Inviting the Humanities to The Data Science Table: Reflections from the Alan Turing Institute

Since 2017, the Alan Turing Institute, the British national-level research institute for data science and artificial intelligence, has supported a Turing Special Interest group on the Humanities and Data Science. With regular discussions, meetings, and community engagement, the group has convened to identify priorities and recommendations that can help drive forward the integration of the communities. We present here our forthcoming white paper on the topic.

We identify an increased interest in undertaking large scale data-led research involving humanities scholars, GLAM organizations, and data science researchers. This may be prompted by the increased availability of large datasets coupled with available quantitative research frameworks and relatively cheap computing resources.

We see four general intersections between humanities and data science:

  1. Computational humanities research: analyzing data sets to answer novel humanities questions;
  2. Infrastructure for Cultural Heritage: creating, storing and providing access to repositories of complex and nuanced digital (structured and unstructured) data from GLAM organizations;
  3. History and critique of data science: including ethical, methodological, and historical approaches;
  4. Algorithmic creativity and cultural activity: performing creative tasks with the aid of computation.

We enumerate challenges and opportunities to further adoption including: difficulties in reframing humanities research methods; or in identifying and making transparent best practice; the challenges of reproducible and open data research in the humanities; the need for shared technical infrastructure and support; issues with funding, research assessment, career progression and training; and the need to communicate the benefits to data science from the integration of humanities approaches, including skill sets, value systems, methods, Humanities expertise and ethical approaches which the AI and data science community can learn from in a two-way exchange of knowledge. 

We welcome the chance to discuss our roadmap with attendees at the Digital Humanities Congress 2022.

 1.Data Science is defined at the Turing as the field that “brings together researchers in computer science, mathematics, statistics, machine learning, engineering and the social sciences” to study “the drive to turn [large amounts of] data into useful information, and to understand its powerful impact on science, society, the economy and our way of life.” https://www.turing.ac.uk/about-us/frequently-asked-questions. 

2. https://www.turing.ac.uk/research/interest-groups/humanities-and-data-science

3.A first draft of this white paper, by the authors of the article will be published in August 2020, in time for the Digital Humanities Congress: McGillivray et al. (Forthcoming, 2020), “Reflections on Humanities and Data Science from the Turing: challenges and prospects”, The Alan Turing Institute White Paper.