The value of GIS in the humanities has been heavily discussed over the last few years, but it remains difficult for most humanists to get started and explore new methodologies, vocabularies, software, and procedures.

This fully introductory session will go over:

• how to install QGIS (a free, open-source alternative to ArcGIS)
• basic concepts of GIS software
• finding and using shapefiles (to generate maps)
• finding data to map
• mapping historical data on a modern map (ie linking data to shapefiles)
• mapping historical data on historic maps (ie map overlays)

We will walk through each of these procedures using an example of mapping civil war battles (because that’s what one does in Virginia).

Text mining (TM) has been one of the most frequently discussed methodologies in the humanities in the last year, along with many tools can help with some basic and some not so basic TM methodologies. Although it may seem like overkill, learning how to use the statistical software package R for TM is a great way to learn more about some fundamental processes and how you can get more control over your own TM explorations.

This introductory workshop will demonstrate how to:

install R
use the R console (like the command line)
create a set of text files to explore
explore the basic TM features
create a visualization of document similarity