jpsa's homepage

J. P. Ascher

April 7, 2021

You've found your way to my small little page. I've not done anything here yet, but will probably some day. Maybe.

For now, you can check-out more info on me at, which is repeated here too cacology.github.io

Biographies

"James P. Ascher · Scholars' Lab," Scholars' Lab, University of Virginia, last modified 2018.

Praxis Fellow for 2015-16, Prototyping Fellow, 2017-2018, studying representations of time within digital humanities with a particular focus on literate programming, language, and the forms of documents.

LibraryThing Profile updated continuously.

I’ll probably lend you a book, if you like.

"Presidential Fellows in Data Science, 2015-2016 | gradstudies.virginia.edu," Office of Graduate & Postdoctoral Affairs, University of Virginia, last modified 2015.

Media studies and bibliographical type approaches to the way people make arguments using data; collaborative and interdisciplinary.

"Department of English," University of Virginia, last modified 2013.

Studying English at the University of Virginia, bibliography, digital humanities, 18th century, British, and American.

Student Book Collectting Contest Winners, 2nd Place, updated 2018.

Second place for Hudibras and I’m still proud of it.

"James P. Ascher | University of Virginia - Academia.edu," last modified 2015.

Traditional academic CV and select publications, mostly related to rare book librarianship, and his work as Assistant Professor of Libraries and English at CU Boulder.

James P. Ascher | American Printing History Association last modified 2013.

Former Vice-President of Publications and occasional blogger.

CUConnections News updated 2012.

While a librarian at CU Boulder.

Bibliography/Media Studies

Big Zoom

The result of Visualizing Paper Evidence Using Digital Reproductions

Compositors' Choices in Eighteenth-Century Typography, 2020.

Deals with adapting present-day typography to work with seventeenth-century typography.

PocketHinman “The App that Compares,” ongoing PocketHinman

A tool for bibliographical, and other comparative, research.

Ascher, James P. "The Wordes Moote be Cosyn to the Dede: Diplomatic Transcription and Shifting Senses of Exactness Toward the Ecosystem of Digital Reproduction," Appositions: Studies in Renaissance / Early Modern Literature & Culture 8 (2011) http://appositions.blogspot.com/2011/05/james-p-ascher-diplomatic-e.html

Some ways in which the expectations for an “exact” transcription of a document have changed over time, focusing on the oft-reprinted work of Chaucer.

Ascher, James P. "Bibliographical Awareness in Art: Joel Swanson's Spacebar" media archaeology lab (2013) http://mediaarchaeologylab.com/blog/bibliographical-awareness-art-joel-swansons-spacebar/

A meditation on the spacebar as object of both experience and in a historical moment; it demonstrates how the print historical can influence the everyday.

"ScriptaLab Talks," University of Colorado Boulder, Director, 2010-14.

ScriptaLab aimed to find the intersection of traditional book-oriented bibliographical studies and media studies; it included a lecture series, advanced faculty seminar, and publication series. The videos remain on YouTube, perhaps forever?

"The 54th Annual Preconference of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section," Minneapolis, Conference Chair, 2013.

Focused on issues in managing performance arts collections as well as how the work of libraries is intrinsically a performance; also explored LGBT issues and gender in archives and special collections.

Literate Computation

Topic Modeling Eighteenth-Century Literature, updated 2017.

For a class visit, uses POSIX tools and provides a brief introduction to techniques, described in detail Why to Teach Students to Not-Read Novels

"private-diary," MELPA package for Emacs, updated 2015.

A simple proof-of-concept using strong encryption to create a private diary where you can keep your gossipy gossip and salacious life in the world's best editor.

"Annotated checklist of Things by or About," GitHub page, update 2016.

You're looking at it, but it’s based on an org-mode file compiled with pandoc and styled with bare CSS. All hand-coded, all the time.

Public Ethics

Ascher, James P. "How To Not be Creepy," nomorepotlucks 27: crush (2013) http://nomorepotlucks.org/site/how-to-not-be-creepy-james-p-ascher/.

Thoughts about how the 18th century teaches us that creeping is eternal and that it's always creepy to stare.

Contacts

"Email: jpsa@pm.me"