Community and capacity building for humanities & social sciences in South Africa

About DH-IGNITE

DH-IGNITE is a regional event hosted by SADiLaR and the ESCALATOR programme aiming to support the development of an active community of practice in Digital Humanities (DH) and Computational Social Sciences (CSS) in South Africa.

6 DH-IGNITE events to reach all 26 public universities across the country.
Participate in person or virtually.
We’ll talk about digital/computational methodologies in humanities and social sciences!

Image source: Digital humanities methodological commons (after McCarty & Short (2002); Obtained from: Anderson, Sheila & Blanke, Tobias & Dunn, Stuart. (2010). Methodological commons: arts and humanities e-Science fundamentals. Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences. 368. 3779-96. 10.1098/rsta.2010.0156.

6
Events coming to you between October 2022 and July 2023!
Join us in your region…

What can you expect?

Presentations & Lightning Talks

Interactivity & Discussions

Poster Sessions & Exhibition Booths

Who should attend?

Each event will be open to participants from the relevant regional South African institutions as listed on the respective event pages. Dedicated spaces will be available to representatives nominated by the Humanities & Social Sciences Dean or Library Director from each university.
Additional spaces will be available by application.

Researchers

Humanities and social sciences researchers as well as computational researchers at all career stages

Lecturers

Humanties and social sciences lecturers interested in renewing curricula to include digital and computational components

Postgraduate students

Postgraduate students in humanities and social sciences and computational research wanting to grow their networks

Research management

Deans, directors, and other research managers keen to learn about opportunities for growing digital and computational research and sharing challenges

Librarians & archivists

Librarians and archivists involved in DH or CSS projects or supporting humanities and social sciences researchers

Research enablers

Anyone working in a humanities and social sciences research environment providing support or infrastructure for digital and computational research

Upcoming DH-IGNITE dates and locations

KZN Region - 18 & 19 October 2022

Invited institutions: UNIZULU, UKZN, DUT, MUT

Oct 18, 2022 09:00 AM — Oct 19, 2022 17:00 PM Coastlands Hotel, Umhlanga

Gauteng Region - 2022 - date to be confirmed

Invited institutions: UP, UNISA, TUT, VUT, SMU, WITS, UJ, CSIR, HSRC

Nov 21, 2022 09:00 AM — Nov 22, 2022 17:00 PM

Gauteng Region - 2022 - date to be confirmed

Western Cape Region - 2023 - date to be confirmed

Invited institutions: UWC, UCT, SU, CPUT

Feb 20, 2023 09:00 AM — Feb 21, 2023 17:00 PM

Western Cape Region - 2023 - date to be confirmed

Eastern Cape Region - 2023 - date to be confirmed

Invited institutions: WSU, RU, NMU, UFH

Apr 17, 2023 09:00 AM — Apr 18, 2023 17:00 PM

Eastern Cape Region - 2023 - date to be confirmed

North-western Region - 2023 - date to be confirmed

Invited institutions: UFS, CUT, NWU, SPU

May 29, 2023 09:00 AM — May 30, 2023 17:00 PM

North-western Region - 2023 - date to be confirmed

Northern region - 2023 - date to be confirmed

Invited institutions: UL, UNIVEN, UMP

Jun 27, 2023 09:00 AM — Jun 28, 2023 17:00 PM

Northern region - 2023 - date to be confirmed

Draft Schedule

DAY 1

Time	Question being addressed	Description	In-person participation	Virtual participation
09:00 - 10:30	Who is here and what are people busy with?	Interactive opportunities addressing the question “What is DH?” Poster session Booths from nodes, service providers Participants are invited to enter their information into the stakeholder map at booth / own devices throughout event	Tables set up with questions where participants can meet and discuss specific questions over coffee Posters available virtually, presenters circulating through room for questions and connecting with participants online	Opportunity to meet participants virtually via Gather.town or similar software to discuss “What is DH” Posters submitted electronically to support online participation (presenters too)
10:30 – 11:30	What are we doing at DH-IGNITE?	Welcome & Introduction: Setting the scene What is DH and CSS? What is SADiLaR? What is ESCALATOR? Why are we working towards a South African Community of Practice in DH and CSS? Brief introduction of the DHET Langauge Audit	Presentations and interactive activities at tables	Streaming via Zoom & interactive activities in break-out rooms. Asynchronous conversation via Slack
11:30 – 12:00	What do we mean with “data” in Humanities/Social Sciences?	An overview of data types The SADiLaR repository for sharing or finding data Other open repositories for sharing or finding data Data licensing	Presentations and interactive activities at tables	Streaming via Zoom & interactive activities in break-out rooms. Asynchronous conversation via Slack
12:00 – 13:00	What is available through ESCALATOR?	Introduction to the Digital Champions Initiative	Interactive discussions at tables	Interactive activities in break-out rooms via Zoom. Asynchronous conversation via Slack
13:00 – 14:00	LUNCH BREAK		Lunch included as part of conference package	Responsible for own lunch
14:00 – 14:20	How can I find people/resources?	Introduction to the DH & CSS Stakeholder Map Project	Presentation	Streaming via Zoom
14:20 – 15:30	How can I collaborate across disciplines?	Case-studies: Humanities/Social Sciences & Computational sciences - Lightning talks (5-10 minutes) showcasing examples of interdisciplinary collaboration	Presentations	Streaming via Zoom
15:30 – 17:00	Further networking, follow-up, ESCALATOR track questions, suggestions	Poster session Booths from nodes, service providers, ESCALATOR Participants are invited to enter their information into the stakeholder map at booth / own devices throughout event	Warm beverages served Posters available virtually, presenters circulating through room for questions and connecting with participants online	Opportunity to meet participants virtually via Gather.town or similar software to discuss “What is DH” Posters submitted electronically to support online participation (presenters too)

