Refurbished centre strengthens Faculty’s foothold in digital field of humanities research

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/multimedia_lab_opt.jpg” caption=”Pictured at the opening of the new multimedia lab, from left, Nasrin Rahimieh, dean of humanities, Peter George, McMaster President, Geoffrey Rockwell, associate professor in the School of the Arts, and Andrew Mactavish, director of the humanities media and computing centre. Photo credit: Chantall Van Raay”]McMaster's Faculty of Humanities has strengthened its foothold in the digital world of humanities research with the refurbishing of its Research Computing Centre.

Funding from several federal and provincial programs has enabled the Faculty to purchase new equipment to support the work of humanities and social sciences researchers doing research in the areas of globalization and autonomy, text analysis, and infrastructure for internet streaming. The equipment is also available to other researchers and graduate students conducting research in the humanities.

An open house was held on Friday, Nov. 26 to showcase the new facility and promote its use by graduate students and faculty doing research in the humanities.

McMaster University President Peter George cut the ribbon to officially open the centre and congratulated researchers on their accomplishments. “This (centre) will have a huge impact on building research infrastructure for the humanities and social sciences. This is a real milestone of achievement for humanities research in Canada and you are to be congratulated.” George described the infrastructure as another step (for McMaster and the Faculty) in developing an international strength in the digital field of humanities.

The equipment supports the work of three McMaster research projects that have been funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation: Globalization and Autonomy, Text Analysis Portal for Research (TAPoR), and Infrastructure for Research on Internet Streaming (IRIS). Equipment funding for the Globalization and TAPoR projects was also provided by the Major Collaborative Research Initiatives grants program of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Ontario Innovation Trust.

The new centre has nine workstations that are equipped with high-end, state-of-the-art computers to assist researchers studying and working with digital text, image, sound or video material. The room also houses new video and surround-sound audio systems as well as a 42-inch plasma display.

Nasrin Rahimieh, dean of the Faculty of Humanities, said the facility provides a welcome and stimulating environment for both disciplinary and interdisciplinary research, and is a key part of the Faculty's work in the area of digital arts and humanities computing.

Andrew Mactavish, director of the humanities media and computing centre and project lead for IRIS, hopes researchers and graduate students will make good use of the centre.

“This is a fairly innovative and high-end research facility for humanities faculties in Canada. There aren't many like this. It is very diverse in what it has to offer and what it will enable researchers to do.”

The centre is open to graduate students and faculty for research 24/7. Access is via permission of the Humanities and Multimedia Computing Centre and research project directors.