William J Turkel

Associate Professor
PhD, MIT (2004)

Project Director, Digital Infrastructure for the SSHRC Strategic Knowledge Cluster
NiCHE: Network in Canadian History & Environment

I do computational history, Big History, STS, physical computing, desktop fabrication and electronics. While I was on sabbatical during the 2010-11 academic year, I wrote a 'super-secret' monograph which is now off to the press. I program whenever I get the chance, and am experimenting regularly with analog electronics. I'm always happy to talk to potential collaborators, and have funding to support PhD students who are interested in applying methods like experimentation, text mining and machine learning to historical research. There is more information about my work on my personal website.

Recent Work

"Hacking History, from Analog to Digital and Back Again," Rethinking History 15, no. 2 (March 2011): 287-296.

WJ Turkel & Devon Elliott, "Making and Playing with Models: Using Rapid Prototyping to Explore the History and Technology of Stage Magic," for Kevin Kee, ed. PastPlay: History, Technology and the Return to Playfulness (forthcoming).

WJ Turkel & Ian Milligan, "The Challenge of 'High-Throughput' Computational Methods," for Barry Rodrigue, Andrey Korotayev & Leonid Grinin, eds. (submitted).

Devon Elliott, Rob MacDougall & WJ Turkel, "New Old Things: Fabrication, Physical Computing, and Experiment in Historical Practice" (submitted).

Tim Hitchcock & WJ Turkel, "The Old Bailey Proceedings, 1674-1913: Text Mining for Evidence of Court Behaviour" (submitted).

Books

The Archive of Place: Unearthing the Pasts of the Chilcotin Plateau, Vancouver, BC: UBC Press, 2007.

Alan MacEachern & WJ Turkel, eds. Method and Meaning in Canadian Environmental History, Toronto, ON: Nelson, 2008.

Selected Research Funding

with Alan MacEachern (principal investigator), Laura Cameron, Stephane Castonguay, Colin Coates, Matthew Evenden, Liza Piper, and Graeme Wynn. "NiCHE: Network in Canadian History & Environment," SSHRC Strategic Knowledge Clusters Grant, 2007-14.

"Computational History," SSHRC Insight Development, 2011-13.

"The Path to the Self-Replicating Machine," SSHRC Research Development Initiatives, 2009-11.

with Dan Cohen, Tim Hitchcock, Geoffrey Rockwell (principal investigators), Joerg Sander, Bob Shoemaker, Stéfan Sinclair and Sean Takats. "Using Zotero and TAPoR on the Old Bailey Proceedings: Data Mining with Criminal Intent," NEH/JISC/SSHRC Digging into Data Challenge Grant, 2009-11.

Also from this web page:

Courses

HIS 9808A - Digital History.
HIS 9832B - Interactive Exhibit Design.
HIS 1805E - Science, Technology and Global History.

Upcoming & Recent Activities

Course: Physical Computing and Desktop Fabrication for Humanists, Digital Humanities Summer Institute, Victoria BC (Jun 2012).

Art Libraries Society of North America, Toronto ON (30 Mar 2012).

Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture, Concordia University, Montreal PQ (15-16 Mar 2012).

American Historical Association, Chicago IL (Jan 2012).

Opening the Digital Humanities, University of Toronto, Mississauga ON (25 Oct 2011).

ThingTank Idea Jam at THATCamp GTA, Toronto ON (22 Oct 2011).