Guest Speakers
Abstracts & Biographies
DR. JAVIER CHA
Associate Professor, East Asian Studies in the College of Liberal Studies, Seoul National University- Dr. Javier CHA is Associate Professor of East Asian Studies in the College of Liberal Studies and the principal investigator of the Big Data Studies Lab at Seoul National University.
Speech title:
Big Data and the Transformation of Historical Practice
Abstract:
How will future historians study the 2020s? The 59 zettabytes of data estimated to have been generated by the digital revolution until 2020 dwarfs what historians traditionally encountered. The challenge for the historian is not only due to information overload, but also difficulties in how to access big data as an archive, such as bit rot, sharding, replication, (in)compatibility, encryption, and the physical presence of digital information in the form of data centers and global communications infrastructure. This new reality prompts the need to rethink the established approaches to digital history, which, while innovative, is designed for converting documents to digital media and applying quantitative methods on sub-1.0 gigabyte data sets. As today’s born-digital artifacts are vast, dynamic, and heterogeneous, research and training in the nature of big data from a historian’s perspective are a necessity, not an option.
In this talk, I will present the fruits of two years of research at the Big Data Studies Lab, where we investigate the preservation, authentication, energy demands, and societal implications of big data. Our approach is inspired by how book historians examine parchment, paper, ink, printing, and circulation but in the context of solid-state drives, 5D optical discs, and content-delivery networks.
DR. LIK HANG TSUI
Assistant Professor, Department of Chinese and History, City University of Hong Kong- Lik Hang TSUI is Assistant Professor in the Department of Chinese and History at the City University of Hong Kong, where he convenes a research cluster on Digital Society in its College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences. He holds a bachelor’s degree in History from Peking University and a doctoral degree in Oriental Studies from the University of Oxford. Before his current role, he worked as a Departmental Lecturer at the University of Oxford and a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University with the China Biographical Database (CBDB). He has also held visiting appointments and fellowships at Academia Sinica, Peking University, and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. He specializes in middle period Chinese history and culture, as well as the digital humanities. He is also the co-founder of 01Lab, an award-winning blog on digital humanities and culture.
Speech title:
Interactive Close Reading: Could it be Taught Entirely Digitally?
DR. LUCIE KOLB
Project Manager, Sitterwerk Foundation, Switzerland- Lucie KOLB is a project manager at the Sitterwerk Foundation in St. Gallen, where she curated the exhibition "Reading the Library" (2021) and has been conducting the research project "Teaching the Radical Catalogue. A Syllabus" (2021-22). She holds a master's degree in Fine Arts from Zurich University of the Arts and a doctoral degree in Art and Cultural Studies from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. She has also been working as a senior researcher at the Critical Media Lab in the Institute for Experimental Design and Media Cultures FHNW and is the co-founder and editor of Brand-New-life, an online magazine on contemporary art.
Speech title:
The Sitterwerk Art Library and Its Dynamic Order Using RFID
Abstract:
Sitterwerk Art Library in St. Gallen has developed guided RFID technology to implement book stack management since 2010. This means that the 12,000 books do not have a fixed shelving place and are no longer shelved according to their call numbers. Yet, users can easily find their locations at any time via the catalog. This is a result of a technology known as "Dynamic Order", which enables a new and personal use of the Library. Additionally, tables equipped with RFID reading antennas allow documentation of work processes that make use of books and material samples collected by the Library. The documented information then facilitates real-time networking with other researchers via a web platform. This presentation will bring in innovative ideas of how libraries can use simple technical interventions to make them more networked with users.
HKBU Faculty Speakers
Biographies
DR. KWONG CHI MAN
Associate Professor, Department of History, Hong Kong Baptist University- Dr. KWONG Chi Man is an associate professor in the history department of Hong Kong Baptist University. He specializes in the military and naval history of modern East Asia, particularly from the Sino-Japanese War (1894–95) to the 1970s. He has published Eastern Fortress: A Military History of Hong Kong, 1840–1970 (co-authored, Hong Kong Book Prize 2019) and War and Geopolitics in Interwar Manchuria. His works can also be found in Modern Asian Studies, War in History, and Journal of Military History.
Project to be discussed in his presentation: The Battle of Hong Kong 1941: A Spatial History Project
DR. STEPHANIE JEAN TSANG
Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University- Stephanie Jean TSANG is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies, School of Communication, Hong Kong Baptist University, where she leads the Audience Research Lab (BUAR). She also serves as the director of HKBU FactCheck Service. Her research focuses on the psychology of the media audiences, particularly the study of message effects and persuasion on digital media.
Project to be discussed in her presentation: Facebook News Analytic Website
DR. MAIALEN MARIN-LACARTA
Researcher, Open University of Catalonia (UOC)Former Assistant Professor, Department of Translation, Interpreting and Intercultural Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University
- Maialen MARIN-LACARTA is a Researcher at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC) in Spain, where she leads an international team of 9 researchers on a Spanish government-funded project on digital translations and the production of knowledge about China. Prior to joining UOC, she was Assistant Professor at HKBU, where she was awarded two UGC funded projects: a General Research Fund grant and an Early Career Scheme Grant. In 2019, Marin-Lacarta received the President’s Award for Outstanding Performance as Young Researcher at HKBU. Marin-Lacarta’s research areas include literary translation, modern and contemporary Chinese and Sinophone literature, literary reception, translation history, indirect translation, research methodologies and digital publishing. Her publications have appeared in journals such as The Translator, Translation Studies, Perspectives and Meta.
Project to be discussed in her presentation: HKKH: Sinophone Hong Kong literature: translation anthologies
