Digital Humanities Developer

Description

Academic Computing Services (ACS), a division of Stanford University Libraries and Academic Information Resources (SULAIR), provides technology expertise, resources, and services to students, faculty, and staff in support of the University's academic mission. Due to the growing demand by Stanford faculty for software development and integration in humanities research, ACS seeks an experienced Digital Humanities Developer. The successful candidate must have experience working with humanities scholars and expertise in developing sophisticated representation of humanities datasets. S/he will work with ACS's Digital Humanities Specialist to support faculty projects by developing dynamic and interactive software as well as identifying and integrating a wide variety of techniques and tools for work in the humanities. The candidate should have a firm understanding of at least one of the major trends in the digital humanities, such as historical GIS, event modeling, text analysis or semantic networks.

The digital humanities developer will work alongside collaborative groups across Stanford, providing solutions and support for a variety of projects. Development work will be oriented toward reuse by scholars across traditional humanities disciplines as well as providing resources for staff in SULAIR and similar organizations at Stanford. The position will report to the Digital Humanities Specialist.

In addition to a resume, interested candidates should submit a cover letter/email describing how their qualifications are a fit for the position.

Specific responsibilities include:

• Alongside the Digital Humanities Specialist, consult with faculty to identify how their work can be better facilitated with custom software and off-the-shelf tools.
• Evaluate existing humanities software tools suitable for a humanities-wide audience as well as those best oriented toward particular fields and methodologies. Design and implement plug-ins or scripts for such tools to better suit humanities datasets, when necessary. Maintain familiarity with tool functionality and the latest methodological theory on the use of such tools in humanities scholarship.
• Build and/or identify lightweight, web-portable frameworks that allow scholars to present and easily work with standardized datasets.
• Identify and convey the variety of methods of representing nuanced and sophisticated knowledge in digital format, specifically in regard to digital scholarly media.
• Review professional literature; participate in newsgroups and other forums to stay abreast of new methodologies and practices relevant to Digital Humanities; and continually improve knowledge of academic technology and programming through participation in code reviews with other Academic Computing developers and attending appropriate classes and workshops.

Qualifications:

• A degree in a humanities discipline and/or a degree in computer science (or related field). A Masters degree or greater in one of these areas is preferred.
• A minimum of five years experience in using technology in Humanities scholarship, and a demonstrated keen understanding of current projects and trends in the digital humanities.
• Demonstrated proficiency in one or more of the following areas: natural language processing, data-mining, machine learning, spatial analysis, data modeling, network analysis or information visualization.
• A proven record of developing applications both independently and as part of a team, from conception through implementation, including the architectural planning, design, coding, testing, debugging, and documentation phases of a software development project.
• Experience with relational databases (Oracle, SQL) and scripting languages (PHP, Perl, Javascript, XML, XSLT, XHTML, CSS).
• Experience developing dynamic and interactive media, preferably with experience developing applications for a touch-environment.
• Experience developing and integrating tools in an open source environment.
• Experience with the integration of digital media into web applications and/or collaboration systems (e.g., Sakai, Drupal, etc.)
• Experience working with faculty in an academic setting.
• Familiarity with human/computer interface principles, and experience applying those principles in programming.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.