Katie McDonough
@kmcdono.bsky.social
History + DH @ Lancaster University. MapReader, computational history, history of infrastructure and information. Writing a book about people & highways in 18th c. France.
Pinned
Katie McDonough
@kmcdono.bsky.social
· Nov 11
!Stop Press! Article on bias in digitised newspaper collections: ’Whose News’, in the new journal of @comphumresearch.bsky.social by Kaspar Beelen, @jonhistorian61.bsky.social, @kmcdono.bsky.social and me. See blog for summary & 🧵 1/7
Article doi.org/10.1017/chr....
Blog is.gd/2IFc30
#dh #c19 🗃️
Article doi.org/10.1017/chr....
Blog is.gd/2IFc30
#dh #c19 🗃️
Whose news? Critical methods for assessing bias in large historical datasets | Computational Humanities Research | Cambridge Core
Whose news? Critical methods for assessing bias in large historical datasets - Volume 1
doi.org
We are so proud of this work. Not only is it the first effort to publish & analyze **open-access data** derived from the entire text contents of digitized @britishlibrary.bsky.social newspapers, it presents a metadata-driven approach to understanding bias in big historical data. #dh #skystorians
Reposted by Katie McDonough
What readings do you assign on the Bayeux Tapestry for undergrads?
I’m teaching a new course entirely on this object (part how history works, part material history, part experimental archaeology) and looking forward to discovering new-to-me work on it!!
#medievalsky #bayeuxtapestry
I’m teaching a new course entirely on this object (part how history works, part material history, part experimental archaeology) and looking forward to discovering new-to-me work on it!!
#medievalsky #bayeuxtapestry
January 5, 2026 at 9:05 PM
What readings do you assign on the Bayeux Tapestry for undergrads?
I’m teaching a new course entirely on this object (part how history works, part material history, part experimental archaeology) and looking forward to discovering new-to-me work on it!!
#medievalsky #bayeuxtapestry
I’m teaching a new course entirely on this object (part how history works, part material history, part experimental archaeology) and looking forward to discovering new-to-me work on it!!
#medievalsky #bayeuxtapestry
Reposted by Katie McDonough
Fellowship!
In connection with the research program in Economic History, Climate and the Environment:
histecon.fr/en/fellowshi...
In connection with the research program in Economic History, Climate and the Environment:
histecon.fr/en/fellowshi...
THE CENTRE FOR HISTORY AND ECONOMICS IN PARIS
Fellowships
histecon.fr
January 5, 2026 at 3:23 PM
Fellowship!
In connection with the research program in Economic History, Climate and the Environment:
histecon.fr/en/fellowshi...
In connection with the research program in Economic History, Climate and the Environment:
histecon.fr/en/fellowshi...
Reposted by Katie McDonough
#dhist Join the @ihr.bsky.social Digital History seminar 20 Jan midday GMT (on Zoom) for @thomassmits.bsky.social & @melvinwevers.bsky.social on 'Orientalist pixels: How machine learning reveals the colonial color palette of early photography'. Details ⬇️ ihrdighist.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2025/09/tues...
Tuesday 20 January 2026 - Thomas Smits and Melvin Wevers (Amsterdam): Orientalist pixels: How machine learning reveals the colonial color palette of early photography - Digital History Seminar
This seminar is 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm GMT live on Zoom at https://zoom.us/j/98599080376 later posted to our YouTube channel. Session chair: Alexandra Ortolja-Baird Abstract: This talk explores how digita...
ihrdighist.blogs.sas.ac.uk
January 5, 2026 at 9:28 AM
#dhist Join the @ihr.bsky.social Digital History seminar 20 Jan midday GMT (on Zoom) for @thomassmits.bsky.social & @melvinwevers.bsky.social on 'Orientalist pixels: How machine learning reveals the colonial color palette of early photography'. Details ⬇️ ihrdighist.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2025/09/tues...
Reposted by Katie McDonough
QUERY FOR HISTORIANS (Not directly on preoccupying current events): I’m making tweaks to syllabi. I want to show students in a Craft of History class how to analyze academic articles (& talk about what AI summaries miss or mangle). What’s your favorite article, esp. in terms of compelling writing?
January 4, 2026 at 3:56 PM
QUERY FOR HISTORIANS (Not directly on preoccupying current events): I’m making tweaks to syllabi. I want to show students in a Craft of History class how to analyze academic articles (& talk about what AI summaries miss or mangle). What’s your favorite article, esp. in terms of compelling writing?
