Biography
Before moving to the Department of Digital Humanities, James was founding director of King's Digital Lab and Deputy Director of King's eResearch. He has a doctorate in History and has taught in History, English, and Philosophy as well as Digital Humanities. Before working at King's James worked at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, as a Senior Lecturer in Digital Humanities and Associate Director of the UC CEISMIC earthquake archive. He has also worked in the government and commercial IT sectors in the United Kingdom and New Zealand, as a technical writer and editor, business analyst, and project manager.
For more information, visit James Smithies' website.
Research interests and PhD supervision
- Digital Humanities
- History and Philosophy of Computing
- Infrastructure Studies
- Research Software Engineering
- eResearch
My approach to Digital Humanities is outlined in The Digital Humanities and the Digital Modern (2017). I have participated in and remain interested in a wide range of research areas, from digital history and literature, minimal computing and digital creativity, to infrastructure studies. I have an active interest in applied research, research software engineering (RSE), laboratory studies, and eResearch. I am also interested in theoretical and methodological approaches to digital humanities research, and the history and philosophy of computing.
Selected Publications
James Smithies, Sarah Atkinson, Elliott Hall, ‘Applied Digital Humanities and the Creative Industries in the United Kingdom’, Digital Humanities Quarterly 16, no.2 (2022).
James Smithies, The Digital Humanities and the Digital Modern (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017).
James Smithies and Arianna Ciula, ‘Humans in the Loop: Epistemology & Method in King’s Digital Lab’, in Routledge International Handbook of Research Methods in Digital Humanities., ed. Kristen Shuster and Stuart Dunn (London: Taylor and Francis, 2020), 155–72.
James Smithies et al., ‘Managing 100 Digital Humanities Projects: Digital Scholarship & Archiving in King’s Digital Lab’, Digital Humanities Quarterly 13, no. 1 (2019).
James Smithies, ‘Full Stack DH: Building a Virtual Research Environment on a Raspberry Pi’, in Making Things and Drawing Boundaries: Experiments in the Digital Humanities., ed. Jentery Sayers, Debates in DH (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2018), 102–14.
Teaching
I teach a variety of digital humanities topics, including structured and linked open data, rapid response, product development, project management, software engineering, and coding and the humanities. In previous roles I have taught topics in artificial intelligence and society, New Zealand history and literature, and the history of computing and technology.
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Smithies, J., Atkinson, S. & Hall, E., 17 Jun 2022, In: Digital Humanities Quarterly. Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Smithies, J., Flohr, P., Bala'awi, F., Idwan, S., Palmer, C., Esposito, A., Mubaideen, S. & er Rababeh, S., 11 Jan 2022, (Accepted/In press) In: ACM Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage. Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review. DOIs: https://doi.org/10.1145/3513261
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Mubaideen, S., Flohr, P., Smithies, J., Bala’awi, F., Palmer, C., Idwan, S. & Esposito, A., 2022, In: Bulletin of the Council for British Research in the Levant. p. 1-8 Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review. DOIs: https://doi.org/10.1080/00758914.2022.2070233
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Romanova, N., Ciula, A., Smithies, J., Jakeman, N., Tupman, C., Winters, J. & Hughes, L., 2021 Research output: Book/Report › Report › peer-review. DOIs: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5105937
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Bala’awi, F., Mubaideen, S., Smithies, J., Flohr, P., Esposito, A., Palmer, C. & Idwan, S., 2021, Culture and Computing. Interactive Cultural Heritage and Arts - 9th International Conference, C and C 2021, Held as Part of the 23rd HCI International Conference, HCII 2021, Proceedings. Rauterberg, M. (ed.). Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, p. 15-26 12 p. (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics); vol. 12794 LNCS). Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review. DOIs: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77411-0_2
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McGillivray, B., Alex, B., Ames, S., Armstrong, G., Beavan, D., Ciula, A., Colavizza, G., Cummings, J., De Roure, D., Farquhar, A., Hengchen, S., Lang, A., Loxley, J., Goudarouli, E., Nanni, F., Nini, A., Nyhan, J., Osborne, N., Poibeau, T., Ridge, M. & 5 others, Ranade, S., Smithies, J., Terras, M., Vlachidis, A. & Willcox, P., 27 Aug 2020, Alan Turing Institute. Research output: Book/Report › Report. DOIs: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12732164
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Smithies, J. & Ciula, A., 2020, Routledge international handbook of research methods in digital humanities. Schuster, K. & Dunn, S. (eds.). Routlege, p. 155-172 18 p. Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review. DOIs: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429777028-13
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Smithies, J., Westling, C., Sichani, A-M., Mellen, P. & Ciula, A., 26 Apr 2019, In: Digital Humanities Quarterly. 13, 1, 15 p., 000411. Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Millar, P., Thomson, C., Smithies, J. & Middendorf, J., 14 Aug 2018, Crisis and Disaster in Japan and New Zealand: Actors, Victims and Ramifications. Springer Singapore, p. 159-179 21 p. Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review. DOIs: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0244-2_10
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Smithies, J., 2018, Making Things and Drawing Boundaries: Experiments in the Digital Humanities. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, (Debates in DH). Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review