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Dr Charlotte Tupman

Senior Lecturer in Classics and Digital Humanities, Director of Global Engagement for Classics, Ancient History, Religion & Theology

C.Tupman2@exeter.ac.uk


Overview

Senior Lecturer in Classics and Digital Humanities

Director of Global Engagement for Classics, Ancient History, Religion & Theology

I am a member of the Department of Classics, Ancient History, Religion & Theology and the Digital Humanities Lab (DH Lab), with research interests in Latin Epigraphy. I am also an affiliated academic in the Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. As one of the authors of the EpiDoc Guidelines I am actively involved in the collaborative development of international standards for the encoding and publication of inscriptions and papyri. I have worked in the fields of Digital Humanities and Digital Classics for more than a decade, specialising in the analysis and digital publication of ancient textual materials.

As Director of Global Engagement I lead my department's international activities, and also contribute to our external partnerships in the DH Lab. In collaboration with colleagues at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan, I am currently leading an initiative for UG students to engage in the research and interpretation of digital archives.

I am currently Co-Investigator for the AHRC/DFG-funded project Connecting Late Antiquities, with Prof. Richard Flower (Exeter), Prof. Julia Hillner (Bonn) and Dr Gabriel Bodard (London).

Recently I have been Co-Investigator of UK-EI Digital Humanities Association: A Network for Research Capacity Enhancement, funded by the AHRC & Irish Research Council (with Jane Winters and Michelle Doran). This has led to the foundation of the UK-Ireland Digital Humanities Association. With my colleague Jacqueline Christmas I have also held an Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Research Award for the project Reconsidering the Roman Workshop.

I have served as Treasurer of the European Association for Digital Humanities. I am a reviewer for the Pleiades Gazetteer of Ancient Places and one of the editors of the Digital Classicist wiki, and serve on the Linked Pasts Steering Committee and the EpiDoc Action Group.

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Research

  • Machine learning for the analysis of ancient textual materials
  • Letttercutting processes in the Roman world
  • Roman funerary commemoration
  • Linked Open Data for humanities source materials

SELECTED PAPERS & PRESENTATIONS

2023

Connecting Late Antiquities, with Richard Flower, Entangled Prosopographies (Edinburgh; online)

Enhancing research and teaching capacity through collaboration: building a UK-Ireland Digital Humanities Association, panel, DH2023 (Graz)

The Digital Archaeologists of the Roman Empire - What Next? Round table, TRAC 2023 (Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference) (Exeter)

Artificial Intelligence and Ancient Writing Cultures, ENCODE conference (Bologna; online)

2022

Mid-career Academics in the Arts & Humanities: Building and Sustaining Collaborations, panel, School of Advanced Study (London)

Celebrating Joyce Reynolds: Recollections of research in Libya, British Epigraphy Society Autumn Colloquium (London; online)

How were inscriptions planned? Congressus Internationalis Epigraphiae Graecae et Latinae (Bordeaux)

Chasing the Capital: Exploring ancient texts with AI, AI Innovations 2022 Summit (Exeter & Berlin)

Artificial Intelligence and Inscriptions, panel (Bologna)

2021

From Serif to Scene Text Detection: using Machine Learning to analyse lettercutting practices across the Roman world, Centre for Connectivity in the Roman World (Exeter)

From tombs to typefaces: Machine Learning for the analysis of Roman lettercutting practices, Data Science Week, Institute for Artificial Intelligence & Data Science (Exeter; online)

2020

Applying machine learning to the study of inscribing texts, Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents, Epigraphy seminar (Oxford; online)

Press Play: enabling creative undergraduate participation in digital research, with Karis Shearer, Emily Murphy and Ahlam Bavi, Digital Humanities: Collaboration (UBC-Vancouver; online)

Reconsidering the Roman Workshop: applying machine learning to the study of inscribing texts, Digital Classicist seminar, Institute of Classical Studies (London; online)

Reconsidering the Roman Workshop: using machine learning to examine the processes behind inscribed texts, with Jacq Christmas and Dmitry Kangin, poster presentation, DH2020 (Ottowa; online)

Data Science Week: Machine Learning for the 1st century, Institute for Artificial Intelligence & Data Science (Exeter; online)

Machine Learning for the 1st century: observing the Roman stonecutter, CogX Global Leadership Summit & Festival of AI & Breakthrough Technology. Turing Stage session on Artificial Intelligence for Arts and Humanities (online)

Getting to Know the Roman Stonecutter, Dart Valley U3A Classical Studies (Dartmouth)

2019

Digital publication of Ancient Texts in EpiDoc (workshop), Universidade Federal Fluminense (Rio de Janeiro)

Harnessing the power of Linked Open Data for epigraphy: where can our inscriptions take us? Epigraphic Heritage in the Digital Age colloquium (Madrid)

The Research Potential of Linked Open Data, invited speaker, School of Higher Economics (Moscow)

Encoding Ancient Inscriptions in EpiDoc, Textual Editing in the Digital Age (Newcastle)

