Digital Humanities Observatory Staff
Digital Humanities Observatory (DHO) staff are drawn from diverse expertise in the digital humanities. Each brings their own unique interests, specialities and passion to the HSIS initiative. Collectively, the DHO provides support across the entire spectrum of the digital humanities.
DHO Project Manager, Shawn Day
Shawn Day is the DHO Project Manager. He is affiliated with the History Department at McMaster University (Canada) where he is completing a PhD specializing in the social and economic circumstances of the nineteenth century retail liquor trade. He applies digital, spatial and social network analysis to the study of the relationships between credit, respectability, and maintaining order in the Victorian community. His most recent articles have examined the social dimensions of the Victorian public mental hospital. Using GIS and statistical modelling tools. Shawn is involved in a number of successful and innovative digital humanities projects throughout Canada. Most recently he has worked with large manuscript census databases in the 1871/1891 census project (University of Guelph). He is a team member of the national TAPoR text analysis portal project and the Network for Canadian History and the Environment (NiCHE). Prior to undertaking the PhD, Shawn spent a number of years in the private technology sector where he founded a number of businesses and served in marketing, research and development management roles.
DHO Project Manager (IT), Niall O'Leary, M.A., M.Sc.
Niall O'Leary is DHO Project Manager (IT) at the Digital Humanities Observatory. A graduate of University College Dublin's Masters in Film Studies programme, Niall was a scriptwriter in the audiovisual industry for several years. Building on his knowledge of digital media, he then participated in Trinity College Dublin's Masters in Multimedia Systems. Initially, this turned his attention to writing articles on IT, creating online stories and scripting online games. However, from writing on IT he gradually became more involved in developing it, becoming a Web Development Specialist at Dublin City University. During his time at DCU, he created many of the online university systems, such as student portals and online results, while also maintaining its website and advising on best practice. Somehow he also found time to teach, lecturing in Web Technologies, programming, and, maintaining his interest in film, screenwriting.