DAY 2

Time	Question being addressed	Description	In-person participation	Virtual participation
09:00 – 10:00	Who is here and what are people busy with?	Interactive opportunities addressing the question “What is DH?” Poster session Booths from nodes, service providers Participants are invited to enter their information into the stakeholder map at booth / own devices throughout event	Tables set up with questions where participants can meet and discuss specific questions over coffee Posters available virtually, presenters circulating through room for questions and connecting with participants online	Opportunity to meet participants virtually via Gather.town or similar software to discuss “What is DH” Posters submitted electronically to support online participation (presenters too)
10:00 – 10:45	What can I expect at my university? What can SADiLaR/ESCALATOR do to help?	Intro from Humanities Deans or similar about: how they are supporting DH/CSS how they are supporting interdisciplinary collaboration with computational sciences what they need from SADiLaR/ESCALATOR/other to move forward Brief discussion about DHET language audit	Presentations and interactive activities at tables	Streaming via Zoom & interactive activities in break-out rooms. Asynchronous conversation via Slack
10:45 – 11:30	How can we learn and teach digital and computational skills in humanities and social sciences	What training material, courses, learning opportunities exist? What did you do to learn new skills and practices? What would you advise newcomers to the field?	Presentations and interactive activities at tables	Streaming via Zoom & interactive activities in break-out rooms. Asynchronous conversation via Slack
11:30 – 12:00	How is ESCALATOR and SADiLaR supporting South African humanities and social science research?	Testimonials from ESCALATOR and SADiLaR participants (DH OER Champions, EMPOWER, R/Python study group/other)	Presentations, Q&A	Streaming via Zoom & Q&A support in Slack
12:00 – 13:00	What research infrastructure is available to support DH/CSS in South Africa?	Everything you need to know about research infrastructures in SA for DH and CSS	Presentations, Q&A	Streaming via Zoom & Q&A support in Slack
13:00 – 14:00	LUNCH BREAK		Lunch included as part of conference package	Responsible for own lunch
14:00 – 16:00	What can I learn?	Skills development session: (Please join us for an interactive hands-on session learning about two tools as example of possible workshops) Introduction to workshops offered by SADiLaR Hands-on: Introduction to text analysis with Voyant Hands-on: Introduction to OpenRefine	Hands-on workshop Own laptop or PC required More information about software installation requirements coming soon	Hands-on workshop Own laptop or PC required More information about software installation requirements coming soon
16:00 – 16:30	What will happen now?	Wrap up and next steps	TBC	TBC

Registration

NEW DATE!! Registrations for the KwaZulu Natal regional event taking place on 18 & 19 October 2022, are now OPEN!

Please note that there are no costs involved to participate in DH-IGNITE. Conference fees for participants who are either nominated for participation by their faculties or library directors, or who are accepted through the open application system, will be sponsored by SADiLaR via the ESCALATOR programme.

Travel, accommodation, dinner, and other incidentals will be for faculties/departments/participants own cost.

Participants will have to sign a no-show fee form confirming that they will be liable to refund SADiLaR for conference costs should they not attend the conference without valid and timely communication with the programme team.

Each of the targeted universities’ Humanities and Social Science Deans are invited to nominate a limited number of participants to join the relevant regional DH-IGNITE event. If you have been nominated by your dean, please complete the registration form. You will be required to submit confirmation of nomination.

Last updated on Jul 26, 2022