Meet Lei Lei

[中文版]

Lei is a final-year PhD candidate in the SOAS History department. Her research focuses on the transformations in economic thought and practices in late Qing China, particularly the role of the intricate interconnections among the Qing central government, literati-officialdom, and comprador-merchants in the shift in economic thought, policies and the ownership of modern enterprises amid the global rise of neomercantilist ideas. Throughout her doctoral studies, she has presented portions of her work at several national and international symposiums and contributed to conference compilations. She is a member of the EACS, the EHS and the Association for the History of Chinese Economic Thought. Prior to her PhD, Lei completed her Master’s degree in Economic History at the London School of Economics and her Bachelor’s degree at the University of Liverpool. Lei aims to pursue a career in academia, combining digital humanities research methods with an economic perspective on ancient Chinese books.

1.How do you define Digital Humanities?

Digital Humanities (DH) is an innovative interdisciplinary approach that integrates traditional humanistic inquiry with modern digital and computational technologies. It enables scholars to explore questions that were previously unapproachable due to the scale, complexity, or inaccessibility of data. 

2. How did you become interested in DH? 

My interest in digital humanities methods was sparked by my academic supervisor and deepened after a 2024 academic symposium on Chinese economic thought where I presented a chapter focusing on the Huangchao jingshi wenbian collections, applying digital text mining and critical source analysis to quantify the use of key works and evaluate their significance. During the symposium, a chair recommended I apply the Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF) technique. 

3. Tell us about your dissertation

My research focuses on the transformations in economic thought and practices in late Qing China, particularly the role of the intricate interconnections among the Qing central government, literati-officialdom, and comprador-merchants in the shift in economic thought, policies and modern enterprises amid the global rise of neomercantilist ideas. 

4. And a DH project you like?

One digital humanities project that impressed me was a digital scholarship initiative by the British Library. The number of early printed books involved is enormous—around 23,000 volumes published between 1908 and 2007. Moreover, PhD candidates who are interested in collaborating can propose their own projects and consult with the library’s teams. The scale of the collection and the flexibility in project design made me realize how efficient and innovative digital humanities can be.

介绍Lei Lei

Lei 是伦敦大学亚非学院(SOAS)历史系的一名博士毕业年级学生。她的研究聚焦于清朝晚期经济思想和实践的转变,特别关注清朝中央政府、士大夫官僚阶层与买办商人之间错综复杂的联系,在经济思想、政策及现代企业所有权转变过程中所起的作用,这一切都发生在新重商主义思想全球兴起的背景下。在攻读博士学位期间,她曾在多个国内外学术研讨会上展示过部分研究成果,并为会议论文集作出贡献。她是欧洲汉学学会(EACS)、经济史学会(EHS)以及中国经济思想史学会的成员。

在攻读博士学位之前,雷曾在伦敦政治经济学院 (London School of Economics) 获得经济史硕士学位,并在利物浦大学(the University of Liverpool)完成了本科学业。她计划在学术界发展职业生涯,将数字人文学研究方法与中国古籍的经济视角相结合。

1. 你如何定义数字人文?

数字人文(Digital Humanities, DH)是一种创新的跨学科研究方法,将传统的人文学术研究与现代数字和计算技术相结合。它使学者能够探索过去因数据规模、复杂性或难以获取而难以研究的问题。

2. 你是如何对数字人文产生兴趣的?

我对数字人文方法的兴趣最初来自我的学术导师,在2024年一场关于中国经济思想的学术研讨会上得到了进一步深化。在会上,我展示了关于《皇朝经世文编》文献的研究章节,采用数字文本挖掘与批判性文献分析的方法,量化关键著作的使用频率,并评估其思想意义。会议期间,一位主持人建议我尝试使用“词频-逆文档频率”(TF-IDF)技术来进一步分析文本。

3. 请介绍你的论文课题。

我的研究关注晚清中国经济思想与实践的转型,尤其是清中央政府、士大夫官僚群体与买办商人之间复杂互动关系在经济思想、政策和现代企业发展中的作用。这一转变也与全球重商主义思潮的兴起密切相关。

4. 有什么让你印象深刻的数字人文项目?

让我印象深刻的一个数字人文项目是由英国图书馆发起的数字学术研究计划。该项目涉及的早期印刷书籍数量庞大,约有23,000册,出版时间从1908年到2007年不等。同时,任何有意参与的博士研究者都可以提出自己的项目,并与图书馆的研究团队进行合作。这一项目在资源规模和研究设计上的灵活性让我深刻认识到数字人文在学术研究中的高效性与创新性。

Meet Penelope Nguyen

[中文版]

Penelope Gia Bao Huu Nguyen is a UKRI Doctoral Fellow on the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Network, CASCADE. She is working on the automation of concepts through time via the automatic construction of an English-language historical thesaurus. Penelope holds a bachelor’s degree in English Studies from Can Tho University in Vietnam, where she first developed her passion for linguistics, particularly in the field of pragmatics. As a Fulbright scholar, she completed her master’s in Linguistics at Purdue University (USA), focusing on impoliteness and emoji usage on Vietnamese Facebook pages. Her research integrates computational and corpus linguistics to address questions that advance linguistic theory and interdisciplinary fields.


1.How do you define Digital Humanities?

To me, Digital Humanities (DH) is using digital tools to study humanities. This encompasses a wide array of subjects, ranging from history and cultural heritage to language and literature. Digital tools can be used for all stages of research: data collection, data management, data analysis, result dissemination, etc. In other words, DH enables scholars to revisit familiar questions through innovative, data-driven methodologies.

2. How did you become interested in DH? 

I first heard the term “Digital Humanities” when pursuing an MA in Linguistics at Purdue, where a graduate certificate in DH was advertised to graduate students. I took an introductory DH course called Computational text analysis there, and right away wished I had known about this area of research sooner as it opens up so many new and exciting interdisciplinary avenues for high-impact projects. I was amazed to see how literary scholars use computational tools for “distant reading” to study stylometry and authorship research. In the age of AI, DH provides researchers in various fields with opportunities and tools to communicate with each other and collaborate for ground-breaking works. Nowadays, it’s no longer uncommon to see a computer scientist and an archaeologist – or even a 3D-printing expert – working together in a DH project. Another interesting aspect of DH projects is that they’re usually accessible to the public, perhaps in the form of a web page or a software. In this way, knowledge isn’t gatekept in paywalled academic journals only.

