Digital Humanities as insurgency

In The Digital Humanities Bust, Timothy Brennan argues that despite lofty claims supported by heavy financial and academic investment, the Digital Humanities (DH) have hardly any meaningful results to show. The vociferous (and justified) reaction to his statement has obscured another important claim he makes and that needs to be discussed: DH is an insurgency.…

Can you model my valley? Particular people, places and times in archaeological simulation

Note: This is an edited version of the paper I gave at the 2016 SAA session organized by Ben Davies. Simulation can be used to do anything. That’s part of its problem. It can easily be used try to replicate a particular past context. But should it? Anyone who has tried to build general archaeological…

Making it count in academia

@billcaraher reflects on what counts in academia and what counting means. Picking up on that reflection, I need to point out that the people who decide what counts in academia are we who sit on the committees that hire Assistant Professors, give out grants, award tenure, promotion, and merit pay,  and those of us who…

Is band name scarcity a myth? A quantitative approach, revised and expanded

While there has been little empirical study of the phenomenon, it is a widely held belief among aspiring musicians that 'all the good band names are taken' (multiple anonymous informants, pers. comms). Given that there is also a belief that a good band name is important (Indie Professor, 2011), there is significant 'band name anxiety'…

It was 20 years ago today: Analysis of metallic residue from Early Metal Age northern Finland, with vintage dot-matrix graphs

Note: Twenty years ago today, on October 3rd 1997, we performed analyses of metallic residue attached to ceramics from two Early Metal Age sites in Northern Finland at the Electron Microscopy Institute at Oulu University. Here are the results, along with a bit of discussion and some cell phone pictures of some sweet vintage dot-matrix…