split faces with computer mouse print over

Research Clusters

CDCS clusters bring together networks of researchers with shared interests from across the Schools to explore potential collaborations, develop interdisciplinary projects and consolidate expertise in specific areas. Last year we reported on our first two clusters, Media & Communications and Fintech & Financial Services. This year, our report focuses on our increasingly active Digital Cultural Heritage and Digital Social Science clusters. However, we are also delighted to report that this year we have launched two further clusters: Tourism, Technology & Data, and Digital Global Development, which are both off to a flying start.

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Digital Social Science

The Digital Social Science Cluster explores the affordances and limitations of new digital methods, research ethics, data access issues, problems related to corporate relationships, and the design and use of new tools. As a "methods lab" we aim to make methods, tools, datasets, and projects accessible to students and staff.

As cluster leads Karen Gregory, Morgan Currie and Kate Miltner explain in their video, this year the cluster has hosted three methods workshops by internationally renowned scholars, co-hosted a workshop on Racial Infrastructures, and collated information to create a knowledge base of projects that use digital social science methods.

Situating and Doing Digital Methods

Prof. Richard Rogers (University of Amsterdam) historicised and theorised digital methods, putting forward the notion of ‘online groundedness’, before leading a practical workshop that showed participants how to use digital methods.

Visual Methodologies for Public Participatory Work

Dr. Sabine Niederer, founder of the Visual Methodologies Collective at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, introduced visual methodologies and, in particular, digital visual research that makes use of online data and content to research social issues.

Disinformation - Mapping the Lifecycle of Media Manipulation

Dr. Joan Donovan, Research Director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard, demonstrated a case study approach to mapping the life cycle of media manipulation campaigns.

Our research has a global reach

map showing the global reach of the Digital social science cluster

Go to the Digital Social Science Cluster Page

Digital Cultural Heritage

The Digital Cultural Heritage cluster brings together researchers from across the University of Edinburgh and beyond who work on analysing, understanding and developing new approaches to the relationships between data, digital and cultural heritage.

Led by Dr Jen Ross and Dr Philippa Sheail, the cluster is growing quickly, welcoming nine new members this past year, hosting networking events, and facilitating a new Critical Archives reading group. Members are working on projects funded by the Leverhulme Trust, ESRC, UNA Europa and AHRC, including two projects under the Towards a National Collection programme. They are also building international links through UNA Europa's Digital Cultural Heritage Steering Group.

Graphic depicting a historical map and a sketch of Victoria Falls, Zambia

David Livingstone's Missionary Travels Manuscript

Dr Justin Livingstone (Queen's University Belfast) delivered a paper on Livingstone’s Missionary Travels Manuscript (1857): A Critical Edition, addressing the project’s encoding principles, the practice of digital editing, and the value of digital remediation for a “materialist” approach to the expeditionary record.

GIF screengrab featuring details from The Mysterious Garden, (1911, Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh)

Workshops - GIF it a go: Making Art Move

In these workshops, participants had the opportunity to learn and develop their GIF making skills. Workshops were organised as part of cluster member Eleanor Capaldi's PhD research project, exploring the online lives of digitised artworks in a Collaborative Doctoral Partnership between the University of Edinburgh and National Galleries Scotland.

Biannual Members' Meeting

Members of the Digital Cultural Heritage cluster met virtually in October 2020 and February 2021, to introduce new cluster members and to share updates on cluster activities and opportunities for research collaboration. Discussions led to the development of the Critical Archives Reading Group which meets monthly, led by Dr Niamh Moore.

our expertise is drawn from many disciplines

graphic showing where the researchers in digital cultural heritage are based

Go to the Digital Cultural Heritage Cluster Page

MORE RESEARCH CLUSTERS

Tourism, Technology & Data

The Tourism, Technology & Data Cluster focuses on the strategic application of technologies in tourism and hospitality, and data analytics. Cluster Leads Dr Ewelina Lacka and Joshua Ryan-Saha held an initial networking event in April, featuring speakers Antonia Gieschen and Yuanming Qiu discussing how data can be used to reveal key visitor markets and tourism destinations post-COVID-19.

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Digital Global Development

Led by Dr Andreas Hackl and Dr Juli Huang, the Digital Global Development cluster focuses on the role of digital technology in the context of international development and humanitarianism. Cluster members include: Chris Speed, Maggie Dwyer and Jean-Benoit Falisse.

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Fintech & Financial Services

The FinTech & Financial Services cluster is led by led by Professor Gbenga Ibikunle, and researches the issues and opportunities raised by innovations in FinTech.

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Media & Communications

Led by Dr Kate Wright, the Media and Communications cluster focuses on the rapidly changing role of data in communication, as well as digital media more broadly.

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