BACKGROUND
The field of digital humanities fits in the intersection between humanities (in the broad sense) and computing/digital technologies. It allows for the answering of questions that previously could not be answered. For researchers from the broad field of humanities, digital humanities provides access to computational approaches that allow, for example, for the investigation of large amounts of data (which is practically infeasible using manual investigation). For researchers from the broad field of computing, digital humanities provides access to interesting data collections on which computational techniques can be applied and evaluated, for example, providing information on performance within real-world applications.
The field of digital humanities relies on the collaboration between researchers from the field of humanities and computing. As such, SADiLaR aims to bring together these researchers to boost the field of digital humanities in South Africa. Clearly, this hinges on the support and interest from researchers from these fields. For this reason, we organize a symposium to bring together researchers.
THE COLLABORATIVE APPROACH – Call for submissions
With the symposium, we want to bring researchers from the different fields together for collaborative research. To share information on what researchers are doing, we ask for submissions. These submissions are in the form of a short, high level abstract. It should consist of only a few sentences (at most 200 words) describing research that you are interested in and that you think could be interesting or relevant to researchers from the “other” field. This does not have to be finished research, it can also be research you would like to do but do not know how, etc. The main aim is to describe your interests in such a way that researchers from the other field may become interested in that as well (to foster collaboration).
Based on these abstracts, the symposium will start with lightning talks aiming to share ideas between the two fields. Following the talks, discussions will take place with the aim to bring together researchers who are interested in collaborating. The symposium will also provide information on how SADiLaR can play a role in this collaboration.
The submissions of abstracts for the short presentations can be submitted using the following form: https://bit.ly/sadilar_symposium
EXAMPLES OF PROJECTS:
Through the lens Ex achina: using NLP and statistical learning methods to model eyewitness statements and choosing behavior
The primary aim of this project is to develop and put to trial a new, innovative way of analysing and using eyewitness statements and descriptions to predict eyewitness identification performance. This has not been done before with natural language processing or machine learning methods, and this could solve the current difficulty of analysing large quantities of verbal data.
Open Call project which started on: 1 November 2018
Status: Project completed
Health Resources in the South Africa Languages
A systematic review of available health resources available for the South African Languages, culminating in an index of health resources. A wide range of resources form part of the index, including screening questionnaires, diagnostic assessments, and intervention programmes designed for health professionals.
Open Call project which started on: 1 November 2018
Status: Project completed – Finalising
Human Language Technologies Audit 2017/2018
This project aims to provide information on the current state of HL T R&D in South Africa. Specifically, to replicate the HL T audit completed in 2009 and to update the information on the various HL T tools, resources and applications identified in the 2009 audit. The tools, resources and applications developed since 2009 will be identified and categorised using a more updated version of the technology matrix previously employed.
Node project which started on: 1 July 2017
Status: Project completed
VIEW ALL SADiLaR PROJECTS
