Gunhyuk Lee was awarded a bursary to attend the Introduction to Digital Humanities strand of the Digital Humanities Oxford Summer School online in 2025. To join the mailing list and learn about the next summer school sign up here. Read about Gunhyuk's experience at the summer school here:
During the Digital Humanities at Oxford Summer School (DHOxSS), held 4–8 August 2025, I attended the Introduction to Digital Humanities Virtual Strand online, which provided a lecture-based overview of key approaches, methods, and current debates in the field. The sessions were consistently well delivered, and the accompanying materials were accessible and sufficient for participants without prior DH training. This made it possible to follow the course progression with a manageable learning curve. The online format also offered practical flexibility. While my primary focus remained on the Introductory Strand, access to Canvas enabled me to consult outlines and selected materials from other strands. This broader visibility helped me understand how different DH methods relate to one another and where further training might be most relevant to my research needs.
Several sessions were particularly useful for building a basic conceptual toolkit. “Large Language Models and the Humanities” presented a careful discussion of generative AI, addressing both potential applications and methodological limitations. Its emphasis on evaluation, transparency, and academic caution provided a helpful framework for considering how such tools might be approached within humanities research. Core introductory sessions, including “Introduction to Relational Databases” and “Introduction to TEI,” were also valuable. They clarified fundamental concepts of data structuring, modelling, and text encoding, and offered a starting point for making technical decisions within a research context rather than treating tools as standalone skills. The session “Machining the Archive” reinforced an important principle that shaped my overall understanding of the programme: digital methods are most effective when guided by clear historical questions, and when researchers remain attentive to how data selection, transformation, and abstraction can distance material from its original context. This perspective helped connect technical training to research design.
In my doctoral research, I plan to use digital methods to visualise the donation evidence I have collected for Christian institutions in Late Antique Egypt, drawn primarily from papyri and ostraca, using approaches such as geographical mapping, chart-based representations, and analysis of changing patterns over time. As I am still in an exploratory phase and building relevant competence, DHOxSS functioned as a targeted orientation to the broader DH ecosystem. In particular, the database and TEI sessions provided practical frameworks for representing primary sources in structured form, and for considering how different modelling choices shape what can be queried or visualised later.
Overall, the programme met its stated aims for an introductory strand: it provided a coherent overview of DH methods, demonstrated applications across multiple areas (including digital editions and 3D-related work), and directed participants to resources for continued learning. Because session recordings and materials were uploaded via Oxford’s Canvas platform, I was also able to review selected content from other strands. These materials were presented in a consistently professional format, and key readings and resources were clearly organised on the platform.
I am grateful for the bursary support that enabled me to participate online at a transitional stage in my academic life, as I was preparing to begin doctoral study in a new city and institution in September 2025. This year, I approached the Summer School primarily as an exploratory experience and as a way to consolidate foundational knowledge before moving on to more specialised strands. In that sense, it functioned as a useful “appetiser” that clarified the landscape of DH training and helped me identify where deeper study would be most productive. As my research develops, I would welcome the opportunity to return to DHOxSS and attend a more specialised strand. Having surveyed current trends in digital humanities through DHOxSS and gained stronger motivation to develop more advanced skills and to integrate digital methods more systematically into my historical research, I would recommend DHOxSS to researchers seeking a structured entry point into digital humanities.
