Events

This workshop is organized by the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore (NUS); with support from Yale-Nus College, and funded by the NUS Humanities and Social Sciences Seed Fund Grant (Collaborative Research).

This digital humanities workshop is an offspring of our HSS Collaborative Seed Grant pilot project, which draws on historical, scientific, economic, and topographic data to create an interactive map that communicates the distribution, density, and diversity of Singapore’s alien species. The pilot project is a collaboration between ARI, Yale-NUS College, NUS Libraries, and NUS Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, with support from NPARKS. Our digital humanities workshop draws on this interdisciplinary, cross-institutional collaboration.

In particular, our pilot project focuses on identifying and developing new forms of data that speak to changes in Singapore’s biodiversity over the last two hundred years. In this regard, we found that the digitization of natural history journals provides important data on alien species and, as a result, this data has been crucial for purposes of database development and visualization. Similarly, historical maps, scientific illustrations, and photographic images have been collected and made available for visualization. Moreover, this newly generated data on the arrival and expansion of alien species has been projected on historical maps, thereby illustrating topographic changes in Singapore. Indeed, doing so allows basic comparisons over time in terms of land use change, urban and agricultural expansion, changes in forest cover and coastal habitats, and land reclamation. Additionally, this visualization reveals the historical factors and vectors that facilitated and inhibited the spread of invasives, such as anthropogenic environmental transformations and settlement patterns. It also locates geographical hotspots for further investigation regarding the impact of alien species on ecosystem changes, biodiversity decline, food security, and public health. 

As for the broader goal of this digital humanities workshop, it is to strengthen Singapore’s digital humanities community and to allow exchanges about methodologies and projects. Discussions about digitization and visualization of data via different (open access) databases and platforms allows novel insights into technical possibilities, rises new research questions to be addressed by interdisciplinary teams, and unleashes synergy effects between projects. The workshop uses an open format: presentations will be work-in-progress talks that introduce current and planned projects, followed by sessions for brainstorming and discussion. Among the projects that we will cover are digital archives accommodating different types of media and collections, interactive maps-based data visualization, mobile apps, and online encyclopedias. 

REGISTRATION

Participation in the closed-door event is limited and by invitation only.

CONVENORS

Dr Stefan Huebner
National University of Singapore
E| arihust@nus.edu.sg

Dr Anthony Medrano
Yale-NUS College
E| anthony.medrano@yale-nus.edu.sg