3. Tell us about your dissertation

Discursive concepts are historically significant concepts that cannot be captured by a single lexical item (e.g., ethics or taxation) or collocational structures (e.g., climate change or generation gap), but can be pinned down using a method called concept modelling. First, a concept model of quads, or four words that are found to be strongly associated based on PMI (Pointwise Mutual Information) scores across a large span of text, is produced by a processor. Then, a series of pragmatic routines and encyclopaedic enrichment is applied when close-reading a number of texts containing those quads to arrive at the discursive concept. An example is the quads like day – hour – minute –  moon; day – eclipse – minute – moon; etc. extracted from EEBO-TCP, which can refer to the practice of observing celestial bodies for practical purposes. However, this labour-intensive approach is still time-consuming, prone to biases, and computationally expensive, not to mention a lack of temporal factor (i.e., tracking how concepts change over time). I’m working to devise a new method for the automatic generation of a catalogue of zeitgeists, or historically significant concepts, from a collection of texts, across time, considering time, computational cost, human effort, and robustness. The catalogue, which is built using a bottom-up approach, can be used as a reference for historians, historical and/ or computational linguists, NLP researchers, etc.  

4. And a DH project you like?

I might be biased because both of my supervisors were actively involved in this project, but I was very much drawn to Linguistic DNA (https://www.linguisticdna.org/) when researching for my PhD application. The idea is brilliant: we all want to effectively capture context in texts, and concept modelling offers a way to do so. I was more used to traditional corpus linguistic measures and techniques, so learning a completely new approach and workflow is eye-opening. You can try it yourself, by interacting with the Demonstrator and reading the accompanying blog posts. I hope you’ll be as excited as I was when I first played with it!

介绍Penelope Nguyen

Penelope Gia Bao Huu Nguyen是英国研究与创新署(UKRI)Marie Skłodowska-Curie 博士网络“CASCADE”项目的博士研究员。她目前的研究聚焦于概念在历史中的自动演变,具体项目是通过自动构建一部英文历史同义词词典。

Penelope 拥有越南芹苴大学(Can Tho University)的英语研究学士学位,正是在那里,她首次培养了对语言学的热情,尤其是在语用学领域。作为一名富布赖特学者,她在美国普渡大学(Purdue University)完成了语言学硕士学位,研究重点是越南Facebook页面上的不礼貌现象及表情符号的使用。

她的研究融合了计算语言学和语料库语言学,旨在通过探索语言学理论和跨学科问题,推动相关领域的发展。

1. 您如何定义数字人文?

在我看来,数字人文(DH)是指利用数字工具来研究人文学科。这涵盖了广泛的主题,从历史与文化遗产到语言与文学。数字工具可以用于研究的各个阶段:数据采集、数据管理、数据分析、研究成果的传播等等。换句话说,数字人文使学者能够通过创新的、数据驱动的方法重新审视熟悉的问题。

2. 您是如何对数字人文产生兴趣的?

我第一次听说“数字人文”这个术语是在普渡大学攻读语言学硕士学位时,当时学校向研究生推荐一个数字人文的研究生证书项目。我选修了一门名为“计算文本分析”的入门课程,立刻就希望自己能更早了解这个研究领域,因为它为高影响力的跨学科项目打开了许多新的、令人兴奋的可能性。我非常惊讶地看到,文学研究者如何利用计算工具进行“远读”,来研究文体学和作者归属问题。在人工智能时代,数字人文为各个领域的研究者提供了交流与协作的机会和工具,以实现突破性的研究成果。如今,我们已不再奇怪看到计算机科学家与考古学家——甚至3D打印专家——在一个数字人文项目中合作。另一个有趣的方面是,数字人文项目通常是对公众开放的,可能以网页或软件的形式呈现。通过这种方式,知识不再仅仅被封锁在付费墙后的学术期刊中。

3. 请告诉我们一个您的数字人文项目?

话语概念(discursive concepts)是一些具有历史意义的概念,不能通过单一词汇(如“伦理”或“税收”)或固定搭配结构(如“气候变化”或“代沟”)来完整表达,但可以通过一种名为“概念建模”(concept modelling)的方法来识别。首先,使用处理器生成一个四词组合(quad)的概念模型,这些词在大规模语料中通过PMI(点互信息)计算得出强关联。然后,研究者通过细读包含这些词组的文本,结合语用操作和百科式的信息补充,从而提炼出具体的话语概念。例如,从EEBO-TCP语料中提取的“day – hour – minute – moon”、“day – eclipse – minute – moon”等四词组合,可以指代“为了实用目的观察天体的做法”。然而,这种方法非常耗费人力与计算资源,且仍容易产生偏差,也缺乏时间因素的考量(即无法追踪概念如何随时间演变)。我正在致力于开发一种新方法,能够自动地从一系列文本中、跨越时间地提取“时代精神目录”(catalogue of zeitgeists),即历史上具有意义的概念。这个目录采用自下而上的构建方式,在考虑时间、计算成本、人力投入和稳健性的前提下,最终可供历史学家、历史语言学家、计算语言学家、自然语言处理研究者等使用。

4. 您特别喜欢的一个数字人文项目?

我在准备博士申请时被“语言DNA”(Linguistic DNA, https://www.linguisticdna.org/)这个项目所吸引。也许我偏爱这个项目因为我的两位导师都曾积极参与其中。项目希望能够有效捕捉文本中的语境,而概念建模提供了一种实现方式。此前我更熟悉传统的语料库语言学方法和技术,因此学习这种全新的研究方法和工作流程对我来说非常有启发。你也可以亲自体验一下,通过与“演示器”(Demonstrator)互动并阅读相关的博客文章。我希望你会像我第一次接触它时一样感到兴奋!

Meet Błażej Mikuła

[中文版]

Błażej Mikuła is a team member of the Cultural Heritage Imaging Laboratory (CHIL) at Cambridge University Library. He is involved in digitising manuscripts and creating short films for various projects.

Previously, Błażej worked as a photojournalist, capturing significant historical events such as the war in Afghanistan and the famine in South Sudan. Now, he is rediscovering the hidden past in books using modern technology like multispectral photography. He has contributed to several projects, including , NewtonDarwinGenizah Project, and more. Currently, he is working on the Wong Avery project, where he creates 3D scans of Chinese oracle bones, allowing for the digital reconstruction of previously broken bones.

