We will make the full proceedings of DHASA2021 available shortly. The book of abstract for the conference can be downloaded as a PDF here
Nov. 29
08:30-13:00 2nd workshop on Resources for African Indigenous Language (RAIL)
Chair: Benito Trollip
Programme:
08:30 – 08:40 Opening and Welcoming Mmasibidi Setaka
08:40 – 09:00 Tanja Gaustad, Martin J. Puttkammer: Development of linguistically annotated parallel language resources for four South African languages
09:00 – 09:20 Malebogo Thabong, Nina Lewin, Taariq Surtee: New uses for old books: Description of digitised corpora based Setswana language collection at WITS Cullen Africana Collection
09:20 – 09:40 Roné Wierenga, Wannie Carstens: Digitising Afrikaans: Establishing a protocol for digitalizing historical sources for Early Afrikaans (1675-1925) as apossible template for indigenous South African languages
09:40 – 10:00 Jaco Badenhorst, Febe de Wet: Investigating the feasibility of harvesting broadcast speech data to develop resources for South African languages
10:00 – 10:20 Imelda Udoh, Moses Ekpenyong, Eno-Abasi Urua, Harrison Adeniyi, Gregory Obiamalu, Ayo Yusuff, Ogbonna Anyanwu, Ebitare Obikudo: A novel method for redefining language ecology and endangerment in Nigeria – towards a geospatial solution
10:20 – 10:25 Masakhane Lacuna Fund Expression of Interest for projects & data sets in African Languages
10:25 – 10:30 Carpentries session
10:30 – 11:00 BREAK
11:00 – 11:20 Benson Muite: An Open Source System for Crowd Sourcing an African Language Short Story Corpus
11:20 – 11:40 Mack Makgatho, Vukosi Marivate, Tshephisho Sefara, Valencia Wagner: Training Cross-Lingual embeddings for Setswana and Sepedi
11:40 – 12:00 Rooweither Mabuya: Wordsmith Tools as an Enabler for Text Analysis
12:00 – 12:20 Jakobus S. du Toit, Martin J. Puttkammer: Canonical Segmentation and Syntactic Morpheme Tagging of Four Resource scarce Nguni Languages
12:20 – 12:40 Respect Mlambo, Muzi Matfunjwa: Using MonoConc Pro to teach and learn lexical collocations in Xitsonga
12:40 – 13:00 Closing
13:00-14:00 Break
14:00-15:00 Invited speaker:
Prof. Hussein Suleman
Simplicity as an enabler for digital humanities research in low-resource environments
Chair: Menno van Zaanen
Abstract
The discipline of digital libraries laid the foundations for archives and repositories that today store and make accessible the research and heritage of the world. These foundations were closely tied to the established database storage systems and emerging Web technologies of the early 2000s. Researchers can now create digital archives using many different open source toolkits, such as DSpace, Omeka, AtoM, and EPrints.
However, in many cases, South Africans have failed to sustain such archives, partly because of a lack of funding and technical skills. Some archives have had to be rescued while others were permanently lost and have shut down. This can be catastrophic for research in all disciplines, but especially those disciplines where the digital archive is a key partner in knowledge creation.
In our low-resource environment, different solutions may need to be considered. It has therefore been proposed that systems need to adhere to a set of guiding principles for the creation of appropriate software systems. The SimpleDL toolkit is based on these principles, to create archives without the need for complex software systems, and enabling future migration and rescue of the data as needed. Simple archives can also arguably bootstrap research by lowering the resource requirements for the development of archives in countries such as South Africa, but also all over the world.
Nov. 30
09:00-11:00 Hackathon: Glosario: (A multilingual glossary package) Angelique Trusler
Chair: Rooweither Mabuya
11:00-11:15 Break
Chair: Karen Calteaux
11:15-11:45 Gerhard B. van Huyssteen: Swearing in South Africa: Multidisciplinary research on language taboos
11:45-12:00 Laurette Marais Ilana Wilken: Morphology-based investigation of differences between spoken and written isiZulu
12:00-12:15 Break
Chair: Juan Steyn
12:15-12:25 Minne Atairu: Reimagining Benin Bronzes with Generative Adversarial Networks
12:25-12:35 Mandy Wigdorowitz, Sahba Besharati, and Barbara McGillivray: Open data and the digital humanities in the time of COVID-19 (LT = Lightning Talk)
12:35-12:45 Marne’ Swanepoel: Imagining digital queer futures through trans comics on Instagram: an autoethnographic exploration (LT)
12:45-12:55 Frances Gillis-Webber, and C. Maria Keet: Modelling Multiple Representations in an OWL Ontology (LT)
12:55-14:00 Break
Chair: Menno van Zaanen
14:00-16:00 Tutorial: Digitalization and Visualization (A practical approach with TEI data) Sree Thottempudi
Dec. 1
Chair: Juan Steyn
9:00-9:30 Roald Eiselen, and Gerhard B van Huyssteen: Using ordinal logistic regression to analyse self-reported usage of, and attitudes towards swearwords
