Analyst, IT - Digital Humanities Specialist

Duke University:

Duke University was created in 1924 through an indenture of trust by James Buchanan Duke. Today, Duke is regarded as one of America’s leading research universities. Located in Durham, North Carolina, Duke is positioned in the heart of the Research Triangle, which is ranked annually as one of the best places in the country to work and live. Duke has more than 15,000 students who study and conduct research in its 10 undergraduate, graduate and professional schools. With about 40,000 employees, Duke is the third largest private employer in North Carolina, and it now has international programs in more than 150 countries.

This position provides digital humanities teaching and research support as well as technical development and consulting for the Digital Art History & Visual Culture Research Lab (DAHVC) and related labs in Trinity College (ISS Lab; XR Studio lab), a research team and lab housed in Smith Warehouse at Duke University. Emphasis is on methodological workflows, project management, and presentation strategies for existing and newly developing courses and research projects, and requires the combination of artistic and organizational vision with technical expertise in a highly collaborative working environment. The position reports to Victoria Szabo (DAHVC Core Faculty member) and Paul Jaskot (DAHVC Director).

Teaching and Instructional Support

• co-teaching undergraduate special topics courses relevant to DAHVC programmatic needs (1 per year maximum, dependent upon other responsibilities)
• co-teaching digital art history and visual culture tools and topics in DAHVC and MA in Digital Art History & Computational Media classes and independent studies (2-3 per semester depending on project scales)
• preparing multimodal tutorials for live and online presentation
• collaborating with instructors to develop and teach course syllabi and projects that incorporate digital topics and tools
• consulting on & critiquing student course projects
• training graduate lab TAs to teach introductory-level digital tools and topics
• Training graduate lab assistant from the MA in Digital Art History and Computational Media program when/as needed
• providing individual and small group instruction as needed with faculty, staff, graduate students, and undergraduates

Research Support

• making scholarly and intellectual contributions through collaborative digital research projects in the DAHVC Lab and other groups (2-3 at a time depending on extent of collaboration and project needs)
• advising DAHVC project teams on digital project development, management, workflows, technology (hardware and software) selection, and critical and technical standards for project evaluation
• identifying and/or facilitating infrastructural support opportunities (including expertise, equipment, server space, and long-term care) for digital projects
• prototyping project models and testing platforms for both classes and research projects
• providing specialized technical instruction and troubleshooting to faculty and students as needed
• Researching and staying abreast of digital humanities tools and systems and their potential use in the labs, including areas such as 3D modeling, digital mapping, informatics and visualization, web design, online publications, extended reality

Consulting and Outreach

• consulting with DAHVC faculty on digital humanities grant applications
• consulting with students in the PhD in Art History and the MA in Digital Art History & Computational Media programs on their digital dissertation/thesis projects
• consulting with individual and small groups of humanities faculty, staff, and students on class and ongoing projects outside of regular teaching time
• ascertaining needs for, organizing, and developing ad hoc and scheduled workshops for the DAHVC Lab and wider community on special topics
• coordinating with OIT Computer and Data Services Alliance, Data Visualization Services, Digital Scholarship Services, CoLab, and the Smith Media Labs on software, training, and systems
• seeking out & participating in conference & publication opportunities relevant to the DAHVC Lab and related research interests

Technology and Infrastructure Support

• coordinating DAHVCRL technology lab hardware and software management in partnership with the other Smith Media Labs and OIT
• consulting with faculty and staff on special equipment acquisition and circulation
• system administration for DAHVC Lab servers hosting Omeka, WordPress, Drupal, geoserver, and other web applications
• conducting website development and maintenance for the DAHVC Lab site and other Lab project websites as needed
• supervising student workers who solicit and manage website content updates
• performing usability & accessibility testing and evaluation
• coordinating and implement DAHVC Lab social media strategy with DAHVC Lab and Departmental collaborators

Education:

Required:  BA/BS or an equivalent combination of relevant education and experience. 

Preferred: Master’s degree with a concentration in humanities, computer science or information science.

Experience:

Required: 

• A minimum of three years’ experience in using technology in Humanities scholarship, and a demonstrated keen understanding of current projects and trends in the digital humanities. 
• Experience with the integration of digital media into web applications and/or collaboration systems
• Demonstrated proficiency in one or more of the following areas: text analysis, data visualization, 2D and 3D data modeling and capture, data visualization, web coding,
• Topical areas such as metadata standards, geoserver/GIS applications, image analytics, text mining, game development, mobile platforms or other areas of interest relevant to digital scholarly projects desirable
• Experience with constructing and automatically extracting information from both relational and non-relational databases
• Demonstrated proficiency managing IT projects and completing them according to schedule, outcomes and budget.
• Experience developing and integrating tools in an open source environment.
• Experience working with faculty in an academic setting.
• Familiarity with human/computer interface principles, and experience applying those principles in programming.
• Excellent interpersonal, oral and written communication skills
• Able to work independently and as a member of a team

Preferred: 

• Prior experience with academic technology support within a higher education environment
• Knowledge of python scripting, game engine capture, extended reality development, text mining, LLM analysis, generative AI media creation, physical computing,
• Experience in scripting languages (such as PHP, Perl, JavaScript, XML, XSLT, XHTML, CSS, Jquery, JSON)
• Experience in natural language processing, data-mining, machine learning, spatial analysis
• Knowledge of workflows for digital media (streaming and non-streaming)
• Experience successfully supervising graduate or undergraduate students
• Knowledge of issues related to technology facilities management
• Record of innovation and creativity in identifying and applying technological solutions to research and teaching needs

Job Code: 00002423 ANALYST, IT
Job Level: C

Duke is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer committed to providing employment opportunity without regard to an individual's age, color, disability, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or veteran status.

Duke aspires to create a community built on collaboration, innovation, creativity, and belonging. Our collectivesuccess depends on the robust exchange of ideas—an exchange that is best when the rich diversity of our perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences flourishes. To achieve this exchange, it is essential that all members of the community feel secure and welcome, that the contributions of all individuals are respected, and that all voices are heard. All members of our community have a responsibility to uphold these values.

Essential Physical Job Functions: Certain jobs at Duke Universityand Duke University Health System may include essential job functions that require specific physical and/or mental abilities. Additional information and provision for requests for reasonable accommodation will be provided by each hiring department.