Spending long hours in the library had an unexpected side effect—he caught an interest in book collecting. Today, he owns a vast collection of “Klubówka” — pirated editions of science fiction and fantasy books printed in Poland during the collapse of communism, between 1980 and 1990. These were the first Polish editions of iconic works such as Conan, Star Wars, and I, Robot by Isaac Asimov. Often poorly translated, crudely printed, and unquestionably illicit, these books are relics of a time when literature slipped through the cracks of censorship — smuggled in ink and paper.

1. How do you define Digital Humanities?

This is where curiosity meets computation—using technology to deepen our understanding of culture, history, language, and society. Whether it’s exploring why 11th-century scribes in the Middle East chose specific inks or recovering erased text from an ancient palimpsest, Digital Humanities (DH) offers innovative ways to uncover answers. It brings together scholars, coders, librarians, photographers, and others to collaborate across disciplines. Tools like multispectral photography, reflectance transformation imaging, and 3D scanning reveal insights that would otherwise remain hidden. By bridging the past and the present through digital tools, DH not only transforms how we study the humanities—it redefines what’s possible when we ask new questions in new ways.

2. How did you become interested in DH?

It wasn’t love at first sight—mainly because I simply didn’t know what it was. At first, I was just a photographer, and my task was to make images. I joined the Parker on the Web project at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, in the same year Apple introduced the first iPhone, Netflix launched its streaming service, Amy Winehouse’s Rehab played on the radio, and the Doomsday Clock moved from 7 to 5 minutes to midnight.

It took some time before I realized I could be more involved in Digital Humanities. When new technology came along, I jumped right on it. Today, I’m working with MSI, RTI, and 3D scanning, helping researchers uncover the mysteries of some of the most beautiful items in the library.

I consider myself lucky to have witnessed the growth of DH—from a time when barely anyone applied for the job. It was an amazing time—though today, we’re just 89 seconds to midnight.

3. Tell us about one of your DH projects

It’s dragons and magic. In 1899, when Wang Yirong—a Chinese scholar and official—visited a medicine shop, he noticed inscriptions on what were being sold as “dragon bones.” This marked the beginning of oraculology and the study of the earliest known form of Chinese writing.

Today, the Wong Avery Project—a collaboration between the University of Cambridge and UC San Diego—is cataloguing and digitising the Chinese Collection. We’ve already photographed all of the oracle bones and created several 3D scans with cross-polarised textures. There’s still plenty to do, and—as is typical in Digital Humanities—I’m waiting for someone to ask a new question—preferably one that would allow me to create a CT scan of CUL.52 

4. And a DH project you like?

Small Performances is an interdisciplinary project exploring the history and future of printing through the unique collection of typographic punches made by John Baskerville (1707–1775), now housed at Cambridge University Library. Supported by the CHERISH Hub, it brings together historians, scientists, and craftspeople to reconstruct 18th-century punch-cutting using a combination of pioneering scientific and artisanal methods. These efforts benefit both modern industry and education. While my role is limited due to commitments with the Wong Avery Project, I’m contributing 3D models and a short film documenting stone letter carving.

介绍Błażej Mikuła

Błażej Mikuła是剑桥大学(Cambridge University)图书馆文化遗产影像实验(Cultural Heritage Imaging Laboratory)的团队成员。他参与手稿的数字化工作,并为多个项目制作短片。

此前,Błażej 曾是一名新闻摄影记者,记录了包括阿富汗战争和南苏丹饥荒在内的重要历史事件。如今,他借助多光谱摄影等现代技术,在书籍中重新发掘被遗忘的历史。

他曾参与多个项目,包括牛顿 (Newton)、达尔文(Darwin)和开封吉尼扎(Genizah Project)等。目前,他正参与“黄艾芙丽项目”(Wong Avery project),通过三维扫描技术对中国甲骨文进行数字重建,使原本破损的骨片得以“复原”。

长时间待在图书馆意外激发了他对藏书的兴趣。如今,他拥有大量被称为“Klubówka”的书籍收藏——这些是波兰在20世纪80至90年代共产主义崩溃期间印制的科幻与奇幻类盗版书籍。这些书包括《科南》,《星球大战》,以及艾萨克·阿西莫夫的《我,机器人》等著名作品的波兰首译版。这些书往往翻译粗糙、印刷简陋,显然属于非法出版物,却是那个时代的历史遗物——当文学通过油墨与纸张,在审查制度的缝隙中流通传播。

1. 您如何定义数字人文?

数字人文是好奇心与计算技术的相遇——运用科技加深我们对文化、历史、语言与社会的理解。无论是探究11世纪中东文士为何选择特定墨水,还是从古老的重写羊皮纸中恢复被抹去的文字,数字人文(DH)都为我们提供了创新的方法去寻找答案。它汇集了学者、程序员、图书馆员、摄影师等各类专业人士,共同开展跨学科合作。多光谱摄影、反射变换成像(RTI)、三维扫描等工具揭示了原本隐藏的细节。通过数字工具连接过去与现在,数字人文不仅改变了我们研究人文学科的方式,更重新定义了当我们用新方式提出新问题时,研究能达到的可能性。

2. 您是如何对数字人文产生兴趣的?

这并不是一见钟情——主要是因为我一开始根本不知道它是什么。起初,我只是一个摄影师,我的任务就是拍照片。我是在苹果发布第一代 iPhone、Netflix 启动流媒体服务、艾米·怀恩豪斯的《Rehab》在广播中播放、末日时钟从午夜前7分钟拨到5分钟的那一年,加入了剑桥科珀斯克里斯蒂学院的“帕克网页项目”(Parker on the Web)。

过了一段时间,我才意识到自己可以更深入地参与数字人文。当新技术出现时,我毫不犹豫地投入其中。如今,我使用多光谱成像(MSI)、反射变换成像(RTI)和三维扫描,帮助研究人员揭示图书馆中最精美藏品背后的奥秘。

我觉得自己很幸运,见证了数字人文的成长——从几乎没人申请相关职位的时期走到今天。那是令人振奋的时光——尽管现在,我们距离“午夜”只剩下89秒。

3. 请告诉我们一个您的数字人文项目?

