IDRE-HASIS Approach

Research, Education and Outreach

The integration of research, education and outreach is a typical aspect of the presently evolving projects in the humanities, social sciences, art and architecture, information studies, as well as in arts, media and design. Crucial aspects of this integration are access, analysis and presentation of large corpuses of information of a widely different nature. Qualitative and quantitative data, texts, images, sound, and video are just a few of the types of digital information with which projects are concerned. As access to collections of digitized materials has increased dramatically, the focus of these projects is shifting from digitization efforts to information extraction and aggregation. Online searching can be as complex as many scientifically oriented disciplines: searching on proper names, geographic places, chronologic periods, image characteristics, color, shape and sound is increasingly common. Algorithmic methods for locating features such as shape or pattern recognition, names, places and historical events from large collections are challenging. The need for sophisticated interfaces that can filter and match structured fields is apparent.

With the modest resources available for digital projects on campus, the broad range of methodologies and subject matter cannot be covered all at once. This has led to the identification of digital cultural mapping as one emerging research, education and outreach specialty at the nexus of information studies, humanities, social sciences and computer science. Building upon UCLA’s strengths in 3D historical reconstructions of significant cultural sites and geo-temporal approaches to information, IDRE-HASIS is poised to articulate a research environment that will support the interpretive research that characterizes the humanities and social sciences: an environment that contextualizes the increasingly rich and varied digital resources that continue to grow at a staggering pace. Therefore, building on our research successes, we have identified the creation of an undergraduate curriculum in the emergent field of digital cultural mapping as the next step in the development. By integrating Geographic Information Systems (GIS) into traditional methods of inquiry and teaching, digital cultural mapping uses informatics, spatial modeling, and time-space visualizations to create new tools and methods for investigating cultural, historical, and social dynamics. The curriculum will teach students critical reasoning, sound judgment, intellectual openness, and team-based problem solving. Students will learn to utilize, create, and evaluate the tools and technologies related to the geo-temporal web, a global information network in which location and information have merged together and data-streams are organized, processed, and viewed according to the parameters of space and time. The curriculum draws faculty from seven different disciplines, bridges the resources of three research and teaching centers at UCLA, and uses new geo-technologies to develop collaborative, project-based approaches to learning with real-world applications.

The results of the digital research and educational projects in the Humanities, Arts and Architecture and Social Sciences are often quite accessible and of great interest to the general public. IDRE-HASIS planning members have been active in outreach to the community, and in particular to K-12 schools through presentations in the portal sponsored by ATS/ETC, school visits through ArtsBridge, ETC, and the Steinmetz/Cotsen program, and public lectures. Participation and representation of IDRE-HASIS in international organizations such as ADHO (Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations), HASTAC (Humanities, Arts, Sciences, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory), and TEI (Text Encoding Initiative) helps ensure that our local initiatives are aligned with and make significant visible contributions to scholarship.

Directed Growth

By selecting a range of focus points (in this first phase the primary focus is on Digital Cultural Mapping), resources can be strategically employed to ensure that the largest group of faculty and students benefits. With more resources available, as outlined in the five-year goals below, the focus points will multiply and shift over time. IDRE-HASIS will thus form a responsive, adaptable network of partnerships, with the flexibility to react to relevant or urgent intellectual, technological and social developments, independent of the more rigidly organized traditional disciplines. Both the research and curricular aspects of digital humanities are conceived as agile “knowledge problematics” within a flexible, interdisciplinary network composed of faculty, students, and staff.

Five-Year Goals

• Apply for institution-building grants such as an NEH Challenge Grant.
• Perfect the institutional pipeline for digital project development and management
• Pursue substantial research grants in the current area of focus (Digital Cultural Mapping).
• Establish a multidisciplinary Program in Digital Humanities.
• Develop other competitive programs that attract top students and faculty.
• Collaborate with computer scientists applied mathematicians and domain scientists to pursue grant opportunities which advance humanistic research
• Promote the innovative incorporation of digital technologies in research and teaching across north campus.
• Disseminate achievements through scholarly journals, high profile events, and public forums.
• Increase awareness and involvement of north campus faculty in digital research and education.
• Engage other campus entities as partners including the Deans, Chairs and departmental support organizations, as well as institutional support organizations, centers and institutes with complementary interests (e.g. the Institute for Social Science Research (ISSR), the Office of Instructional Development (OID), Undergraduate Research Centers, etc.)

IDRE-HASIS Strategies

Foster Technology Innovation

While the current theme is mapping, there are many digital technologies that are brought to bear under this broad theme (including the semantic web, historic 3D reconstruction, digital library repositories etc.), and we envision that with advances in technology and in changing research agendas in cultural and social analysis, new themes and focus areas will evolve. We want a flexible and nimble structure that will support innovation in research and teaching. Physical space is surprisingly an important aspect of idea incubation bringing staff, students, researchers and faculty together promotes mentoring and innovation. The Technology Sandbox at ATS has housed a community of IDRE-HASIS research scholars working on a variety of projects. These scholars assist one another with the challenges of working with these innovative new technologies, from exploring new web-based GIS solutions to creating models that perform well in interactive real-time environments. Many scholars are working on similar projects and using the same software, which affords the opportunity for sharing resources and ideas. Technology Sandbox occupants have participated in Library space planning focus groups, and there is tremendous potential to grow this model across campus. IDRE-HASIS is looking forward to the opportunity to work with the Library as its plans emerge.

Pursue Grants

We will continue to pursue grant opportunities by scanning funding sources, working with development officers, identifying strategic faculty partners, and keeping abreast on the rapidly changing landscape for funding.

Increase Visibility and Impact

UCLA has positioned itself to become a leader in the field of digital humanities through successful grant applications, fellowships, new faculty and post-doc positions, guest lectures, conference presentations, publications and the hosting of high-profile events. Digital Humanities has already been identified as one of the flagship initiatives of UCLA’s Mellon grant for Transformational Support in the Humanities. Last year, faculty participated in a year-long Mellon seminar that began to lay the intellectual groundwork for launching a digital humanities program at UCLA. We propose to make these activities, presence, and opportunities more visible, both on campus and internationally, as a closely networked, virtual community—one that spans divisions and departments—by establishing an online presence. By working with the Mellon program in digital humanities, we will expand the IDRE website to document our policies, practices and activities and to establish, for faculty and students at UCLA, a virtual gateway to a “pipeline.” While faculty, fellows and students will continue to be encouraged to give presentations within their own disciplines and departments, IDRE-HASIS will, in addition, convene research seminars on focused topic areas where scholars can present their ideas and share research with colleagues and staff from across campus and other partner institutions (e.g., Getty Research Institute).

IDRE-HASIS Planning Team

• Zoe Borovsky
• Stephen Davison
• Diane Favro
• Chris Johanson
• Yoh Kawano
• Christina Patterson
• Todd Presner
• Janice Reiff
• Margo Reveil
• Annelie Rugg
• Lisa Snyder
• Willeke Wendrich