University, and Princeton University. The first joint workshop was held at Peking University in early August 2023, with the theme ‘Humanistic Innovation in the Intelligent Information Environment’, with both humanists and artificial intelligence experts co-teaching sessions. The course was open to graduate students and senior undergraduate students with independent research capabilities, as well as young teachers interested in the subject. This session mainly used materials from Chinese history and ancient thought history as experimental materials.
The Peking University Digital Humanities Center and the Institute of Artificial Intelligence at Peking University held a ‘Digital Humanities Summer Workshop’ from July 18th to July 30th, 2022. The course included students from various disciplines, including literature, history, philosophy, art, archaeology, artificial intelligence, computational linguistics, and software engineering. In addition to lectures, the workshop organized interdisciplinary seminars and research practices to cultivate interdisciplinary talents who possess both humanities literacy and information technology skills.
The ‘Peking University Digital Humanities Workshop’ is a specialized online training course offered by the Peking University Digital Humanities Research Center. The course taught commonly used methods and tools in digital humanities, aiming to cultivate awareness and capabilities in applying computational methods to solve problems in humanities research. The workshop series consisted of six sessions, with lectures delivered by six domain experts from the Max Planck Institute in Germany, the National Library of Berlin in Germany, National Taiwan University, and Peking University.
Specializing in history and cultural artefact research (CIGH Exeter, 2017), the University of Exeter established the Digital Humanities Lab in 2017. This state-of-the-art facility houses a Digital Humanities (DH) team, dedicated to offering expertise to advancing research and teaching through academic collaboration, training and research seminars, and sector-leading facilities for digital investigation and engagement. The lab offers expertise, equipment, and support for examining, preserving, and analysing historical, literary, and visual materials in alignment with the university’s expertise in international cultural heritage and creative past research. The lab’s establishment reflects the growing importance of humanities research and the integration of digital methods into scholarly practices.
While the DH lab is not an academic department, its collaboration with researchers from the Faculty of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences supports digital elements in traditional humanities research, fostering interdisciplinary exploration and innovation at the intersection of technology and humanistic inquiry.
The lab’s activities develop along four areas: collaboration on digital research projects and resources, grant development and data management support, website development and hosting, and digital skills training, including digitization services. In line with its goal of incorporating DH into teaching and research, the lab provides equipment, facilities, and digitization spaces for loans and supports off-campus use and specialist activities. Moreover, it offers skills training and digitalization experiences that can be integrated into teaching courses, along with internship, volunteering, and job opportunities for individuals interested in gaining digital and practical skills.
At the forefront of innovation, the lab encompasses new methods as they are developed, often deploying technological advances in science and engineering, and strive to contribute knowledge and best practice back to the global DH community.
Presently, in alignment with the College of Arts & Humanities Digital Strategy for 2021-26, the lab has been successfully driving digital literacy through various training and support programs. Additionally, its efforts to incorporate DH into teaching and research align with the key theme of ‘Nurturing Hybrid Humanists’ within the strategy. Themes such as ‘Intelligent analysis of documents, artefacts, and environment’ and ‘Telling New Stories with Data’ further align with the lab’s support for international cultural heritage and creative past research. Lastly, the lab’s development of inclusive and accessible digital resources, along with its emphasis on holistic approaches to digital labour, addresses the impacts of digitized culture, reflecting the strategy’s theme of ‘Addressing the Impacts of Digitized Culture’. (Source: University of Exeter, nd)
Teaching on DH
While the lab does not teach or offer regular undergraduate and postgraduate DH modules, it offers DH trainings in the form of training workshops, webinars, and research seminars. From ‘Managing Humanities Data’ and ‘Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI)’ workshops that run throughout the autumn and spring term, to the AI & Humanities, and the Space & Place in the Humanities Forum, to AHRC iDAH Digital Skills Training Workshops and Webinars Series.These resources cater to participants at all levels, from beginners to advanced (University of Exeter, nd).
The DH Team
Prof Leif Isaksen, Professor in Digital Humanities and Director of Digital Humanities at the University of Exeter, interested in the development of geographic thought and representation in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and the emerging role of the Web as a transformational medium for communicating and connecting complex information.
Dr Charlotte Tupman, Senior Research Fellow in Digital Humanities. Expert in Latin epigraphy and the application of digital technologies to study ancient texts. Interested in Machine learning for the analysis of ancient textual materials, Lettercutting processes in the Roman world, Roman funerary commemoration, and Linked Open Data for humanities source materials
Dr Elizabeth Williamson, Senior Research Fellow, Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, interested in the early modern archives and epistolary culture, especially in a diplomatic and governmental context; the practical and theoretical concerns of the Digital Humanities; and textual scholarship and digital publication.
Charlotte Tupman 博士, 数字人文高级研究员, 专攻拉丁铭文，擅长应用数字技术研究古代文本。 她对机器学习在古代文本材料分析中的应用、罗马世界的刻字工艺、罗马墓葬纪念以及人文学科源资料的链接开放数据感兴趣。她是由英国艺术与人文研究委员会（AHRC）和德国研究基金会（DFG）资助的研究项目“连接晚期古代”的联合调查员。
Elizabeth Williamson 博士, 人文、艺术和社会科学学院高级研究员。她在项目管理和数字资源创建方面拥有丰富的经验，并支持现有项目和未来招标开发。她特别关注早期现代档案和书信文化，尤其是在外交和政府背景下；对数字人文的实践和理论关注；以及文本学研究和数字出版。她对数字可视化、数字修复以及利用增强制造技术进行文化遗产保护感兴趣。
