The Digital Orientalist

Project Digitize It All: Using a Digital Camera For  digitizing a couple of dozen books at home, fast, I decided to use a digital camera. In this post I detail exactly what I did, how I did it, and why (includes video at end of post). As I have …

In 2014, the DO’s founder L.W.C. van Lit wrote about experiments using a DSLR camera to #digitize books as part of the series ProjectDigitizeItAll. This #PostFromThePast continues to be relevant for those of us wanting to scan our books today 👇

digitalorientalist.com/2014/09/08/p...

Using Furigana Bunko Those who have spoken to me about transcription might know that I swear by Furigana Bunko. Sadly, I rarely find this enthusiasm shared by others, and when I recommend the platform few start using i…

#APostYouMayHaveMissed
This year James Harry Morris published a guide to using the online word frequency #dictionary #FuriganaBunko with examples of how he uses it for #palaeography and the #transcription of pre-modern #Japanese texts.

🔗 Check it out: digitalorientalist.com/2024/12/10/u...

Beyond Rows and Columns: Visualising Data with RAWGraphs One of the biggest challenges of working with large (and often incomplete) collections of data lies in how best to understand and utilise them. How can we locate the trends, patterns, and relations…

#APostYouMayHaveMissed
Back in May our Ed-in-Chief, Rachael Griffiths published on her experiments using #RAWGraphs to create visualizations of networks using data on #Tibetan manuscripts. Check out this guide to a highly accessible and beginner-friendly tool:

digitalorientalist.com/2025/05/06/b...

The Digital Orientalist Rebrand and Naming Feedback Dear DO readers, Over the years the name of our publication has prompted some negative commentary. We are fully aware of the contentious meaning of “Orientalism” and its relation to colonialism. Stil...

Last chance to provide your thoughts on rebranding! Our questionnaire closes today, please leave your feedback here: forms.gle/iyWgF8zwzCeZ...

The Doha Historical Dictionary of Arabic In 2013 the Arabic Center for Research and Politics Studies launched an ambitious ongoing program to build an Arabic Historical Dictionary. This is the first Arabic dictionary that traces the origi…

Back in 2019 then editor for #IslamicStudies Maksim Abdul Latif introduced readers to the “Doha Historical Dictionary of #Arabic.” At only 390 words long this #PostFromThePast also shows how the DO's style of article has changed over the past 6 years.

🔗 digitalorientalist.com/2019/02/01/t...

📢 Last chance to apply to be part of our team for the next academic year!

Want to contribute an article? Perhaps several? Or join our editorial or social media teams? Check out the details below!

📅 Deadline is tomorrow!

How the Sounds (Im)properly Educate the People: Korea and the World, Then, and Now This week’s post was written by Tomasz Sleziak. Sleziak is a scholar in Korean studies (particularly Korean but also global Confucianism) and Post-Humanism, conducting research on Confucian socio-l…

#APostYouMayHaveMissed in #KoreanStudies!

Tomasz Sleziak explores lessons related to ideology and communications in pre-modern #Korea and draws parallels with the modern world!

Check it out: digitalorientalist.com/2025/04/01/h...

you've a few more days to submit your application to become a contributor at the @digitalorientalist.bsky.social !

Great opportunity to write about your #DH experience, with great visibility!
👇 #apply submit by 📆 July 13th!

CFA: Join the DO Team 2025/26 The Digital Orientalist is pleased to announce its annual open call for editors, contributors, and team members for the 2025-2026 academic year. As we continue to expand our coverage, we seek …

#Reminder! The deadline for our #cfa for new contributions, editors, and social media team members ends this Sunday (July 13)! Check out the details at the link below if you are interested in joining our team:

digitalorientalist.com/2025/06/03/c...

Typing in Tamil in contemporary and ancient scripts Tamil is one of the twenty-two official languages spoken in India and its representation in writing dates back to the early centuries BCE. Like other languages which use non-Roman scripts, download…

#postfromthepast

Published in 2021, Julie A Hanlon’s discussion of how to input different #Tamil scripts on a #QWERTY keyboard remains one of our most popular posts!

Check it out if you’re interested in #Indian studies or #keyboards👇

digitalorientalist.com/2021/01/15/t...

Still in time to become part of the @digitalorientalist.bsky.social!

Do you work at the intersection of digital humanities and area studies?

Do you want to write pieces that explore a DH idea, a database, or bits of your research?

This is for you!!
📆 July 13th, 2025!
#application #opportunity #DH

Exploring the New Testament Virtual Manuscript Room API While not readily apparent, the New Testament Virtual Manuscript (NTVMR) room has an API that is publicly accessible. An API, or Application Programming Interface, allows users to interact with an …

#APostYouMayHaveMissed in #BiblicalStudies!

“Exploring the #NewTestament Virtual #Manuscript Room API,” Zach Butler discusses how to use NTVMR’s API for research.

Check it out: digitalorientalist.com/2025/04/29/e...

Calling all Digital Orientalist readers!

We are exploring a potential rebrand (and name change!) and would love to hear your feedback. If you have a spare 5 minutes please consider completing our short questionnaire: forms.gle/iyWgF8zwzCeZ...

