Digital Humanities Scholarship (Editor, Co-Editor, or Co-Developer)

Syriaca.org The Syriac Reference Portal

Since 2015, I have served as the Director of Syriaca.org, a collaborative linked open data project in the field of Syriac Studies. Link: http://syriaca.org.

The Gaddel App

Winona Salesky, David A. Michelson, Daniel L. Schwartz, Jeanne-Nicole Mellon-Saint Laurent, and William L Potter, developers, (Srophé Software, 2024-present). The Gaddel App is an open source application for TEI XML and RDF-based digital humanities and digital cultural heritage projects. Codebase: https://github.com/srophe/gaddel.

  • This software app is a collaborative project developed with funding from my 2023-2026 NEH grant.

The Srophé App

Winona Salesky, David A. Michelson, Daniel L. Schwartz, and Jeanne-Nicole Mellon-Saint Laurent, developers, (Srophé Software, 2014-2024). The Srophé App is an open source customization of eXist-DB for TEI XML-based projects focused on digital humanities and digital cultural heritage. The application is now used by more than 10 different digital humanities projects. About: https://srophe.app/. Codebase: https://github.com/srophe/srophe.

  • The development of this software app began under Syriaca.org’s first NEH grant (PI: David A. Michaelson) and continued under the project’s second and third NEH grants with me as the PI.

The Syriac Taxonomy

Sergey Minov and Daniel L. Schwartz, eds. Link: Beta version; RDF version. Status: Beta release.

  • This project is a nearly-1500 item controlled vocabulary of keyword concepts. I am responsible for adapting and expanding the keyword list of the Comprehensive Bibliography of Syriac Christianity, organizing the concepts into a taxonomy according to the standards of the SKOS (Simple Knowledge Organization System) vocabulary, curating metadata on these concepts, and integrating this material into the Syriaca.org knowledge graph.

SPEAR: Syriac Persons, Events, and Relations

Daniel L. Schwartz, General Editor. Status: Forthcoming April 2025.

  • SPEAR contains over 4500 prosopographical factoids, discrete pieces of prosographical material integrated into a data graph. I am responsible for adapting the factoid prosopography model to TEI XML (on data model, see article in the Journal of the TEI), developing a TEI XML schema customization, encoding data, training contributing researchers, editing and cleaning data, and rendering TEI data into RDF.

The Syriac Biographical Dictionary (SBD)

David A. Michelson, Jeanne-Nicole Mellon Saint-Laurent, Nathan P. Gibson, and Daniel L. Schwartz, eds. Daniel L. Schwartz, technical editor. Link: http://syriaca.org/persons. Status: Published 2014, revised 2019.

  • SBD contains over 3000 authority files on people relevant to the Syriac tradition. I am responsible for creating over 800 authority files, developing the TEI XML schema customization used by SBD, and rendering TEI data into RDF.

The Syriac Gazetteer

William L. Potter and David A. Michelson, eds., Daniel L. Schwartz, assoc. ed. Daniel L. Schwartz, technical editor. Link: http://syriaca.org/geo. Status: Published 2014 (with Thomas A Carlson serving as co-editor), revised 2019.

  • The Syriac Gazetteer contains over 3000 authority files relevant to the Syriac tradition. I am responsible for creating over 300 authority files, developing the TEI XML schema customization used by the Syriac Gazetteer, and rendering TEI data into RDF.

Digital Humanities Scholarship (Technical Editor)

Syriac Manuscripts in the British Library: A New Digital Edition of Wright’s Catalogue

David A. Michelson and William L. Potter, eds. Daniel L. Schwartz, technical editor. Link: https://bl.syriac.uk/index.html. Status: Beta public release.

Digital Syriac Corpus

General editor: James Walters. Editorial board: David G.K. Taylor, Aaron Butts, Muriel Debié, Kristian S. Heal, George A. Kiraz, David A. Michelson, Daniel L. Schwartz, Dorothea Weltecke. Link: https://syriaccorpus.org/. Published 2018.

  • Responsible for advising on the development of the data model and the integration of Syriaca.org metadata.

Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage: Electronic Edition (eGEDSH)

Print edition editors: Sebastian Brock, George A. Kiraz, Lucas Van Rompay, and Aaron Butts. Technical editors for the digital edition David A. Michelson, Ute Possekel, Daniel L. Schwartz. Link: https://gedsh.bethmardutho.org/. Published 2018.

  • Responsibile for the conversion of the print edition into electronic format, integrating linked open data into the electronic version, TEI XML encoding of the front and back matter, and supervising the overall design of the user interface and database for the electronic edition.