Join us for a roundtable discussion of these questions on the evening of 5 September 2019. This event will bring together computer science and digital humanities experts to discuss the challenges and opportunities created by the intersection of these disciplines.

As machine learning becomes more common across a wide range of digital solutions, and increasingly factors in our daily lives, it is also being used more frequently in humanities research projects. The possibilities of machine learning need to be understood by humanities researchers and the complexities of the problems investigated in the humanities by those working with machine learning technologies. The humanities can offer a wealth of historical data that presents new challenges to machine learning methodologies: historical records, pictorial representations, literary (or other) text. Recent Digital Humanities projects already employ some machine learning technology, such as with the development of Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR), but the diversification of the data investigated with machine learning approaches has the potential to lead the technology in new and unexpected ways with real-world applications. Panel members include: • Beatrice Alex (University of Edinburgh), • Noura Al-Moubayed (Durham University), • Mia Ridge (British Library), • Melissa Terras (University of Edinburgh).

The event is supported by the Newcastle University Humanities Research Institute (NUHRI) and Animating Text Newcastle University (ATNU) as an open forum for discussion of these and related issues, and is open to any who wish to attend and are interested in the possibilities and ramifications of the intersection between machine learning and its use in the humanities.