DH Asia Webinar Series: “Computational Methods and Intangible Cultural Heritage” by Dr. Miguel Escobar Varela

We cordially invite you to the second session in our DH Asia Webinar series by Dr. Donghyun Woo from Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST).

From viruses that cause zoonotic pandemics to the gut microbes that condition metabolism inside the body, microbes play crucial roles in human health and disease. Increasingly powerful scientific techniques are bringing to light the microbes inside and outside of our bodies and revealing how microorganisms connect individuals and even cross species.

But what to do about the microbes that we live with is a question that cannot be answered by microbiological tools alone. The human impact on the environment, including the consumption of antibiotics that alter the microbiome or the deforestation that increases the risk of emerging pathogens, demands historical and cultural analysis. Calls for closure of wet markets or culling of infected livestock in order to control pathogen spillover raise important questions about cultural differences in human-nonhuman relationships, the evaluation of risk, and the valuation of nonhuman life. Artists and anthropologists provide new tools to help us see the many possibilities of human life amidst the microbiome. After a century of intensive antibiotic use in healthcare and the livestock industry, can we imagine co-existence with microbes? How can we increase public understanding of the microbiome and its impacts on health and environment? What new alliances can be envisioned between microbial cultures and human cultures?

This workshop will initiate a conversation between biologists, anthropologists and artists to discuss venues of critical thinking on relations between microbes and health in a rapidly changing planet. The meeting will provide inspiration for an exhibition project and a collaborative white paper that aim for a reflexive account of microbial cultures.

At the turn of the 20th century, the German organic chemical industry began exporting coal tar-based synthetic dyestuffs to China.

DH Asia Webinar Series: New Horizon of Digital Humanities? Computational Social Science and its Application by Dr. Hsuanlei Shao

Compared to the importance we attribute today to disinformation our reliable knowledge of its effects is still surprisingly low. The few empirical studies on the impact of disinformation so far mainly refer to the USA and Western Europe. They arrive at largely consistent findings, which seem to contradict the public perception of disinformation.

HASS Conversations in Design, Technology, and Society Series | Hazardous Data: The Entanglements of Digital Debt in India

HASS Colloquium Series: Intersecting research and pedagogy: Structures of control and empowerment by Dr Roslynn Ang

Signs of Safety: Qualification Devices and the Consumption of Risky Poultry in China’s ‘Wet’ Markets

Shuttling in time and temper between the politics of a small Malayan town and the anguished years of pre-Partition Bengal, between the Malayan Emergency and Direct Action Day, between indifference and lust, ‘A Flutter in the Colony’ is a tender, resonant chronicle of a family struggling to remain together in the twilight of Empire in Asia.