Institute for Digital Research and Education:
Humanities, Arts and Architecture, Social and Information Sciences

IDRE-HASIS Core Vision

Humanities, Arts and Architecture, Social Sciences, and Information Studies research, education, outreach, and scholarly communication increasingly make use of digital means to archive, access, analyze, and present results. Aligning digital cultural and social analysis efforts on campus within IDRE recognizes the diversity, scope and intent of the term digital in the Institute’s name as being inclusive of the whole campus. Part of the vision of IDRE-HASIS is to strengthen UCLA’s intellectual research and educational leadership in proposals and projects, to align deep computational interests of the south campus scientists with the cultural and social interests of north campus.

With its roots in humanities computing and, increasingly, in social science analysis, digital humanities broadly defined seeks to document and interpret the human record using new methods and technologies to conduct research, conceptualize relationships, and present scholarship even as it studies the impact of digital technologies upon individuals, institutions, and societies. These areas of intellectual pursuit require basic support by technologists, and offer opportunities for collaboration with scientific disciplines to explore new digital tools and methodologies for cultural and social analysis, (e.g. advanced searching, data mining, automatic metadata generation, visualization of cultural and social data, real-time interactivity, etc.) IDRE creates a forum that allows new relationships to develop without constraints by tradition and location on campus.

It is the intent of IDRE-HASIS Core to be a catalyst for faculty across north campus departments and schools to form collaborative research teams and act as a bridge between north and south campus. The Core is charged with providing vision and leadership for UCLA’s digital initiatives in cultural and social analysis, advising on resource allocation, coordinating campus-wide efforts (including interdisciplinary grants), aligning local efforts with national and international centers, working with extramural granting agencies, and making recommendations for incorporating innovative technological approaches and tools into research agendas and curricula. Our goal is to provide a “pipeline” that will function as a conduit for the stewardship of digital projects as they move from incubation into maturity, maintenance and preservation.

Approach and Strategies