这个项目与龙和魔法有关。1899年,中国学者兼官员王懿荣在药铺中发现被称为“龙骨”的药材上刻有文字。这一发现开启了甲骨学的研究,并引发了对中国已知最早文字形式的深入探讨。

如今,“黄艾芙丽项目”(Wong Avery Project)是剑桥大学与加州大学圣地亚哥分校合作开展的项目,致力于整理和数字化中国馆藏。我们已经完成了全部甲骨的拍摄,并制作了多个带有交叉偏振纹理的三维扫描模型。目前还有大量工作待完成,而正如数字人文领域的一贯特点——我正在等待有人提出一个新的研究问题,最好是那种能让我为  CUL.52 进行CT扫描的问题!

4. 您特别喜欢的一个数字人文项目?

“微型演出”(Small Performances)是一个跨学科项目,通过剑桥大学图书馆收藏的约翰·巴斯克维尔(John Baskerville, 1707–1775)字体冲头,探索印刷术的历史与未来。在 CHERISH Hub 的支持下,该项目联合历史学家、科学家与工艺师,利用先进的科学与传统手工相结合的方法,重建18世纪字体雕刻工艺。这些努力不仅对现代工业有益,也推动了教育发展。

尽管我因参与黄艾芙丽项目而无法全程投入该项目,但我仍参与了三维建模,并制作了一部关于石刻字母雕刻过程的短片。

介绍高瑾博士 Meet Dr Jin Gao

[中文版]

Personal Profile

Dr Jin Gao is a Lecturer in Digital Archives at the UCL Department of Information Studies, an Associate Director of UCL Centre for Digital Humanities. She is teaching on the MA/MSc in Digital Humanities programmes and MA in Archives and Records Management programme. Jin is also a Visiting Research Fellow at the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum working on various collaborative research projects, such as the Chinese Export Watercolours (CEW) project. She has also been co-editing the book series Intelligent Computing for Cultural Heritage (Routledge, 2024), a volume that brings together international perspectives on digital humanities topics in cultural contexts.

1.How do you define Digital Humanities?

Digital Humanities offers the possibility to ask old questions in new ways, to ask questions that would otherwise be impossible to ask, and more importantly, digital humanities also has a role in interrogating computing and AI in society and culture, and vice versa. So we’re looking at the digital through humanistic lens and not only the humanistic through a digital lens. 

2. How did you become interested in DH?

I think I can say that I am a digital humanist by training, and with seven years of working experiences within the museum sector, my background is more situated within the realm of digital cultural heritage. I became interested in DH when I realised the power of digital tools to surface hidden narratives, connect disparate collections, and engage broader communities. Over time, I’ve found DH to be a space where experimentation, interdisciplinarity, and social responsibility can come together, particularly in rethinking how we document, represent, and share cultural heritage.

3. Tell us about one of your DH projects

I’m currently leading a collaborative project between UCL and the V&A on Chinese Export Watercolours (CEW). We’re using digital tools, from cataloguing and image analysis, AR and interactive exhibitions, to explore the provenance and reinterpretation of this unique collection. It’s not just about digitisation but about understanding how digital storytelling and public engagement can open new pathways for research, access, and conversations. The project is still ongoing, and it also supports student researchers and is developing an AR exhibition for UCL East.

4. And a DH project you like?

I’ve always admired Transcribe Bentham for how it brings cultural heritage work into the public domain. It doesn’t just crowdsource transcription, it builds community, blurs the line between expert and volunteer, and shows how digital infrastructure can extend the life and relevance of historical materials. Projects like this remind me that DH is not only about technology but about trust, care, and imagination.

介绍高瑾博士

高瑾博士是伦敦大学学院(UCL)信息研究系的数字档案讲师,同时担任UCL数字人文学中心的副主任。她主要负责教授数字人文硕士学位和档案管理硕士学位,同时他也是博士生导师。高瑾是英国维多利亚与阿尔伯特博物馆(V&A)的访问研究员,参与博物馆多个合作研究项目,例如“中国外销画(CEW)项目”。她还共同编辑了《文化遗产智能计算》丛书(Routledge,2024),该系列汇集了来自全球关于数字人文在文化语境中应用的多元观点。

1. 您如何定义数字人文?

数字人文为我们提供了以全新方式提出传统问题的可能性,甚至使我们得以提出那些在以往不可能提出的问题。更重要的是,数字人文也在推动我们去审视计算技术和人工智能在社会与文化中的角色,反之亦然。因此,我们不仅是通过数字视角看人文学科,更是通过人文视角反思数字技术。

2. 您是如何对数字人文产生兴趣的?

我可以说自己是接受过系统训练的数字人文学者,同时也有七年在博物馆领域工作的经验,因此我的背景更贴近数字文化遗产。我开始对数字人文产生兴趣,是在意识到数字工具能够揭示被忽视的叙事、连接异地馆藏、并与公众进行更广泛的互动。随着时间推移,我逐渐意识到,数字人文是一个融合实验性、跨学科性与社会责任感的空间,尤其是在重新思考我们如何记录、呈现和分享文化遗产方面。

3. 请告诉我们一个您的数字人文项目?

我目前正开展一个UCL与V&A合作的“中国外销画(CEW)”项目。我们运用多种数字工具,包括编目、图像分析、增强现实(AR)与互动式展览,来探索这一独特藏品的来源及其当代表达。这不仅仅是一个数字化项目,更关乎我们如何借助数字叙事与公众参与,开辟研究、获取与对话的新路径。该项目仍在进行中,同时也支持学生研究工作,并正在UCL东校区策划一个小型AR展览。

4. 您特别喜欢的一个数字人文项目?

我一直很欣赏UCL的“Transcribe Bentham”项目,因为它成功地将文化遗产工作引入公共领域。这个项目不仅仅是众包转录,它更是建立了一个社区,模糊了专家与志愿者之间的界限,展现了数字基础设施如何延续历史材料的生命力与现实意义。像这样的项目提醒我们,数字人文不仅关乎技术,更关乎信任、关怀与想象力。

UCL Centre for Digital Humanities (UCLDH)

Image credit: UCL, 2025

[中文版] 

Name

the UCL Centre for Digital Humanities (UCLDH)

Founded

2010

Short description

The UCL Centre for Digital Humanities (UCLDH), part of the UCL Institute of Advanced Studies, is a cross-faculty research hub that bridges digital technologies and the humanities. It supports a wide array of work across the Arts, Humanities, and Cultural Heritage sectors, offering services such as research support, hosting digital humanities events and courses, providing consultancy for digital projects, and facilitating teaching and research in digitisation technologies.

