Conference Time!

Very Windy Can Confirm.

I didn’t do that much prior to starting full-time at Perfect Sense in July. One thing I wanted to do was try my hand at applying to present my thesis at a conference. Brad advised me to checkout the DH gathering in the midwest called “DHCS” - Digital Humanities and Computer Science.

This year, the conference was held at the University of Chicago. Truth be told, I originally applied and was only accepted as a poster session, but someone pulled out and I was able to take their place!

Here’s me with the other “NLP” folks.

Professor Juola is a mainstay in the field of authorship attribution. Professor Clawson’s presentation had terrific visuals and him and I ended up chatting for quite a while afterwards - his scholarship is very earnest and thorough. Lastly, Clarisse’s work was fascinating and proved that the foundational techniques of the field carry plenty of weight if you have the right workflow established.

I had a great time discussing the field with other like-minded folks. I was pretty much the only person there that had a normal job which was always a funny topic of conversation to broach. It was a thrilling weekend. Chicago, while quite cold, offered plenty of great food and drink. Plus their art museum great showed a great retrospective about Andy Warhol. I also found the proximity to the massive, frigid waters of Lake Michigain to be quite charming; sort of a blue prairie, unsullied by the sprawling metropolis the broaches its shores.