Workshop on Complexity,
Computing and the Humanities

The University of Western Ontario
June 16-17, 2008

Click here to download Program

On June 16-17, Mike Bauer, Fernando Sancho, and Juan-Luis Suarez organized a workshop on "Complexity, Computing, and the Humanities" at The University of Western Ontario. Sponsored by "Complexity and the Humanities" (RDI-SSHRC Project), The Hispanic Baroque Project (a MCRI-SSHRC Project), and SHARCNET (Shared Hierarchical Academic Research Computing Network), this workshop served as a springboard to present different approaches to research on the intersections between complexity, computing, and the humanities. Although it included some papers of a theoretical nature, one of the objectives of the workshop was to focus on practical and methodological issues. Most of the presentations dealt with specific tools, their usability in collaborative environments, as well as the possibilities open for humanities research by new high-computing capabilities available to researchers.

The workshop was organized around invited lectures in the mornings, and short research papers and presentations by participants in the afternoons.

There were five fellowships available for Canadian graduate students. The fellowships covered accommodation expenses in London and a meal allowance for the duration of the workshop.

Lectures:

• Mike Bauer and William Acres. Databases and Historic Research: The 15th century English Army.
• David Bellhouse. Statistics for Historic Research: A 18th-century Mathematical Subscription List.
• Fernando Sancho and Juan Luis Suárez. The transmission and conservation of cultural information in an agent-based modeling environment (netlogo).
• Tammy A. Smith. Networks and Stories.
• John Atkinson. Natural Language Processing and Text Mining.
• José F. Quesada. Spoken Dialogue Systems.
• Madeline Lennon. Cycles in Art History: the Italian Baroque.
• Jim Hay: Three Regions for All Systems: Chaos, Complexity and Order.
• David Flynn: The Differentiation/Centrality Ratio in Social Systems.

The Speakers:

• William Acres is Assistant Professor of History at Huron University College (Canada).
• John Atkinson is Associate Professor of Computer Science at the Universidad de Concepción (Chile).
• Mike Bauer is Professor of Computer Science at the University of Western Ontario (Canada).
• David Bellhouse is Professor of Statistics and Actuarial Sciences at the University of Western Ontario (Canada).
• David Flynn is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at King's University College (Canada).
• Jim Hay is former CEO of Dow Chemical Canada and Adjunct Professor, Fac. of Engineering, University of Western Ontario (Canada).
• Madeline Lennon is Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Western Ontario (Canada).
• José F. Quesada is Director of R&D at Natural Language (Infinity. A Vocalcom Company) (Spain).
• Fernando Sancho is Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the Universidad de Sevilla (Spain).
• Tammy A. Smith is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Stoney Brook University (USA).
• Juan Luis Suárez os Professor of Hispanic Studies at the University of Western Ontario (Canada).