Dr Godwin Yeboah is a Senior Research Software Engineer at the University of Warwick. His background includes research software engineering and the application of geospatial technologies in research or teaching, SHAPE (Social Sciences, Humanities and the Arts for People and the Economy), computer science, GIS, geoinformatics and photogrammetry, geodetic/geomatic engineering, and industrial experiences in software/geomatic engineering.
1. How do you define Digital Humanities?
I consider DH as a burgeoning field of scholarly endeavour that exists at the crossroads of digital technologies and humanities disciplines. It fosters innovative scholarship methods that are collaborative, transdisciplinary, and computationally driven in research, teaching, and publishing. DH employs digital tools and methodologies to advance the study of humanities, utilizing digital resources creatively. The transdisciplinary nature of DH becomes particularly apparent when it involves the GLAM sector, an acronym for galleries, libraries, archives, and museums which are mainly cultural institutions usually resourced to provide access to cultural heritage knowledge.
2. How did you become interested in DH?
During my tenure as a Senior Research Fellow, I developed an interest in Digital Humanities (DH). I was utilizing digital tools and innovative methods to tackle various research questions. It was then that I recognized the necessity of applying digital tools and methods to address research questions within the humanities. To boost research excellence at the University of Warwick, I decided to join a small team of research software engineers to advance DH research. My passion for interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research, along with my experiences in various roles in the UK, Germany, and Ghana, likely contributed to my interest in Digital Humanities. Currently, as a Senior Research Software Engineer at the University of Warwick, I work with colleagues in several faculties, centres, and beyond the University. My work involves the application of digital tools and methods in the humanities, a key aspect of Digital Humanities, but my broader scope goes beyond DH and fall within the remit of research computing at the University of Warwick.
3. Tell us about one of your DH projects?
I am leading digital research on various projects within the digital humanities at the University of Warwick. One such project is an innovative, interactive, multi-search interface I developed for the French Theatre Calendar from 1799-1804. The downloadable dataset is in French and includes both Gregorian and Revolutionary dates. The online database I developed likely surpasses others in its coverage of theatre from this period. Its multi-search functionality significantly enhances researchers’ understanding of early 19th-century theatre.
4. And a DH project you like?
There are so many DH projects that I like! One of the DH projects that I like, which has already been featured on our website here, is the “Mapping Women’s Suffrage” project. This initiative amalgamates the most recent studies and resources from scholars, local history buffs, genealogists, record keepers, and the general public. Its aim is to uncover and geographically represent the frequently obscured lives and sites associated with everyday women’s suffrage advocates. Concurrently, it constructs an unparalleled depiction of the shape and geographies of the suffrage movement nationwide during this significant era in women’s history.
Founded in the 2020, the Centre for Digital Inquiry (CDI) is a cross-faculty research centre within the University of Warwick; it brings together humanities and social science research through critical digital research (Centre for Digital Inquiry, 2022). The centre develops and engages with digital research techniques and tools, and takes up the digital as a substantive critical topic, contributing to the existing knowledge of culture and society.
The CDI approaches the digital as a complex and multifaceted domain. On one hand, they acknowledge the vast array of computational technologies that fall under the umbrella of the digital, including smartphones, search engines, text mining software, and recommender systems. These technologies represent opportunities for innovation and research, offering exciting possibilities for exploration and development. On the other hand, the CDI recognizes that the digital realm is not without its problems. They view the digital as ‘problematic’, notably in its association with challenges such as e-waste, trolling, misinformation, surveillance, micro-tasking, platformisation, and drone warfare.
By approaching the digital as both a domain of technological advancement and a domain fraught with challenges, the CDI adopts a balanced perspective that acknowledges the opportunities and risks inherent in digital technologies. This approach allows researchers to engage with the complexities of the digital world and work towards solutions that promote positive outcomes for society. (Source: University of Warwick, 2023)
Key CDI People
Dr Bryan Brazeau, Associate Professor Liberal Arts, interested in the intersections between the digital, history of the book, early modern literature and poetics, ontological affordances, and digital pedagogy.
Dr Carolina Bandinelli, Associate Professor Media and Creative Industries, and Co-Director of the Centre of Digital Inquiry, is interested in the digital culture of love. Part of the Digital Love in the Time of Covid project.
Dr Godwin Yeboah, Senior Research Software Engineer. His background is interdisciplinary in nature cutting across research software engineering and the application of geospatial technologies in research or teaching, SHAPE (Social Sciences, Humanities and the Arts for People and the Economy), computer science, GIS, geoinformatics and photogrammetry, geodetic/geomatic engineering, and industrial experiences in software/geomatic engineering.
Dr Michael Dieter, Associate Professor in the Centre of Interdisciplinary Methodologies, and Co-Director of the Centre for Digital Inquiry, interested in developing inventive methods for interface criticism, genealogies of media at the intersection of aesthetic and political thought, contemporary media art and publishing practices after digitisation. Part of the COVID-19 App Store and Data Flow Ecologies project.
Dr Nerea Calvillo, Associate Professor in the Centre of Interdisciplinary Methodologies, interested in the material, technological, political and social dimensions of environmental pollution.
Prof Mark Knights, Professor in the Department of History. Interested in the period 1600-1850.
Dr Naomi Vogt, Assistant Professor of modern and contemporary art history. Interested in art and visual culture of the late 20th and 21st century; moving image within history; documentary practices; the post-internet; visual anthropology; artists’ films; rituals; the circulation of tropes and iconographies; art and knowledge.
Beyond the centre, the university’s Digital Arts and Humanities Lab supports the use of technology in Arts and Humanities. Notably, it offers Digital Humanities Certificates for Post Graduate Researchers and Staff by offering hybrid courses that targets enhancing digital technologies in research, teaching, outreach and beyond the university.