2018

Keynote: Towards a world of historical linked open data: where can our texts take us? Digital Approaches to Ancient and Modern Texts (Manchester)

Panel member for Linked Epigraphy workshop, Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents (Oxford)

Enabling Public Engagement with Private Archives, Opening Up The Archives workshop (Exeter)

Towards a digital Dissolution: the challenges of mapping revolutionary change in pre-modern Europe, with James G. Clark and Richard Holding, DH2018 (Mexico City)

Co-organiser and speaker at Digital Approaches to Monastic History workshop (Exeter)

2017

Modelling comparative approaches to the Dissolution of Monasteries: perspectives from the Digital Dissolution project, with James G. Clark and Richard Holding, The Reformation and Monasteries (Wrocław)

Don't Make Me Code! Shaping the Future of Digital Classics Research, Classical Association lecture (Exeter)

The Digital Dissolution: developing new criticial and comparative perspectives on the end of monasticism in Europe, with James G. Clark and Richard Holding, Monasteries in the Digital Humanities (Częstochowa)

Support for Digital Classics Research in Digital Humanities, in panel 'Towards a Digital Classics Infrastructure and Strategy' with Gabriel Bodard, Charlotte Roueché et al., Classical Association Conference (Canterbury)

2016

Networking Ancient Person-Data: community building and user studies around the SNAP:DRGN project, in Linked Ancient World Data panel with Gabriel Bodard, Leif Isaksen et al., Digital Humanities 2016 (Kraków)

Mapping Multilingual Responses to Famine and Dearth in the Early Modern Landscapes of India and Britain (with Hannah Petrie, Rich Holding and Gary Stringer) Digital Humanities 2016 (Kraków)

2015

The Redress of the Past: Historical Pageants in Twentieth-Century Britain (contributing author, with Angela Bartie, Linda Fleming, Mark Freeman, Tom Hulme and Paul Readman) International Committee of Historical Sciences 22nd Congress (Jinan, China)

Pageants: the People's History (contributing author, with Angela Bartie, Linda Fleming, Mark Freeman, Tom Hulme and Paul Readman) Institute of Historical Research summer school in local history (London)

2014

Neo-Latin Poetry in English Manuscripts, 1550-1700 (with Victoria Moul) Digital Classicist seminar (London)

Rethinking Text Re-use as Digital Classicists (panel) Digital Humanities 2014 (Lausanne)

Sharing Ancient Wisdoms: Transforming Old Sayings Into Linked Data (with Elvira Wakelnig) Easy Tools for Difficult Texts workshop (Den Haag)

2013

Contemporary solutions to retrieve and publish information in ancient documents using RDF and Islandora (contributing author, with Anna Jordanous and Alan Stanley) Digital Humanities 2013 (Lincoln, Nebraska)

Reusing modern tools and techniques to reproduce and research ancient texts (contributing author, with Anna Jordanous and Alan Stanley) Open Repositories 2013 (Prince Edward Island, Canada)

Ex Vulgus Scientia: Approaching Roman Archaeology with Crowdsourcing Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference (King's College London)

2012

Contemporary transformation of ancient documents for recording and retrieving maximum information: When one form of markup is not enough (with Anna Jordanous & Alan Stanley) Balisage: The Markup Conference 2012 (Montreal)

Sharing Ancient Wisdoms: Developing Structures for tracking cultural dynamics by linking moral and philosophical anthologies with their source and recipient texts (with Anna Jordanous) Digital Humanities 2012 (Hamburg)

Developing Structures for tracking cultural dynamics Methods and Means for Digital Analysis of Classical and Medieval Texts and Manuscripts workshop (Leuven)

Digital Epigraphy beyond the Classical: creating (inter?)national standards for recording modern and early modern gravestones Digital Classicist Seminar (London)

Sharing Ancient Wisdoms by linking gnomologia with their source and recipient texts, with special reference to the Muhtār al-ḥikam by Mubashshir and the Bocados de Oro (contributing author, with Christoph Storz) Coloquio Anual de la FIDEM (Madrid)

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Supervision

I am currently supervising PhD students and welcome enquiries from potential applicants who would like to work on digital humanities, digital classics, or epigraphy.  If you are thinking of pursuing any of these areas, please feel free to contact me to discuss your plans.

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Publications

Copyright Notice: Any articles made available for download are for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the copyright holder.

| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 |

2023

2022

2021

2020

  • Mazzini L. (2020) Triggered Identities and Imperial Power? Macedonian label re/use by civic communities in Roman Lydia and Phrygia.
  • Tupman CML, Ohge C. (2020) Encoding and Analysis, and Encoding as Analysis, in Textual Editing, Routledge Handbook for Digital Humanities Research Methods, Routledge.

2018

  • Rennie S, Mather R, Tupman C. (2018) Poetry of the Lancashire Cotton Famine.