Prize for best reuse of this map
ICE heads to Minnesota as the triple dip polar vortex starts
January 2, 2026 at 10:56 PM
Prize for best reuse of this map
Reposted by Katie McDonough
Someone should write a history of the syllabus. You could learn so much about higher ed just from the changes in these documents.
In my lifetime syllabi have gone from a thing professors joked about in exasperation to a bizarre form of state surveillance equally loathed by faculty and students
January 2, 2026 at 2:10 AM
Someone should write a history of the syllabus. You could learn so much about higher ed just from the changes in these documents.
Reposted by Katie McDonough
Read it, add to it, enjoy it!
I think we need a mega thread of everyone's craziest archive stories.
December 22, 2025 at 7:23 PM
Read it, add to it, enjoy it!
Reposted by Katie McDonough
In the late 1970s, Carolyn Lougee of Stanford was doing early digital history work, creating a database of her research.
In 1980, Stanford's IT dept *erased* her database. #Oops. And they couldn't restore it.
(how do I know this? from a paper archive at Stanford. don't just worship the digital!) 🗃️
In 1980, Stanford's IT dept *erased* her database. #Oops. And they couldn't restore it.
(how do I know this? from a paper archive at Stanford. don't just worship the digital!) 🗃️
Also, the impermanence of the digital really bothers me. Sure, paper burns and libraries and archives are susceptible to fire, water, and neglect. BUT so much of the early Internet is gone and we're supposed to just ignore that.
We must continue to use analog communication alongside digital.
We must continue to use analog communication alongside digital.
December 22, 2025 at 7:20 PM
In the late 1970s, Carolyn Lougee of Stanford was doing early digital history work, creating a database of her research.
In 1980, Stanford's IT dept *erased* her database. #Oops. And they couldn't restore it.
(how do I know this? from a paper archive at Stanford. don't just worship the digital!) 🗃️
In 1980, Stanford's IT dept *erased* her database. #Oops. And they couldn't restore it.
(how do I know this? from a paper archive at Stanford. don't just worship the digital!) 🗃️
Reposted by Katie McDonough
Archivists/librarians please share the coolest thing in your collections that will never be digitized.
I live in the heart of California gold country. One of the richest mines ever in CA is nearby. Opened circa 1860 closed 1942. A local foundation has preserved the records on site. I know not a stitch has been digitized and am confident no more than 2 pro historians have ever been in there.
December 22, 2025 at 2:31 AM
Archivists/librarians please share the coolest thing in your collections that will never be digitized.
Reposted by Katie McDonough
Join us! We are the International Consortium of Environmental History Organizations and we hope to expand our reach and representation in 2026. We consist of ssociations, networks, centers, institutions, publishers, and journals. Check out the page below to see our current members. #EnvHist
Members — ICEHO
www.iceho.org
December 22, 2025 at 6:52 PM
Join us! We are the International Consortium of Environmental History Organizations and we hope to expand our reach and representation in 2026. We consist of ssociations, networks, centers, institutions, publishers, and journals. Check out the page below to see our current members. #EnvHist
Reposted by Katie McDonough
Applications welcome by 9 January!
📣📣📣 Opportunity: Director of the Voltaire Foundation 📣📣📣
We are seeking a Director to lead the Voltaire Foundation, to succeed Professor Nicholas Cronk, and warmly invite applications.
www.voltaire.ox.ac.uk/news-item/op...
We are seeking a Director to lead the Voltaire Foundation, to succeed Professor Nicholas Cronk, and warmly invite applications.
www.voltaire.ox.ac.uk/news-item/op...
Opportunity: Director of the Voltaire Foundation
We are seeking a Director to lead the Voltaire Foundation, to succeed Professor Nicholas Cronk, and warmly invite applications. The Voltaire Foundation, originally established thanks to the…
www.voltaire.ox.ac.uk
December 19, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Applications welcome by 9 January!
Reposted by Katie McDonough
Paste any IIIF manifest → model classifies every page locally → see where illustrations appear.
Part of small-models-for-glam: small, efficient models for cultural heritage work.
Not everything needs GPT-4!
Try it: huggingface.co/spaces/small-models-for-glam/iiif-illustration-detector
Part of small-models-for-glam: small, efficient models for cultural heritage work.
Not everything needs GPT-4!
Try it: huggingface.co/spaces/small-models-for-glam/iiif-illustration-detector
IIIF Illustration Detector - a Hugging Face Space by small-models-for-glam
Find illustrated pages in digitized historical books
huggingface.co
December 19, 2025 at 12:08 PM
Paste any IIIF manifest → model classifies every page locally → see where illustrations appear.
