Visualizing Futures of Networks in Digital Humanities Research

Papers including the topic “Networks, Relationships, Graphs” have comprised roughly 10% of submissions to ADHO’s annual conference for the past 4 years a sizable portion, to be sure, but one that has remained roughly consistent in that time (Weingart, 2015). “Networks” are, in the abstract, familiar to humanities scholars devoted to studying complex relationships. This potential is alluring, but advanced network analytical techniques are challenging to implement and interpret. And overly complex visualizations have attracted derogation from some scholars, deriding visually-impressive but uninterpretable graphs as “hairballs.” This roundtable will take up crucial questions: What kinds of data, questions and interpretive techniques are appropriate for network analysis? How does the disciplinary skillset of the humanist researcher determine, enable or limit effective network analysis? To what extent does the use of data visualization serve to surface, or submerge, essential knowledge about the data? How should scholars in the digital humanities navigate the intense methodological demands of network science? How should such scholarship be evaluated, peer-reviewed, taught, and studied? In the face of these many challenges, what are the futures of networks in DH?