In this session, we will explore why and how to cultivate a growing awareness of and capacity for doing basic natural language processing (NLP) tasks in religious studies. Based on an ongoing workgroup in the Learning Lab at Iliff School of Theology, we will give a quick and basic introduction to NLP via python programming language and the natural language toolkit. After a basic introduction, we will use some simple exercises from the nltk book to encourage participants to play with text using the tools offered by the nltk.  As we code together, we will share ideas and experiments that these tools might stimulate and we will question the problems and possibilities of the assumptions built into these technological frameworks.

Proposal by Ken Chitwood, U of Florida.

Augmented Reality Criticisms (ARCs) present a compelling opportunity for scholars in the humanities to harness mobile computing technology, specifically Augmented Reality (AR) apps, to create and circulate public discourse and critique. This proposal seeks to discuss the why, what, and how of ARCs. Pointedly, it will include how overlaying physical objects or locations with digital content available through mobile device applications can encourage positive political and cultural exchange on specific social issues. The “Religion@UF” project will be offered as an example to explore ARCs. Created in collaboration between the UF Religion & English Departments, the “Relgion@UF” ARC is a mobile AR application that reveals the hidden religious history in and around the University of Florida campus through exploration of some of its physical locations and sites of interest. Once completed, users will be able to look at specific buildings and signs through their phone or tablet camera and view multimedia overlays informing them of the religious history related to different locations around campus. For instance, users will be able to view the engravings located on Heavener Hall and receive information about this ongoing religious controversy.

In conversation with the very recent release of guidelines for the evaluation of digital scholarship by the American Historical Association, we will discuss the difficulties and possibilities of pursuing dissertations and scholarly projects that don’t fit easily into the print paradigm. I will share my own experiences with a dissertation in process as a launching point for highlighting the questions of production, evaluation, preservation, legitimation, and support for projects that are not governed by print processes. Together, we can build a few things:

1. an aggregation of targeted resources to facilitate these conversations in local academic settings,
2. a set of values for scholarship in religious studies that might be translated into media other than print, and
3. a list of recommendations for how AAR and SBL can support and encourage these emerging experimental forms of scholarship in the guild.

A primer from my dissertation space – aproximatebible.postach.io/post/otherwise-than-print-dissertations.

What if a doctoral student were to submit a project like this for a dissertation? How would we engage it, let alone evaluate it?