Theme: Methodology of computational research in the humanities
Broad questions: How can the various technologies in the field of data science be applied within the context of humanities research? Which kinds of questions can or cannot be answered? What are the limitations of these technologies? Can the results of the research that is based on these methods be reproduced or be replicated?
You can study this topic in combination with any of the other topics that are adressed in the MA BDMS. As a first step, you may formulate a traditional scholarly question. Next, you can operationalise this questions using the digital technologies and/or the secondary digital data that you have learnt about during the various courses you have followed. A thesis of this nature ought to contain a reflection on the value and the relevance of the technologies that have been adopted. Previous MA theses addressed the following questions in this manner:
- How much type did the main printers based in Leiden in the 17th century own?
- Can we observe differences in the writing styles of male and female authors in the Victorian age?
https://hdl.handle.net/1887/66434 - Can we reconstruct the history of the Elzevier publishing firm using the data collected for the STCN?
https://hdl.handle.net/1887/29598 - Can we use Text and Data Methods do study characterisation in the works of Herman Hesse?
https://hdl.handle.net/1887/64823 - How did the Dutch book industry respond to the event of the First World War? This question was addressed using the digitized versions of the Dutch Nieuwsblad voor den Boekhandel
https://hdl.handle.net/1887/42623
This question may also be studied more systematically via a meta-analysis. You may select a given technology or approach (e.g. sentiment analysis, topic modelling, Computer Vision) and, next, analyse specific studies that have made use of these technologies. To find such studies, you can browse through the past issues of journals such as Digital Scholarship in the Humanities, the Digital Humanities Quarterly, or the Journal of Cultural Analytics. Which questions have been answered using these technologies? Which shortcomings have been reported?
See, for example: https://hdl.handle.net/1887/58722
This theme can also be explored on a more fundamental or a more philosophical level. Can the tools that are built to support digital scholarship be free of bias, or do tools such as these always express an argument of some sort? Theses in this particular field may contribute to the debate on the ‘Critical Digital Humanities’ or on ‘Tool Criticism’.
https://hdl.handle.net/1887/29597
As a related theme, you may also concentrate on digital pedagogy. How can early career researchers without a formal training in computer science acquire the skills needed to engage in digital humanities research? What are the main challenges for students and researchers who want to gain a mastery of programming and coding? How may these challenges be addressed?
Theme: Digital access to Cultural Heritage
Topic suggestions:
- You can select a given region or a country, and describe the various ways in which the main cultural heritage institutions aim to offer digital access to the heritage of that area. How do these institutions support digital scholarship focusing on these collections?
https://hdl.handle.net/1887/84782 - You can select a given collection which has not been digitised yet, and give a detailed account of what a digitisation project may entail. Such a thesis should also focus on the scholarly potential of the digital collection. Interesting collections include the Ephemera at Leiden University Library, or the digitization of the Brinkman Catalogue, a project which is currently being prepared at the National Library.
- Another possibility is to prepare a scholarly edition of a historical text. In a thesis project of this kind, you select a relevant text. This text needs to be transcribed. Potentially, you may add annotations and you may choose to modernize the text. The edition needs to be introduced by a text which discussed the historical context of the text, the contents of the text, and a motivation of your editorial decisions. You may also choose to prepare a digital scholarly edition, in which you experiment with the possibilities of adding TEI encoding.
https://hdl.handle.net/1887/28634
https://hdl.handle.net/1887/45714 - What is the general role of the academic library in supporting digital humanities research? How can libraries make sure that their collections can be used productively by scholars applying computational methods? Which type of skills do libraries need to acquire?
- At a more philosophical level, you can explore the degree to which the material aspects of physical objects can be represented in the digital realm.
- Can we use technologies in the field of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality to represent the material aspects of books?
- How can we preserve the academic heritage that is created today? Do academic libraries have the responsibility to archive the tweets, the blog posts, the emails and the Word Processing documents that are created by today’s researchers?
- What is the best way of offering digital access to specific types of materials (e.g. medieval manuscripts)
https://hdl.handle.net/1887/29687
Theme: Open Science
- The transition to open science demands a cultural change. What are the main reservations or obstacles among scholars at the moments? What may universities do to address these issues?
- Funders increasingly encourage researchers to publish their data sets in agreement with the FAIR data management principles. What can be the main benefits of FAIR for the humanities? Ore concretely, how can we FAIRify the data sets that are developed by humanities scholars?
https://hdl.handle.net/1887/86173 - What does reproducibility and replicability really mean? Can we actually reproduce the research that takes place in the humanities? What can be the ethical implications of this call for reproducibility?
Theme: Reading Research
- Which measures may be taken to stimulate reading pleasure?
https://hdl.handle.net/1887/136404 - Is deep reading only possible when readers consume texts via the printed medium? Or can computer games, or texts on ebooks effectuate similar levels of immersion and comprehension?
- When people consume texts audiobooks, is the level of comprehension and retention similar to that associated with reading printed texts?
- How can we analyse and compare the reading cultures internationally? Which data need to be collected, and what do these data ultimately reveal about the ‘reading health’ of different countries?
https://hdl.handle.net/1887/77788 - Can people develop their critical reading skills well enough to detect ‘Fake News’?
https://hdl.handle.net/1887/77792 or
https://hdl.handle.net/1887/34993