The centre draws on UCL’s expertise in information studies, computer science, and the arts and humanities, with its research influencing cultural heritage, museums, libraries, archives, and broader cultural sectors. It is home to a diverse network of affiliated scholars from across UCL, who teach and conduct research across multiple disciplines, contributing to a broad spectrum of digital humanities work, including library services, museums, and collections.

Teaching on DH

While the centre does not directly offer Digital Humanities (DH) courses, the Department of Information Studies, along with several other departments, provides a range of relevant short courses, undergraduate, and postgraduate modules. These include courses such as Digital Conservations and Marketing, Digital Geographies, and The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence. Additionally, the department offers two postgraduate programs in DH: the MA/MSc in Digital Humanities.

DH academics

Professor Oliver Duke-Williams – Programme Director for the MA Digital Humanities and MSc Digital Humanities. Oliver’s work relates to the present, future and past of censuses in the UK. Within DH research, Oliver is interested in the development of publication and other linked networks of DH researchers, and the relationship between these and language networks.

Dr. Jin Gao– Lecturer in Digital Archives. Jin Gao is interested in the digital cultural heritage, museum provenance studies, history of Digital Humanities, social network analysis, and non-Western cataloguing standards.

Dr. Karen Stepanyan – Associate Professor. Karen’s research is centred on the interdisciplinary integration of information technologies with computational concepts of knowledge. His research interest lies in the advancement of the Semantic Web technologies and understanding of the social fabric behind the Web using Social Network Analysis. 

Dr. Vassilis Routsis – Senior Research Fellow. Vassilis’s research interest encompasses technology’s cultural and socio-political impacts, focusing on privacy and interdisciplinary methods in humanities and social sciences research.

Dr. Foteini Valeonti – Sloane Lab Research Fellow. Expert in specialising in leveraging blockchain technology for culture. Foteino’s research focuses on the utilisation of emerging technologies for the benefit of our cultural heritage. Foteino is interested in the research and development of innovative digital products for the cultural heritage sector, relating to the following themes: the Open Content movement (OpenGLAM), the accessibility of art and digitised collections. 

Key projects with links

  1. Recognition and Enrichment of Archival Documents
  2. Interactive Fine Art Gallery & Museum USEUM
  3. Seeing Speech: Introduction
  4. Dynamic Dialects
  5. CrossCult

Image credit: UCL, 2025

UCL数字人文学科中心

名称

UCL数字人文学科中心(UCLDH)

成立年份

2010年

简要描述

UCL高级研究学院UCL数字人文学科中心(UCLDH)是一个跨学科的研究中心,致力于数字技术与人文学科的交汇点。该中心支持艺术、人文和文化遗产领域的广泛工作,提供如研究支持、举办数字人文学科活动和课程、为数字项目提供咨询服务以及推动数字化技术的教学和研究等服务。

该中心利用UCL在信息学、计算机科学以及艺术与人文学科领域的专业知识,其研究成果对文化遗产、博物馆、图书馆、档案馆及更广泛的文化领域产生影响。它汇聚了来自UCL各学科的学者组成的多样化网络,他们从事不同领域的教学和研究,参与数字人文学科的广泛工作,包括图书馆服务、博物馆和藏品等。

数字人文学科教学

虽然该中心不直接提供数字人文学科(DH)课程,但信息学系以及其他多个系提供了一系列相关的短期课程、本科和研究生模块。这些课程包括《数字保护与市场营销》、《数字地理学》和《人工智能伦理》等。此外,该系还提供两个数字人文学科的研究生课程:MA/MSc数字人文学科。

数字人文学科学者

Professor Oliver Duke-Williams – MA 数字人文学科和MSc数字人文学科项目主任。奥利弗的研究与英国人口普查的过去、现在和未来相关。在数字人文学科研究中,奥利弗对出版物及其他数字人文学科研究者的关联网络的构建以及这些网络与语言网络之间的关系感兴趣。

Dr. Adam Crymble – BSc社会信息项目主任。他的研究兴趣集中在移民与社区的研究,以及技术如何为追求这些知识提供新的问题或机会。

Dr. Jin Gao – 数字档案讲师。高晋博士的研究兴趣包括数字文化遗产、博物馆来源研究、数字人文学科的历史、社交网络分析和非西方目录标准。

Dr. Karen Stepanyan  – 副教授。Karen的研究集中在信息技术与知识计算概念的跨学科融合。他的研究兴趣包括语义网技术的进展,以及通过社交网络分析理解互联网背后的社会结构。

Dr. Vassilis Routsis– 高级研究员。Vassilis的研究兴趣涵盖技术对文化和社会政治的影响,重点关注隐私问题及人文学科和社会科学研究中的跨学科方法。

Dr. Foteini Valeonti  – Sloane 实验室研究员。Foteini专注于利用区块链技术促进文化领域的发展。她的研究聚焦于利用新兴技术来推动文化遗产的保护。她对文化遗产领域创新数字产品的研究与开发感兴趣,涉及以下主题:开放内容运动(OpenGLAM)、艺术和数字化藏品的可接触性。

重要项目及链接

  1. 档案文献的识别与丰富
  2. 互动美术画廊与博物馆USEUM
  3. 观看演讲:介绍
  4. 动态方言
  5. CrossCult

介绍王晓光教授 Meet Professor Wang Xiaoguang

[English Version]

王晓光教授是武汉大学信息管理学院的二级教授、副院长、博士生导师,武汉大学大数据研究院常务副院长,武汉大学文化遗产智能计算实验室主任,武汉大学数字人文研究中心主任。他的研究兴趣是数字资产管理、知识组织、语义出版和数字人文。

1. 你如何定义数字人文?

数字人文是一个新兴的跨学科研究领域,特别关注人文与数字信息技术交叉研究主题。主要包括三种类型的研究内容,一是基于数字资源的人文研究,包括数字资源建设与开发,以及使用这些数字信息资源和数字工具进行传统的人文研究;二是基于数字模型的人文研究,也就是利用数字建模技术对人文文本、图像、音视频等文献资料进行建模和统计分析;三是针对各种新兴数字现象的研究。

2. 是什么让你开始对数字人文感兴趣的?

