DH Downunder 2020

The Australasian Digital Humanities Summer Institute

Registration for DH Downunder 2020 is now open. This year there is no registration fee. Please take a look at the new website for DH Downunder to see more details and the program.

DH Downunder is a Digital Humanities / Digital Research Methods Summer Institute in the tradition of DHSI and similar international summer institutes. We provide training in cutting edge Digital Research methods and approaches. People with all kinds of backgrounds are welcome, including students, academic staff, PhD and postdoctoral researchers, librarians and professional staff. The classes have a humanities/social sciences orientation, but we are also very happy to have participants from other disciplinary backgrounds.

It usually happens in early December, after universities have finished their second semester classes, and before people start heading away for the Christmas break. So far it has always been held in Sydney, but we are open to considering other hosting locations.

Classes at DH Downunder vary from year to year but have included, for example:

  • Intro to programming
  • Linked Open Data
  • Social network analysis
  • Mapping
  • Digital Ethnography
  • Distant Reading
  • Intro to R
  • Data wrangling
  • Social media research
  • Open Social Scholarship
  • Project Management
  • and more!

We are always open to new ideas for classes to run.

Getting involved

There are four ways you can get involved:

Attend and participate!

Bookmark this web page for information about the next event, when it becomes available. Or email Rachel Hendery to ask to be added to a mailing list to be notified when registrations open.

Propose a class!

A call for proposals for this year's DH Downunder is now open.

Classes at DH Downunder can take a variety of different formats. The shortest option is a single half-day class, which works out to about three hours of teaching time. The longest option is (almost) a full week - usually Monday morning and Friday afternoon will be taken up with public lectures and other activities, but you can have all the rest of the week for your class. You will almost certainly find that this greatly reduces the number of participants, as most people like to be able to attend multiple activities during the week. This can be a good thing if you prefer to teach your topic in a setting where you can give a lot of individual assistance. A compromise option is to run your class over multiple half days, e.g. four mornings or four afternoons.

We strongly recommend classes to be 'hands-on' in their approach, rather than lecture-based, as most people attending DH Downunder want to acquire new skills. We can set an enrolment cap if you are concerned about the feasibility of hands-on activities with large numbers.

We can reimburse instructors for their travel to DH Downunder, and for their accommodation during the event. Unfortunately we are unable to pay any salary costs - the teaching time itself is volunteer-based.

Take a look at past programs for ideas. If you would like to propose a class, email Rachel Hendery with a topic, 1-2 paragraph description, timetabling preferences (e.g. half day, full day, multiple days) and some information about your experience teaching this topic. We will consider all proposals received and get in touch with instructors to confirm by the middle of the year.

Help us organise an event!

If your institution would like to host DH Downunder in a future year, please contact Rachel Hendery to discuss this. We are open to locations outside of NSW. Or if you would like to be a part of the planning and organisation committee, just get in touch.

Sponsor us!

As one of our main concerns is to keep the event affordable for students and early career researchers, we are always looking for sponsors. Get in touch with Rachel Hendery to talk about sponsorship options and the benefits for your organisation.

Previous years

In 2016 DH Downunder was run by Rachel Hendery and Jason Ensor, and held at the Bankstown campus of Western Sydney University.

In 2017 DH Downunder was run by Rachel Hendery (Western Sydney University), Jason Ensor (Western Sydney University), Justine Humphry (Sydney University) and Jonathon Hutchinson (Sydney University) and held at Sydney University in the John Woolley Building.

In 2018 DH Downunder was run by Rachel Hendery (Western Sydney University), Justine Humphry (Sydney University) and Jonathon Hutchinson (Sydney University) and held at Sydney University in the Quadrangle Building. A DH Pathways event was held on the Friday, run by the Tinker / HASS DEVL infrastructure project.