9:30-10:00 Melandri Laubscher: UPLOrc: A Networked, LiveCoding Laptop Orchestra based in South Africa
10:00-10:15 Break
Chair: Sean Kruger
10:15-10:25 Andrew Gao: Indigenous Language Preservation Through A Framework for Online Dictionary Creation
10:25-10:35 Benito Trollip: Digital Humanities (DH) as a bridge or barrier to access (LT)
10:35-10:45 Richard Ajah: Multimodality, Performance and Technopoetics in Johanna Waliya’s bilingual African Digital Poetry Abstract (LT)
10:45-10:55 Sokfa F. John: If Algorithms are not Gods, what are they? Religious metaphors, power and agency in digital culture Abstract (LT)
10:55-11:15 Break
Chair: Andiswa Bukula
11:15-11:45 Nuette Heyns, and Menno van Zaanen: Finding topic boundaries in literary text
11:45-12:00 Hlungwane, Mmanape: Localisation of digital terminology development programs in Indigenous South African languages. (Poster)
12:00-12:15 Break
Chair: Mmasibidi Setaka
12:15-12:25 Iginio Gagliardone: Analyzing conspiracies in context: a mix-methods approach to move beyond the dichotomy of facts vs. fiction Abstract (for LT) 10 minutes
12:25-12:35 Lolie Makhubu-Badenhorst, Gugu Fihlela-Hattingh, and Njabulo Hadebe: A critique on the impacts of successful acceptance of Human language technology: A quantitative study of isiZulu Spellchecker Abstract (LT)
12:35-12:45 Magoro Kgopotso Ditshego: Cultural knowledge systems, Mandhwane and Mind Mobilisation for rural communities in the digital era Student abstract (LT)
12:45-13:50 Break
13:50-14:00 Louisa Wood Ruby: PHAROS: The International Consortium of Photo Archives Abstract (LT)
Chair: Franziska Pannach
14:00-16:00 Tutorial: CATMA 6.0, Malte Meister and Dominik Gerstorfer
Dec 2nd
Chair: Ingrid Thomson
09:00-11:00 Tutorial WikimediaZA edit-a-thon Bobby Shabangu
11:00-11:15 Break
Chair: Langa Khumalo
11:15-11:45 Sibeko Johannes, and Menno van Zaanen: An analysis of readability metrics on English exam texts
11:45-11:55 Juan Steyn: Towards impactful Research Infrastructures: Mediating research activities Abstract (LT)
11:55-12:05 Kathryn Olsen, Bhekani Buthelezi, and Anusharani Sewchurrani: Disrupting established trajectories of success: in search of alternative models of making and marketing maskanda Abstract (LT)
12:05-12:20 Break
Chair: Oghenere Salubi
12:20-12:30 Chrismi-Rinda Loth, Gideon Kotzé, and Jani de Lange: Facilitating access to South African place names and signed place names through a mobile app Abstract (LT)
12:30-12:40 Chris Houghton: Bringing DH to the masses – widening participation in digital humanities with Gale Digital Scholar Lab Abstract (LT)
12:40-12:50 Karli Brittz: A Soulful approach to AI: A comparative analysis of OpenAI’s Hide and Seek and Pixar’s Soul Abstract (LT)
12:50-14:00 Break
Chair: Franziska Pannach
14:00-16:00 Tutorial: Text Mining for Newbies Stefan Ziehe
17:00-18:00 Digital Social Event
Dec 3rd
09:00-10:00 Invited speaker:
Prof. Tunde Ope-Davies
Decolonising African Cultural/Historical Memory Data: A Digital Humanities Approach
Chair: Amanda du Preez
Abstract
With the rapid expansion and deployment of technology in every sphere of human activities, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the application of approaches and tools in Digital Humanities (DH) can inspire new developments and innovation in African studies especially within the fields of humanities and liberal sciences. This presentation provides a context for scholars in this field to discuss how the application of new technologies can provoke a re-interpretation and proper (digital) documentation and globalization of a large body of existing data on historical and cultural memories in Africa. It argues that the new technology-driven approaches being postulated in DH scholarship and research orientations across some academic and research communities in Africa would provide a genuine and authentic framework for the [re-]construction and [re-]presentation of information on Africa, its histories, cultures and epistemes.
10:00-10:15 Break
Chair: Mmasibidi Setaka
10:15-12:15 Tutorial: Expanding the influence of DH throughout
the humanities – Introducing Gale Digital Scholar Lab Chris Houghton https://www.gale.com/intl/primary-sources/digital-scholar-lab
12:15-12:30 Break
Chair: Anusharani Sewchurran
12:30-12:40 Janie Cole: Mapping Indigenous Robben Island, the Music of the Khoekhoe and the Discovery of the Tip of Africa: GIS as Method for Cultural Preservation, Decolonization and Sustainability Abstract (LT)
12:40-12:50 Annelise de Vries, and Zakeera Docrat: Enhancing access to justice through a Speech-To-Text model: Language and technology in courtroom discourse. (LT)
12:50-13:00 Closing Remarks (chair: Menno van Zaanen)
13:00-14:00 Break
14:00-16:00 DHASA business meeting
Dec. 6th
Presentation of the Shared Task on Nguni Languages Part-of-Speech Tagging (NLAPOST2021), jointly organised by DHASA and SACAIR, at the SACAIR unconference