我2007年从武汉大学信息管理学院管理科学与工程专业毕业以后留校工作,看到了日本立命馆大学京都数字文艺研究中心正在面向全球招聘博士后,我就申请了该职位,并成功获批。在立命馆大学从事博士后研究期间,我获知他们中心获得日本政府的一个GCOE项目,并在积极利用数字技术开展京都文艺的传承保护与活化利用研究,进而了解了数字人文这个新兴的研究主题。处于职业敏感,我感觉这是一个新兴的有价值的研究方向,并且会随着数字社会不可逆转的发展会越来越受关注,代表了人文研究的趋势,同时也是图书情报研究的前沿主题,所以我对此研究领域进行了较为深入的文献计量分析,也发现该领域在全球范围内快速发展,而且呈现出日益蓬勃的趋势,越来越多的研究主题开始浮现,并且都带有明显的跨学科特色,十分吸引人,由此,我越来越感兴趣,并积极投入其中。

3. 可以给我们分享一个你参与的数字人文项目吗?

从日本回国以后,在马费成教授指导下,我在武汉大学建立了中国首个数字人文研究中心,推广和宣传数字人文研究理念。并做了一些DH projects,其中我最喜欢的还是与中国敦煌研究院合作的敦煌壁画深度语义标注项目。该项目主要与敦煌研究院的信息中心夏生平主任合作,以敦煌壁画为例,探讨如何对文化遗产图像进行深度语义建模,以揭示历史性图像中蕴含的主题和文化知识,我们融合了图像学领域潘诺夫斯基的图像志理论和信息组织领域的主题标引理论,构建了一个整合性的图像深度语义标注模型,并在此基础上开发了一个针对敦煌壁画图像的主题词表和一系列可视化标注工具,来控制标引词的规范性和实施图像深度语义标注,在此基础上我们还探索了文化遗产数据增强理论以及文化遗产智慧数据建设方案。

4. 以及一个你喜欢的数字人文项目?

目前,我们正在基于文化遗产智能计算教育部哲学社会科学实验室,做长江文明平台项目,我们将开发一个数字平台,支持先秦与秦汉时代的考古与历史研究,我们利用三维建模技术、GIS技术、人工智能技术,已经构建一个在线的历史地图编绘系统,以及一个竹简智能缀合系统,还有一个在线的先秦墓葬地理信息平台,我们也构建了一个文化遗产数字演绎剧场,用于数智化实验和展示我们的科研成果。我们希望借助这些工具和平台整合楚文化相关的历史资料数据,并以此改变楚文化和长江文明研究的范式,为数字人文研究提供一个新型研究基础设施,推动楚文化的研究、教学与全球传播。

Meet Professor Wang Xiaoguang

Professor Wang Xiaoguang is the Professor and Vice Dean of the School of Information Management and Executive Vice Dean of the Big Data Institute, Director of the Intellectual Computing Laboratory for Cultural Heritage, and Director of the Centre for Digital Humanities at Wuhan University. His research interests are digital asset management, knowledge organisation, semantic publishing, and digital humanities.

1.How do you define Digital Humanities?

Digital humanities is an emerging interdisciplinary research field, with a particular focus on research themes at the intersection of the humanities and digital information technologies. It consists of three main types of research. One is humanities research based on digital resources, including the construction and development of digital resources, as well as the use of these digital information resources and digital tools for traditional humanities research. The second is humanities research based on digital models, that is, the use of digital modelling techniques to model and statistically analyse humanities texts, images, audio and video, and other documentary materials. The third is the research on various emerging digital phenomena.

2. How did you become interested in DH?

After graduating from Wuhan University in 2007 with a degree in Management Science and Engineering, I stayed there to work. Later, I saw that the Kyoto Centre for Digital Literature and Arts at Ritsumeikan University was recruiting postdocs from all over the world, I applied for the position, and I was accepted. During my postdoctoral research at Ritsumeikan University, I learned that the Centre had been awarded a GCOE project by the Japanese government and was actively using digital technology to conduct research on the preservation and revitalisation of Kyoto’s arts and culture.,This is when I came to understand digital humanities as an emerging research area. In my professional sensitivity, I felt that this is a new and valuable research direction, and with the irreversible development of the digital society will be more and more attention, representing the trend of humanities research, but also the cutting-edge of library and information science research. I carried out a more in-depth bibliometric analysis of this research field, and also found that this field is developing rapidly worldwide, more and more research themes are beginning to emerge, and all of them are with obvious interdisciplinary characteristics, which is very attractive. As a result, I have become increasingly interested and engaged.

3. Tell us about one of your DH projects

After returning from Japan, under the support of Prof. Ma Feicheng, I established China’s first Digital Humanities Centre at Wuhan University to promote and publicise the concept of digital humanities research. I have done some digital humanities projects, my favourite of which is the deep semantic annotation of Dunhuang murals in collaboration with the Dunhuang Research Academy in China. We worked with Xia Shengping, the director of the Information Centre of Dunhuang Research Academy to explore how to model the deep semantics of cultural heritage images as an example, in order to reveal the themes and cultural knowledge embedded in historic images. We fused Pannovsky’s theory of iconography in the field of iconology and the theory of subject indexing in the field of information organisation to construct an integrated model of deep semantic annotation of images. Based on this, we developed the subject headings and a series of visual annotation tools for Dunhuang mural images to control the normality of the tagged words and implement deep semantic annotation of the images. On this basis, we also explored the theory of cultural heritage data enhancement and the construction plan of cultural heritage smart data.

4. And a DH project you like?

Currently, we are working on the Yangtze River Civilisation Platform project based on the Intelligent Computing Laboratory for Cultural Heritage (Philosophy and Social Science Laboratory of the Ministry of Education). We will develop a digital platform to support the archaeological and historical research of the pre-Qin and Qin-Han eras. Using 3D modelling technology, GIS technology, and AI, we have already constructed an online historical map compilation system, as well as an intelligent conjugation system for bamboo slips and an online geographic information platform for pre-Qin and Qin tombs. We have also built a digital deduction theatre for cultural heritage, which is used for digital intelligence experiments and displaying our scientific research outcomes. We hope to use these tools and platforms to integrate the historical data related to Chu culture, and in this way change the research paradigm on Chu culture and the Yangtze River civilisation, provide a novel type of research infrastructure for digital humanities research, and promote the research, teaching, and global dissemination of Chu culture.

