The Summer School in Digital Humanities was launched on 5th of September 2016 in Hissar within the framework of the “Technological ecosystems in the humanities” Program of the Center for excellence “Alma Mater” at Sofia University. It enjoyed the participation of 25 students, post-graduates and researchers from 20 countries although more than 60 candidates applied for the event.
This is the third initiative carried out by the research group of Sofia University which gathers the efforts of representatives of classical studies, history, digital science etc. The main focus of the Summer school were fields such as 3D modelling, photogrammetry, text coding (XML), automatic processing of specialized data-bases, GIS, and various other instruments for geo-spatial marking (Pelagios и Recogito).
The event was declared open by Dr. Dimitur Iliev who expressed his extreme satisfaction by the great interest towards the event. He also gave his gratitude to the four key trainers, Dr. Gabriel Bodar from London University, Simona Stoyanova and Valeria Vitale from King’s College, London and Polina Yordanova from Sofia University.
The participants were greeted by Prof. Ivan Ilchev, former Rector of Sofia University and Head of the Center for Excellence in the Humanities, who in his speech stressed the importance of cultural heritage sharing also his delight by the fact that during the last few years it has been given due attention in Bulgaria. Talking about digital humanities Prof. Ilchev reviewed its development in the country making a special mention on its application in the different scientific fields. “Today the advance of modern technologies allows big teams of various experts to work together and tackle research from various perspectives”, said Prof. Ilchev.
The Head of the Program “Technological Ecosystems in the Humanities”, Dimitur Birov, associate professor at the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics at Sofia University, also greeted the participants in the Summer School, mentioning the fact that it is the third key event in their schedule following the International Workshop on digitization of ancient epigraphic monuments in 2013 and the Regional Workshop in on epigraphy, archeology and philology in 2015. Prof. Birov appreciated participants’ great motivation, and said that they all are a mere demonstration how interesting and fruitful events can be maintained even at a low cost.
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The Summer School in Digital Humanities, 04-11.September 2016 became possible due to the efforts of Dr. Dimitur Iliev and his team and especially to Dr. Maria Baramovaof the Faculty of History, Dobromir Dobrev and Kristina Ferdinandova of the Center for Excellence in the Humanities, as well as to Assoc. Prof. Dimitur Birov, Head of the Technological Ecosystems Program and Mirela Hadjieva, Program Coordinator.
