Tools and Methods for Digital China Studies: Across and Outside the Disciplines Workshop

November 2, 2019
Joseph Regenstein Library, Room 122
1100 E 57th St, Chicago, IL 60637

Digital approaches have begun to transform the landscape of China research. Rare are the scholars who still rely on index cards and paper dictionaries to chart their path through traditional Chinese texts. But data repositories are one thing, analytical tools another. This workshop aims to focus on the process of discovery that has inspired the making of various new tools and frameworks for China scholarship. What are the unique features of the sources and methods that China-studies people deal with, and what perspectives are exportable to other regional fields of the humanities?

SCHEDULE:

9:00 am          
Welcoming remarks by Jeffrey Tharsen and Haun Saussy, organizers of the workshop

9:15 - 10:15 am
Hilde de Weerdt (University of Leiden): “Developing MARKUS and the Art of Research,” 30-minute informal presentation of tools and discovery process, followed by a 30-minute discussion period

10:15 - 10:25 am
BREAK

10:25 - 11:25 am      
Sarah Schneewind (University of California, San Diego), Leonora Tindall (Beloit College), and Joshua Day (Skidmore College): “The Late Imperial Primer Literacy Sieve.” 30-minute informal joint presentation of tools and discovery process, followed by a 30-minute discussion period

11:25 - 12:25 pm
Michael Fuller (University of California, Irvine): 30-minute informal presentation of the China Biographical Database:  Data Modeling and Relational Databases (touching briefly on Social Network Analysis and Geographic Information Systems) followed by a 30-minute discussion period

12:25 - 2:00 pm
LUNCH BREAK
During lunch time, a display of digital imaging, websites, and student art history projects led by the Center for the Art of East Asia (University of Chicago) will be shown, as prelude to the next panel.

2:00 - 3:00 pm
Center for the Art of East Asia, University of Chicago (Katherine Tsiang, Wei-Cheng Lin, Zhenru Zhou, and Charles Crable): “Digital Imaging Projects for Chinese Art History.” 30-minute informal presentation of tools and discovery process, followed by a 30-minute discussion period

3:00 - 3:30 pm
BREAK

3:30 – 4:30 pm
General discussion of issues, discovery processes, comparative insights, leads, future desiderata and deliverables, and problems in the area

4:30 pm
RECEPTION

This event is sponsored with generous support from a U.S. Department of Education Title VI National Resource Center Grant.