Wuhan University Center for Digital Humanities武汉大学数字人文研究中心

武汉大学, 2014

[English version]

名称

武汉大学数字人文研究中心

武汉大学数字人文中心的文化遗产智能计算实验室 (教育部哲学社会科学实验室)

成立年份

2011年 (2021年)

简要描述

武汉大学数字人文研究中心创建于2011年,是中国大陆首个数字人文研究中心,也是centerNet亚太联盟的五大创始成员之一。武汉大学文化遗产智能计算实验室是教育部首批哲学社会科学实验室(2021),也是文化遗产领域唯一正式入选的重点实验室。武汉大学文化遗产智能计算实验室始建于2011年的武汉大学数字人文研究中心,2018年并入武汉大学大数据研究院。经过10年发展,逐渐成长为融合信息管理学、历史学、古代文学、古文献学等文化相关学科,以及测绘科学与技术、计算机科学、人工智能等智能计算技术学科的大尺度学科交叉研究机构,致力于开展有组织的文化遗产数智化活化利用前沿研究。

武汉大学文化遗产智能计算实验室以“文理交叉、数智赋能、共建共享、实验创新”为研究理念,由武汉大学的“信息资源管理”与“测绘科学与技术”两大优势学科牵头,汇聚多个学科核心力量,设立5大研究室,包括文化遗产智慧数据研究室、古籍内容挖掘分析研究室、文物图像计算研究室、遗址虚拟呈现研究室和文化遗产GIS研究室。实验室利用大数据、人工智能、增强现实等先进技术和数字人文理论方法开展跨学科研究,致力于解决文化遗产保护传承不力、内涵阐释不清、价值挖掘不足的现实难题,支撑数字人文研究范式拓展与人文社科原始创新能力提升,为中华优秀传统文化的创造性转化与创新性发展提供可行路径和系统示范。

重要学者

马飞成教

武汉大学人文社会科学资深教授、国家教学名师、博士生导师,曾任武汉大学信息管理学院院长、教育部人文社会科学重点基地武汉大学信息资源研究中心主任。他的研究涉及情报学与信息管理理论方法、大数据分析、知识组织与知识网络、数字信息资源管理与数字经济、信息行为、信息计量。

王晓光教授

武汉大学信息管理学院二级教授、副院长、博士生导师,武汉大学大数据研究院常务副院长,武汉大学文化遗产智能计算实验室主任,武汉大学数字人文研究中心主任。他的研究兴趣是数字资产管理、知识组织、语义出版和数字人文。

彭智勇教授

曾任武汉大学大数据研究所副院长、中国计算机学会数据库专业委员会副主席、中国计算机学会大数据专家委员会委员。

重点项目

武汉大学数字人文中心的项目和成果分为四类:研究项目,包括古代中国遗址的数字修复和地理数据整合;平台工具,专注于开发用于手稿组织、图像数据整合和基于人工智能的知识图谱构建的数字平台;数据资源,包括广泛的文化遗产数据积累,如数字图像、文本、历史地图和三维模型;数字解读剧场,利用先进技术支持文化遗产价值的数字激活的跨学科空间。

  1.  科研项目
    • 文化遗产智慧数据资源建设与服务研究
    • 面向版本典藏数字资源的智慧展陈技术研发与应用
    • 数字孪生数据体系建设及数据挖掘技术研究
    • 古籍数字化记忆再造工程研究
    • 敦煌莫高窟多模态知识图谱构建研究等
  2. 平台工具中国简帛文献综合数字平台
    • 文物图像关联数据集成平台
    • 文化遗产知识图谱生产平台
    • 敦煌壁画主题词表
    • 文物贴图软件
    • 图文关联标注系统等
  3. 数据资源
    • 文化遗产智能计算实验室积累了各种文化遗产数据,包括数字图像、古代文献、历史地图、三维文物模型和领域知识图谱。例如,基础数据库包括了来自敦煌壁画的超过 4,700 个主题术语以及中国诗词知识图谱中的约 125 万个 RDF 三元组。图像数据库包括了来自莫高和榆林洞窟的 25,000 张高分辨率壁画图像、可移动文物以及来自海外博物馆的超过20万张中国文化艺术品图像。
  4. 数字演绎剧场
    • 文化遗产数字演绎剧场是一个开创性的跨学科尖端实验空间,它基于三维沉浸投影、数据交互大屏、XR虚拟叙事、尖端影像建模等技术和设备,融合历史文化、数字信息、人工智能等多学科方法和技术,构建“数字孵化—协同演绎—虚实融合—沉浸体验”智慧服务链,支撑文化遗产蕴含历史、文化、科学与艺术价值的数智活化利用研究与实践。

数字人文教学

实验室提供多种教学活动,将传统人文学科与数字技术相结合,特别是针对博士研究生。这些活动包括举办论坛、研讨会和工作坊,例如数字人文全球华人博士生论坛和月湖数智文科前沿论坛。实验室还组织专门的学术研讨会,为跨学科研究、设计创新和数字人文新方法的探索提供平台。

Wuhan University, 2014

Center for Digital Humanities

Name

Center for Digital Humanities, Wuhan University

Intellectual Computing Laboratory for Cultural Heritage, Wuhan University (Key Laboratory of Philosophy and Social Sciences, Ministry of Education, China)

Year of Foundation

2011 (2021)

Short Description

The Center for Digital Humanities at Wuhan University was established in 2011, making it the first digital humanities research centre in mainland China and one of the five founding members of the centerNet Asia-Pacific Alliance. In 2021, the Intelligent Computing Laboratory for Cultural Heritage (ICLCH) at Wuhan University was approved by China’s Ministry of Education among the first batch of Key Laboratory of Philosophy and Social Sciences, and it was the only one approved in the field of cultural heritage. The ICLCH dates to 2011 with the establishment of Centre for Digital Humanities at Wuhan University, which was incorporated into the Big Data Research Institute at Wuhan University in 2018. After 10 years development, the ICLCH has grown into a large-scale discipline-crossing research institution integrating culture-related disciplines such as information management, history, ancient literature, and intelligent computing technology disciplines such as surveying and mapping, computer science, and artificial intelligence. The ICLCH is dedicated to organising cutting-edge research on the digital and intelligent activation and utilisation of cultural heritage.

