Melissa Terras
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melissaterras.bsky.social
Melissa Terras
@melissaterras.bsky.social

Professor of Digital Cultural Heritage, Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh. Computers versus the past. Digital Humanities and somesuch, including Transkribus. MBE FREng.

Melissa Mhairi Terras is a British scholar of Digital Humanities. Since 2017, she has been Professor of Digital Cultural Heritage at the University of Edinburgh, and director of its Centre for Digital Scholarship. She previously taught at University College London, where she was Professor of Digital Humanities and served as director of its Centre for Digital Humanities from 2012 to 2017: she remains an honorary professor. She has a wide ranging academic background: she has an undergraduate degree in art history and English literature, then took a Master of Science (MSc) degree in computer science, before undertaking a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) degree at the University of Oxford in engineering. .. more

Computer science 34%
Art 23%

My PhD student @ashcharlton.bsky.social recently passed her viva - data mining approaches to look at legacies of enslavement in the Enc. Brit. The knowledge construction in it is WILD. We hope to publish on it soon… so yeah, they would have been right to be cautious 😹

I’ve had such a great - if brief- trip to Japan. Thanks so much to the Japanese DH community for having me. & I can attest The Xmas KFC menu is for real! Now on the plane… I hope to come back soon to explore further. But for now, email is off! And 🎄 holidays begin! Have a good one, all!

Which tastes exactly like the discontinued peach flavoured Angel Delight of my 1970s childhood 😻

If we preempt them we can do a dada-ist remix art intervention and head their ridiculousness off at the pass?
a stuffed white cat is sitting on top of a box .
ALT: a stuffed white cat is sitting on top of a box .
media.tenor.com

Last hour or so in Japan. Oh, go on then!

We should probably set our clocks for it coming round again in 2038 💫😹

Yup. It’s like DH in 2012 all over again, too! Lol

Oh I also got a target on my back when I got recognised… and they didn’t. Male egos are so fragile! But yeah, we’re getting pushback on HTR from some places as all AI must be evil, right? 🙄

Academic men are still a thing. I’ve honestly had the most (attempted) misogynistic bullying of my career this year from sad little brittle men who have achieved a fraction of what I have, and don’t want DH people to have nice things. But whatever! 💅

Honestly I’ve always just given all that a good Scottish sarcastic “is that right, Aye”? And kept doing the work I think is worth doing. I’m sure it makes them feel better about themselves to say it but I’m not going to waste my sparkle on that shit 😹

Oh I got told that in an all group email from an English Lit prof fairly recently! Dude, I said, I’ve done not bad 😂 Amazing how fragile their egos are. They can have a seat while I take to the sky… 🦅

Ouch! Sorry to hear that… I’ve been rewarded for it. Amazing how much clout gatekeepers have in this gig. I’ve been fortunate with supporters in my corner.

Reposted by Martin Paul Eve

Interdisciplinary research ftw…!
Really interesting research showing that while ultra-specialization in a single discipline might lead to better results early in one’s career, multi-discipline training and practice pays off big time in the long run. This applies to a range of professions from scientists to athletes and more
Recent discoveries on the acquisition of the highest levels of human performance
Scientists have long debated the origins of exceptional human achievements. This literature review summarizes recent evidence from multiple domains on the acquisition of world-class performance. We re...
www.science.org

What a fabulous time I’ve had hanging out with the Japanese #DigitalHumanities crew. Taking these folders home for sure…
Really interesting research showing that while ultra-specialization in a single discipline might lead to better results early in one’s career, multi-discipline training and practice pays off big time in the long run. This applies to a range of professions from scientists to athletes and more
Recent discoveries on the acquisition of the highest levels of human performance
Scientists have long debated the origins of exceptional human achievements. This literature review summarizes recent evidence from multiple domains on the acquisition of world-class performance. We re...
www.science.org

Oh yes! I did one of those too on this trip! My ideal day off in a foreign city goes: flea market! Museum! Store! Then ponder… how fascinating… while grasping a 2 euro or equivalent vintage tchotchke and thinking of economics, history, values, and the passage of time 😹

Here’s the sign I got (I bargained them down… as is the way!) it says “Tea”. I love it! Always so great to bring home a real, vintage item rather than tat made for tourists. And you learn so much about a society from flea markets: the inverse of museums, in a way… in this TED talk I will…!
My 14-yo-son has recreated the climax of Back to the Future in gingerbread and I thought you should know.

Lucked out… a flea market right outside the Tokyo conference venue! Rushed out after my keynote to spend 10 mins browsing in the break… questions can wait til the next break! 😍 grabbed a couple of vintage things then right back into the conference 😮‍💨😅

About to keynote my first conference in Japan! Speaking about @transkribus.bsky.social and all things cooperative tech governance, and the importance of community driven tech - and community walled gardens in this AI moment.

I wished they’d break every now and then to let adults pose with it 😹

What cell did you get in your ticket…?

I was thinking of you! It’s fab, eh?

And your ticket is exchanged for a cell from a Ghibli film, in a cardboard frame… I just figured out that I got Ponyo!

Given tickets are so difficult to get I had to trust an online service to get me one (via Fiverr) but they were fab. Can recommend.

An adventure today, to the Ghibli Museum! In a Tokyo suburb. Magical and whimsical and fond and quirky. Lovely to see such a celebration. I’ll have to come back to do the Ghibli theme park…

Happy retirement! Hope you have marvellous new adventures planned. You’ve earned it! 🎄

Just came back from there! Fab stuff!

Have had such a marvellous day off exploring Tokyo - my first time here! The winter sun shone on colourful trees. I figured out the metro! National museums, and a bit of shopping. No KFC Christmas bucket tho as they are all sold out (and family sized!). But I did meet Godzilla…