INRIA‘s blog has recently published an interview with PARTHENOS’ Laurent Romary and Marie Puren. The two researchers are members of the Alpage team at Inria’s Paris centre and have been working together in PARTHENOS since its kick-off.
You can read below some extract of the interview, courtesy of INRIA research Centre of Paris press office. You can find the full-lenght interview at this link.
[divider type=”thin”]I: You are working together on PARTHENOS project. What is it?
Laurent Romary: Parthenos brings together expertise from several European organisations and projects that study the human and social sciences from the perspective of digital technology. We share all the methods and techniques that we use to represent data or teach digital methods. Our objective is to define the contexts in which digital objects and content can be used in human and social sciences. This is done, for example, by preparing user scenarios.
Marie Puren: We show researchers in human and social sciences, in art and literature how digital technology can be useful to them. Digital technology helps the “humanities” to develop to make science advance. A completely new discipline has been created around this subject: “The digital humanities”.
What motivated you in this project?
Marie Puren: I have a doctorate in history and a masters in digital humanities and I quickly realised that computer science is not just a computer for typing my thesis. On the contrary, if you know how to use it well, it is a fantastic tool for researchers in human and social sciences. I’m surrounding by colleagues who are doctoral students or researchers who feel the need for training in the subject. We are at the heart of a completely new discipline under construction, the digital humanities, and we are participating in its development. It a great challenge.
Laurent Romary: For my part, I’ve been working in a multidisciplinary environment bridging computer and human sciences for several years. I was project head of the “languages and dialogues” team at Inria Nancy. I worked closely with linguists. Currently, I’m working at Inria Paris and head Dariah, a consortium focusing on digital humanities. I thus attempted to build a team that didn’t consist entirely of computer scientists. I wanted to attract people with backgrounds like that of Marie who offer a real understanding of the difficulties for researchers in human sciences in handling digital tools. It must be stressed that the objective of this collaboration is not only for mutual enrichment. We are doing a lot of work to “convert” people outside. We have also participated in numerous conferences and training programs. In the Parthenos project, there is an aspect of disseminating knowledge that cannot be overlooked.
Read the full interview at this link.