Adhering to a research philosophy that emphasizes the fusion of humanities and sciences, data-driven empowerment, collaborative contributions, and innovation through experimentation, the ICLCH consolidates the expertise of “Information Resource Management” and “Surveying and Mapping Science and Technology” – two of Wuhan University’s distinguished disciplines, along with other traditional fields. The ICLCH is structured into five specialized research divisions: intelligent data processing for cultural heritage, advanced organization and reconstruction of ancient texts, computational imaging and analysis of cultural artifacts, virtual representation of expansive archaeological sites, and GIS applications in cultural heritage. With a foundation in cutting-edge technologies like big data, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality, and grounded in digital humanities theories, the lab is dedicated to addressing challenges in cultural heritage, such as its insufficient protection, ambiguous interpretations, and untapped value. The ICLCH not only broadens the horizons of digital humanities but also bolsters original innovation in humanities and social sciences. Furthermore, it paves a viable route and offers a comprehensive model for the inventive evolution and growth of China’s rich traditional culture.

Key Academics

Prof Feicheng Ma

Senior Professor in humanities and social sciences at Wuhan University. He has held roles such as Dean of the School of Information Management and Director of the Information Resources Research Centre. His research is about Information science and management theory, big data analysis, knowledge organisation and networks, digital information resource management and digital economy, information behaviour, and informetrics.

Prof Xiaoguang Wang

Professor and Vice Dean of the School of Information Management and Executive Vice Dean of the Big Data Institute, Director of the Intellectual Computing Laboratory for Cultural Heritage, and Director of the Centre for Digital Humanities at Wuhan University. His research interests are digital asset management, knowledge organisation, semantic publishing, and digital humanities.

Prof Zhiyong Peng

He served as the vice dean of the Big Data Institute at Wuhan University, vice-chair of the Database Professional Committee of the China Computer Federation, and member of the Big Data Expert Committee of the China Computer Federation.

Key Projects

Projects and achievements in the Center for Digital Humanities fall into four categories: Research Projects, involving digital restoration and geographical data integration of ancient Chinese sites; Platform Tools, focusing on the development of digital platforms for manuscript organization, image data integration, and AI-based knowledge graph construction; Data Resources, which includes the accumulation of extensive cultural heritage data, such as digital images, texts, historical maps, and 3D models; Digital Interpretation Theatre, an interdisciplinary space utilizing advanced technology for immersive cultural heritage experiences and research.

  1. Research Projects
    • Research on Resources Development and Service of Cultural Heritage Smart Data
    • Research, Development and Application of Intelligent Exhibition Technology of National Archives of Publications and Culture Collection Digital Resources
    • Research on Construction of Digital Twin Data System and Data Mining Technology
    • Research on Digital Memory Reconstruction Project of Ancient Books
    • Research on Multimodal Knowledge Graph Construction of Dunhuang Mogao Caves
  2. Platforms and Tools
    • Comprehensive Digital Platform of Bamboo and Silk Manuscripts
    • Cultural Heritage Image Data Integration Platform
    • Cultural Heritage Knowledge Graph Production Platform
    • Dunhuang Mural Thesaurus
    • Model Painter
    • Graphic Correlation Annotation System
  3. Data Resources
    • The ICLCH accumulated various cultural heritage data, including digital images, ancient texts, historical maps, 3D relic models, and domain knowledge graphs. For example, Foundational Databases includes over 4,700 subject terms from Dunhuang murals and around 1.25 million RDF triples in the Chinese Poetry Knowledge Graph. And the Image Databases Contains 25,000 high-resolution images of murals from Mogao and Yulin Caves, movable relics, and over 200,000 images of Chinese cultural artifacts from overseas museums.
  4. Digital Interpretation Theatre
    • The Digital Deduction Theatre for Cultural Heritage is an innovative, interdisciplinary cutting-edge experimental space designed and built by the ICLCH at Wuhan University. It also stands as the foundational methodology for the digital revitalisation of cultural heritage. With advanced imaging modelling, large-screen data interaction, three-dimensional immersive projection, and XR virtual storytelling technologies, this theatre integrates methodologies from humanities, information management, literary arts, and artificial intelligence. Its ambition is to establish a holistic innovation chain comprised of “Digital Incubation – Fusion of Virtual and Reality – Collaborative Deduction – Immersive Experience – Intelligent Services.” This initiative is dedicated to digitally documenting. deconstructing. artistically expressing. and intelligently interacting with China’s outstanding traditional culture, supporting the research, teaching, and dissemination of the revitalization of cultural heritage.

Teaching

The ICLCH offers a variety of teaching activities that blend traditional humanities scholarship with digital technologies, especially for PhD students. These activities include hosting forums, seminars, and workshops, such as the Global Forum for Chinese Doctoral Students in Digital Humanities and the Yuehu Frontier Forum on Digital Intelligence for Liberal Arts. The ICLCH also organizes specialised academic seminars, providing platforms for interdisciplinary research, design innovation, and the exploration of new methodologies in digital humanities.

Welcome to UKCHA Digital Transformation! 欢迎来到UKCHA数字化转型项目

Image credit: cottonbro studio, 2018

Welcome to the Digital Transformation project of the UK-China Humanities Alliance for Higher Education (UKCHA)! We are a partnership of universities in the UK and China working together to develop joint research projects and further connections in the humanities. UKCHA was founded in 2016 on the initiative of Tsinghua University and is currently led jointly by Tsinghua and the University of Exeter.

This website, hosted by the Department of Digital Humanities at King’s College, is supported by the British Council grant (re)Connecting Research in China, meant to re-establish connections and create new links and areas of collaboration between UK and Chinese institutions in the post-pandemic period. The Department of Digital Humanities is leading the Digital Transformations strand of the grant, and this website is part of it – a place dedicated to exploring and mapping existing programmes in Digital Humanities in British and Chinese Universities, to showcase research, teaching, methods, and initiatives in this area. 

欢迎来到UKCHA数字化转型项目

欢迎来到中英高等教育人文联盟(UKCHA)数字化转型项目! 我们是英国和中国大学的合作伙伴,共同开发联合研究项目并进一步加强人文学科的联系。 UKCHA于2016年在清华大学倡议下成立,目前由清华大学埃克塞特大学联合领导。

该网站由国王学院数字人文系主办,并得到英国文化协会 资助 (re)Connecting Research in China 的支持,旨在重新建立联系并创造新的联系 大流行后时期英国和中国机构之间的联系和合作领域。 数字人文系正在领导该拨款的数字化转型部分,该网站是其中的一部分 – 一个致力于探索和绘制英国和中国大学数字人文现有项目的地方,以展示研究、教学、方法和举措 在这个区域。