Part of small-models-for-glam: small, efficient models for cultural heritage work.
Not everything needs GPT-4!
Try it: huggingface.co/spaces/small-models-for-glam/iiif-illustration-detector
Part of small-models-for-glam: small, efficient models for cultural heritage work.
Not everything needs GPT-4!
Try it: huggingface.co/spaces/small-models-for-glam/iiif-illustration-detector
Reposted by Katie McDonough
I do lots of hands-on work with teams adopting AI and there is something interesting about what can actually be measured. Most "work" is not pure play task-and-finish tasks, but co-operation and communication, which is much harder to measure. Getting things "done" not the same as doing them
faster
faster
December 18, 2025 at 6:03 PM
I do lots of hands-on work with teams adopting AI and there is something interesting about what can actually be measured. Most "work" is not pure play task-and-finish tasks, but co-operation and communication, which is much harder to measure. Getting things "done" not the same as doing them
faster
faster
Makes you rethink the idea that there's no such thing as "empty" space on a map...
You see the printed black square from a page in Robert Fludd's "Utriusque cosmi maioris" (1617) that represented the nothingness that was prior to the universe. The square is framed by four sentences in Latin: "Et sic in infinitum" (And so on to infinity). #earlymodern #skystorians
December 18, 2025 at 1:04 PM
Makes you rethink the idea that there's no such thing as "empty" space on a map...
Reposted by Katie McDonough
Come work with me! My institution is hiring a new library systems/digital services specialist. And what a place to be—we're in the midst of a $100 million library renovation and good things are happening here.
Library Systems & Digital Services Specialist
Davidson’s E.H. Little Library seeks a Library Systems and Digital Services Specialist to support the effective management, maintenance, and continuous improvement of library technology services and i...
fa-exci-saasfaprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com
December 16, 2025 at 5:10 PM
Come work with me! My institution is hiring a new library systems/digital services specialist. And what a place to be—we're in the midst of a $100 million library renovation and good things are happening here.
Reposted by Katie McDonough
📢 CRCV is now on data.gouv.fr (certified organisation)!
First dataset: Prosocour (17th–18th c.) — individuals, offices/positions, and interpersonal links to explore networks and careers at the French court.
➡️ www.data.gouv.fr/datasets/jeu...
#OpenData
First dataset: Prosocour (17th–18th c.) — individuals, offices/positions, and interpersonal links to explore networks and careers at the French court.
➡️ www.data.gouv.fr/datasets/jeu...
#OpenData
December 16, 2025 at 9:54 AM
📢 CRCV is now on data.gouv.fr (certified organisation)!
First dataset: Prosocour (17th–18th c.) — individuals, offices/positions, and interpersonal links to explore networks and careers at the French court.
➡️ www.data.gouv.fr/datasets/jeu...
#OpenData
First dataset: Prosocour (17th–18th c.) — individuals, offices/positions, and interpersonal links to explore networks and careers at the French court.
➡️ www.data.gouv.fr/datasets/jeu...
#OpenData
Reposted by Katie McDonough
Folks, this is a massive (up to $5 mil) matching fund program for "Western civilization, American history and government, and civics." This is the govt siphoning your tax dollars off to those Centers for civics & W Civ being founded by conserv politicians and donors+
December 15, 2025 at 10:13 PM
Folks, this is a massive (up to $5 mil) matching fund program for "Western civilization, American history and government, and civics." This is the govt siphoning your tax dollars off to those Centers for civics & W Civ being founded by conserv politicians and donors+
Reposted by Katie McDonough
This is basically EVERY university in the Anglophone world.
They claim financial exigency, but then turn down $4 million pledges to keep the PhD programs open and disregard financial analyses that point to the real problem—bad real estate deals, spending on consultants, and their own salaries 2/2
December 13, 2025 at 3:55 PM
This is basically EVERY university in the Anglophone world.
Reposted by Katie McDonough
Cool data project on Seattle Public Library checkouts, generously shared exploratory tool and data…
Which canonical American authors are the public reading, and why?
To find out, we analyzed library borrowing patterns for every author in the Norton Anthology of American Literature (1945 to the Present).
Excited to share this new CHR paper & data!
anthology.ach.org/volumes/vol0...
#CHR2025
To find out, we analyzed library borrowing patterns for every author in the Norton Anthology of American Literature (1945 to the Present).
