Digital Humanities Research Designer

Description

The Penn State University Libraries in partnership with the College of the Liberal Arts seek a creative, forward-thinking scholar for the new position of Digital Humanities Research Designer. The Digital Humanities Research Designer will be familiar with a range of technologies and have direct experience bringing digital approaches to bear on research and teaching. The scholar in this position will work as an intellectual partner with faculty, students, and staff in the College of the Liberal Arts.

The successful candidate will collaborate with humanities faculty and library colleagues to expand modes of humanistic research through emerging and existing technologies. In providing research project support and conducting workshops on the use of various tools, for example, the Digital Humanities Research Designer will be able to translate and share ideas and concepts effectively across diverse interdisciplinary audiences. The Digital Humanities Research Designer will maintain currency in the field and may pursue his or her own research to do so.

The person in this position will engage in national and/or international initiatives or other professional activities promoting the development of a shared humanities research infrastructure. The Digital Humanities Research Designer will play a critical role in building services and programs to support the digital humanities at Penn State.

This is a fixed-term (multi-year), non-tenure track, 3-year appointment based in the Publishing and Curation Services department within the University Libraries. It carries the rank of Assistant Librarian. The position reports to the Digital Content Strategist, but it will be jointly funded by the University Libraries and the College of the Liberal Arts.

The University Libraries work in collaboration with multiple campus partners as part of a growing program in support for emerging digital scholarship needs. The Digital Humanities Research Designer appointment is part of Penn State’s “Humanities in a Digital Age” (HDA) initiative. HDA aims to enrich and promote rigorous cross-disciplinary humanities scholarship and research; open new opportunities for high caliber graduate placements in the humanities; and enhance the undergraduate experience by providing students access to, and support for, cutting-edge humanities research. The new services fostered by this initiative will help graduate students and faculty carry out digitally enriched scholarship in a wider range of fields. Working together, the Libraries and the College of Liberal Arts intend to build a community of practice for the digital humanities at Penn State through programming, services, and research collaborations.

Responsibilities

• Works directly with researchers to provide project definition and analysis, such as project scope, requirements, specifications and/or design.
• Evaluates existing tools and technologies, and investigates emerging technologies to identify potential uses in humanities research. Prototypes demonstration projects and/or implements tools for use by others.
• Collaborates with colleagues in the Libraries, Liberal Arts, and Information Technology Services to help ensure harmony among various technology infrastructures and needs.
• Provides limited technical support for digital humanities research projects, including implementation of tools, technology, etc. to help researchers achieve their goals.
• Conducts training, group instruction, or workshops on topics related to digital humanities.
• Collaborates within the Libraries and Liberal Arts on building community and promoting digital humanities tools and methods within the University.

Required Qualifications:

• Advanced degree in a humanities field.
• Demonstrated proficiency/fluency with one or more technologies commonly used in digital humanities projects, such as database design and development, XML-encoding, GIS, data visualization, topic modeling, social network analysis, etc.
• Experience using digital humanities tools and approaches in his or her own research.
• Experience teaching or leading workshops on digital humanities tools and/or methods to faculty and students.
• Experience working collaboratively with other scholars and/or with IT professionals on projects related to digital scholarship.
• Excellent communication skills.
• Strong service orientation.

Desired Qualifications

• PhD in a humanities field.
• Experience with development and management of projects, grants, and/or budgets.
• Record of professional presentations and/or publication.