Online Resources for Chinese Palaeography – Part Two My previous post introduced a fundamental bit of knowledge to work with online resources for Chinese Palaeography, namely the difference between graphs (the visual representation) and the…

working with Chinese manuscripts? Check out my reviews of some useful online tools I wrote for the @digitalorientalist.bsky.social

#palaeography #philology #chiensemanuscripts

digitalorientalist.com/2021/03/05/o...

CFA: Join the DO Team 2025/26 The Digital Orientalist is pleased to announce its annual open call for editors, contributors, and team members for the 2025-2026 academic year. As we continue to expand our coverage, we seek …

You have still time to submit your applicant to become part of the @digitalorientalist.bsky.social

Write as much as you want, publish nice pieces with the help of editors without the pressure of peer-review! Dip a toe in the water, learn to present your work in a great environment!

Wissenschaftliche:r Mitarbeiter:in (w/d/m)

👤 Wir suchen Sie! Werden Sie wissenschaftliche:r Mitarbeiter:in (w/d/m) @stabiberlin.bsky.social. Unterstützen Sie uns dabei, digitale Services im Bereich China weiter zu entwickeln! Die Bewerbungsfrist läuft bis zum 18. Juli. Alle Infos finden Sie hier: sbb.berlin/hnagr

CFA: Join the DO Team 2025/26 The Digital Orientalist is please to announce its annual open call for editors, contributors, and team members for the 2025-2026 academic year. As we continue to expand our coverage, we seek i…

@digitalorientalist.bsky.social is still accepting applications to become part of its team! Many positions open, with good flexibility with writing goals!

Check it all out here! 👇

digitalorientalist.com/2025/06/03/c...

🌟 #CFA: Digital Orientalist Team 2025/26 🌟

We are looking for editors, contributors, and social media content creators for the upcoming academic year. Please share widely!

🔗 For more information: digitalorientalist.com/2025/06/03/c...

#digitalhumanities #AcademicTwitter

CFA: Join the DO Team 2025/26 The Digital Orientalist is please to announce its annual open call for editors, contributors, and team members for the 2025-2026 academic year. As we continue to expand our coverage, we seek i…

Ever growing, the @digitalorientalist.bsky.social is looking again for new members! Write as much as you want, and remember that you can send in posts anytime as guest contributor!
digitalorientalist.com/2025/06/03/c...

Congratulations to our research fellow Tiziana Pasciuto for presenting the REDMIX archive at the @digitalorientalist.bsky.social’s conference!

#ERC #ERCCoG #REDMIX #digitalarchive #digitalhumanities @erc.europa.eu

A special thanks also to @mzorki.bsky.social for their technical support; and @madpoli.bsky.social for designing our beautiful conference flyer 🙏

And that's a wrap! 🎉 We've had a wonderful & vibrant day exploring #AI and #DigitalHumanities.

Thank you to @tsujihirohito.bsky.social‬, our Conference Manager & Editor; our chairs James Harry Morris, Emma Kiey, & @sarazanotta.bsky.social; our speakers for sharing their work; and all attendees! 🙏

We've reached the final presentation of the panel and conference!

Gal Forer (UC Berkeley School of Law; harvardkennedy.bsky.social‬), "Towards a 'Beijing Effect' in AI Governance?"

Our third presentation on the Ethical and Critical Perspectives on AI panel:

Shuohong Lyu (uniofeastanglia.bsky.social‬), "Artificial Intelligence Hegemony: What is it and how can we resist as Humanity researchers" - exploring #AIH and its current and potential impact on research practices

Our next speaker is sforrest.bsky.social‬ (University of Massachusetts Amherst), "Labor, Ethics, and Automated Text Recognition in the Classical Japanese Classroom" - considering the implications of #HTR and #OCR in the classroom

Our final panel of the day: Ethical and Critical Perspectives on AI

First up is Hong-Yu Hsien (Independent), "AI Bias-cancelling for the interpretation of a Late Qing Dynasty text" - presenting a series of #AI experiments on an essay by Wang Huiluan 汪噦鸞

Our second paper is by Prince Kumar (Université de Franche-Comté), "LLM-Assisted Geospatial Mapping of 17th-Century European Travel Writings on India" - looking at the potential and limitations of using #LLMs for historical geographic research

Panel 3 is underway: #AI and Geography/Geopolitics🌏

We start with Enes Yılandiloğlu (helsinki.fi‬), "Mapping the Orient: Computational Approaches to Eighteenth-Century Travel Writing" - using computational methods to analyse representations of the Orient in British travel narratives

@dkrichardson.bsky.social and I presented "Drawing from the Crowd", which we prototyped between August 2024-January 2025, at The Digital Orientalist's “AI and the Digital Humanities” Virtual Conference 2025, Panel 2: AI, Digital Histories, and Visual Archives. digitalorientalist.com/2025/05/16/a...

We're back from our break!

And up first is our final keynote by Ephrem A. Ishac (Austrian Academy of Sciences) on "Who is the Public in a Digital Age? Democratization of HTR—#Syriac as Example" - inviting us to rethink and expand our understanding of “the public”