Excited to share this new CHR paper & data!
anthology.ach.org/volumes/vol0...
#CHR2025
Excited to be in Luxembourg at CHR 2025 to hear about everyone’s amazing work and to share my project with @mellymeldubs.bsky.social and our team. We tracked canonical authors and texts in Seattle Public Library circulation data.
December 14, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Cool data project on Seattle Public Library checkouts, generously shared exploratory tool and data…
Reposted by Katie McDonough
In my lightning talk with @danielwilson.bsky.social ('Disorder or (self-)murder?') we tried detecting significant changes in the framing of suicide in 19th-century British news.
December 13, 2025 at 11:56 AM
In my lightning talk with @danielwilson.bsky.social ('Disorder or (self-)murder?') we tried detecting significant changes in the framing of suicide in 19th-century British news.
Reposted by Katie McDonough
Just back from #CHR2025. A lot of interesting work, and I was especially surprised by how well the lightning talk format worked out (shout-out to @taylor-arnold.bsky.social’s timed slides for keeping the chaos in check)
December 13, 2025 at 11:56 AM
Just back from #CHR2025. A lot of interesting work, and I was especially surprised by how well the lightning talk format worked out (shout-out to @taylor-arnold.bsky.social’s timed slides for keeping the chaos in check)
Reposted by Katie McDonough
In the poster session at #CHR2025 starting at 5pm, our dear colleague Michał Bubula will present our short paper entitled "How Scalable is Quality Assessment of Text Recognition?"
anthology.ach.org/volumes/vol0...
Go there and talk to him since we aim to provide your high-quality research data!
anthology.ach.org/volumes/vol0...
Go there and talk to him since we aim to provide your high-quality research data!
How Scalable is Quality Assessment of Text Recognition? A Combination
of Ground Truth and Confidence Scores
anthology.ach.org
December 11, 2025 at 3:56 PM
In the poster session at #CHR2025 starting at 5pm, our dear colleague Michał Bubula will present our short paper entitled "How Scalable is Quality Assessment of Text Recognition?"
anthology.ach.org/volumes/vol0...
Go there and talk to him since we aim to provide your high-quality research data!
anthology.ach.org/volumes/vol0...
Go there and talk to him since we aim to provide your high-quality research data!
Reposted by Katie McDonough
Ongoing decimation of British universities part 252:
Apx. 1000 academic staff at University of Essex just received formal ‘risk of redundancy’ letters via email.
Please share @ucuessex.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk
Apx. 1000 academic staff at University of Essex just received formal ‘risk of redundancy’ letters via email.
Please share @ucuessex.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk
December 11, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Ongoing decimation of British universities part 252:
Apx. 1000 academic staff at University of Essex just received formal ‘risk of redundancy’ letters via email.
Please share @ucuessex.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk
Apx. 1000 academic staff at University of Essex just received formal ‘risk of redundancy’ letters via email.
Please share @ucuessex.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk
Reposted by Katie McDonough
Chuffed to be able to continue work in this area with these wonderful colleagues... 📖🤖
Delighted to share that my co-PIs @danielwilson.bsky.social @mcollardanuy.bsky.social and Kaspar Beelen have been selected for a 2025 Humanities and AI Virtual Institute award from @schmidtsciences.bsky.social: www.schmidtsciences.org/humanities-a...
Humanities and AI Virtual Institute - Schmidt Sciences
www.schmidtsciences.org
December 11, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Chuffed to be able to continue work in this area with these wonderful colleagues... 📖🤖
Big fomo this week not being able to join Kaspar Beelen in person for our lightning talk, but grateful to be able to follow along on here 🤩 #chr2025
📢 The #CHR2025 proceedings are out!
97 papers, ~1600 pages of computational humanities 🔥 Now published via the new Anthology of Computers and the Humanities, with DOIs for every paper.
🔗 anthology.ach.org/volumes/vol0...
And don’t forget: registration closes tomorrow (20 Nov)!
97 papers, ~1600 pages of computational humanities 🔥 Now published via the new Anthology of Computers and the Humanities, with DOIs for every paper.
🔗 anthology.ach.org/volumes/vol0...
And don’t forget: registration closes tomorrow (20 Nov)!
Edited by Taylor Arnold, Margherita Fantoli, and Ruben Ros
anthology.ach.org
December 10, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Big fomo this week not being able to join Kaspar Beelen in person for our lightning talk, but grateful to be able to follow along on here 🤩 #chr2025