2017

2016

  • Hedges M, Jordanous A, Lawrence KF, Roueché C, Tupman C. (2016) Computer-Assisted Processing of Intertextuality in Ancient Languages, DOI:10.48550/arxiv.1602.00234.
  • Tupman C. (2016) Contextual epigraphy and xml: Digital publication and its application to the study of inscribed funerary monuments, Digital Research in the Study of Classical Antiquity, 73-86, DOI:10.4324/9781315577210-13.
  • Bartie A, Fleming L, Freeman M, Hulme T, Readman P, Tupman C. (2016) The redress of the past: Historical pageants in twentieth-century England, International Journal of Research on History Didactics, History Education and History Culture, volume 2016, no. 37, pages 19-35.
  • Tupman C, Holding R, Petrie H, Stringer GB. (2016) Mapping Multilingual Responses To Famine And Dearth In The Early Modern Landscapes Of India And Britain, Digital Humanities 2016, Kraków, Poland, 11th - 15th Jul 2016.
  • Hedges M, Jordanous A, Lawrence KF, Roueché C, Tupman C. (2016) Computer-Assisted Processing of Intertextuality in Ancient Languages. [PDF]

2014

  • Jordanous A, Tupman CML. (2014) "Sharing Ancient Wisdoms across the Semantic Web using TEI and Ontologies", Analysis of Ancient and Medieval Texts and Manuscripts: Digital Approaches, Brepols, 213-228.

2013

  • Elliott T, Bodard G, Mylonas E, Stoyanova S, Tupman CML, Vanderbilt S, et al.. (2013) EpiDoc Guidelines: Ancient documents in TEI XML (Version 8).

2012

2011

  • Tupman CML. (2011) "Interpreting the cupae of the Iberian Peninsula: a question of local identities", Mors Omnibus Instat: Aspectos Arqueológicos Epigráficos y Rituales de la Muerte en el Occidente Romano, 303-329.

2010

  • Tupman C. (2010) "Contextual epigraphy and XML: Digital publication and its application to the study of inscribed funerary monuments", Digital Research in the Study of Classical Antiquity, Ashgate Publishing Ltd, 73-86.

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External impact and engagement

I am keen to bring Digital Classics, Digital History and Epigraphy to non-specialist audiences.

My recent public talks have included 'Getting to know the Roman Stonecutter' for the Dart Valley U3A Classics group.

I have also delivered a talk at a National Maritime Museum & Royal Observatory Greenwich event, Transit to Hawai'i: behind the scenes with digital history and astronomy, which marked the launch of a new digital archive relating to the 1874 British expedition to Hawai'i to observe the Transit of Venus.

Previously I have run several Practical Epigraphy Workshops, which are open to the public as well as students and other interested parties, as part of my role as a steering committee member of the British Epigraphy Society, a charity which exists to advance education in the study of inscriptions, texts, and historical documents. The Digital Classicist and Digital History seminars that I co-organised in London are open to all, as are the majority of the EpiDoc workshops

I have given several public lectures and have presented to local history societies and schools (primary and secondary) on their local history and epigraphy.

With my colleagues James Clark, Henry French and Graham Fereday I am also involved in a project with Powderham Castle in Devon to digitise and make available historical materials from their archives. This has included a number of public engagement activities including a public talk and the preparation of physical and digital exhibitions.



Contribution to discipline

In 2017 I was appointed to a 3-year term as Treasurer of the European Association of Digital Humanities (EADH), which represents the Digital Humanities in Europe across the entire spectrum of disciplines that use DH methods and technologies. The Association promotes high standards of education, research and practical work in the development of computational methods and theory across the arts, humanities and cultural heritage. EADH supports three journals and an annual conference, runs workshops, awards bursaries and supports research projects. 

From 2020 I have represented Exeter as a cooperating partner of DARIAH-EU (Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities). DARIAH is a network for enhancing and supporting digitally enabled research and teaching across Arts and Humanities.

I am a member of the Alan Turing Institute's Humanities and Data Science interest group, which seeks to build relationships between data science and digital humanities with a view to developing new approaches and opportunities for collaborative research. 

I serve on the reviewing board of the Pleiades Gazetteer of Ancient Places, which publishes authoritative information about ancient places and spaces, providing unique services for finding, displaying, and reusing that information under open license.

I serve on the EpiDoc Action Group, which, amongst other activities, works on the development of the EpiDoc Guidelines and related tools and software. EpiDoc is an international, collaborative effort that provides guidelines and tools for encoding scholarly and educational editions of ancient documents.

I also serve on the Publications Committee of the British School at Athens.

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Teaching

I currently co-convene the following modules: Ancient Epigraphy, taught in collaboration with colleagues at Leiden University; Transforming the Tablet: Digital Approaches to Ancient Text and Artefact; and Research Skills in Classics, Ancient History and Theology, for which I deliver classes as part of its Digital Classics mini-module. I also teach on Key Concepts for Global Literatures and Cultures and contribute to Hacking the Humanities.

With colleagues in Digital Humanities I offer training courses for staff and students on data management and digital editing, and I teach occasionally on Sunoikisis DC, an international consortium of Digital Classics programmes.

Please note that I do not have set office hours this term, so if you would like to meet please send me an email to arrange a time.

Modules taught

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