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Melissa M. Terras
Professor Melissa Terras
Born1975 (age 48–49)
Kirkcaldy, Scotland
NationalityBritish
OccupationAcademic
TitleProfessor
Academic background
EducationMA, MSc, DPhil, CLTHE
Alma materUniversity of Glasgow
University of Oxford
ThesisImage to interpretation: towards an intelligent system to aid historians in the reading of the Vindolanda texts (2003)
Doctoral advisorJ. Michael Brady
Alan K. Bowman
Academic work
DisciplineDigital Humanities
InstitutionsUniversity College London
University of Edinburgh
Websitehttps://melissaterras.org

Melissa Mhairi Terras FREng FSA (born 1975) is a British scholar of Digital Humanities.[1][2] Since 2017, she has been Professor of Digital Cultural Heritage at the University of Edinburgh, and director of its Centre for Digital Scholarship.[3] She previously taught at University College London, where she was Professor of Digital Humanities and served as director of its Centre for Digital Humanities from 2012 to 2017: she remains an honorary professor.[4][5] She has a wide ranging academic background: she has an undergraduate degree in art history and English literature, then took a Master of Science (MSc) degree in computer science, before undertaking a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) degree at the University of Oxford in engineering.[3][6][7]

Early life and education

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Terras was born in 1975 in Kirkcaldy, Scotland.[8][9] She studied classical art history and English literature at the University of Glasgow.[3] She was given the opportunity to hand in her dissertation as a website, and, after learning to code, did so in 1996.[6] She graduated with an undergraduate Master of Arts (MA Hons) degree in 1997.[3][10] She was then awarded a Scottish Government scholarship to undertake a master's degree in computer science.[6] She studied software and systems at the University of Glasgow, graduating with a Master of Science (MSc) degree.[3] Her master's thesis was supervised by Seamus Ross, and was a virtual reality model (in VRML 2.0) of the tomb of Sennedjem.[11][12]

Terras then moved to the University of Oxford, where she had funding via the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to undertake a doctorate in engineering: she was based jointly in Oxford's Department of Engineering Science and the Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents.[7] The project was concerned with using "image processing and artificial intelligence to help read Ancient documents" (specifically the Vindolanda tablets).[6] Her thesis was titled "Image to interpretation: towards an intelligent system to aid historians in the reading of the Vindolanda texts", and was successfully submitted for her Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) degree in 2002.[13]

Academic career

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In August 2003, Terras joined University College London (UCL) as a lecturer in electronic communication and publishing and was based in the School of Library, Archive, and Information Studies.[14] In 2010, she was promoted to Reader in Electronic Communication.[15][10] She co-founded the UCL Centre for Digital Humanities and served as its director from 2012 to 2017.[4] Since leaving UCL, she has maintained her links with the university as an honorary professor.[4]

In October 2017, Terras moved to the University of Edinburgh, having been appointed Professor of Digital Cultural Heritage in its School of History, Classics and Archaeology.[3] She was also a Fellow of the Alan Turing Institute between 2018 and 2020.[3][5]

Terras's research is focused on the intersection between computing and the humanities, particularly the use of computational techniques in arts and humanities research. Among the collaborations that she has been involved in is Transcribe Bentham, a crowdsourcing project in which volunteers help to transcribe the writings of Jeremy Bentham: the wiki went live in 2010.[16] From 2015 to 2017, she was co-leader of a project analysing Egyptian mummy cases by non-destructive means (via digital imaging technology): the aim was to be able to read the papyrus that makes up a mummy's cartonnage.[4][17]

On 20 July 2023, she was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA).[18]

In 2024 she was elected a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering[19]

Selected works

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  • Terras, Melissa M. (2006). Image to interpretation: an intelligent system to aid historians in reading the Vindolanda texts. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199204557.
  • Terras, Melissa M. (2008). Digital images for the information professional. Aldershot, England: Ashgate. ISBN 9780754648604.
  • Ross, C.; Terras, M.; Warwick, C.; Welsh, A. (8 March 2011). "Enabled backchannel: conference Twitter use by digital humanists" (PDF). Journal of Documentation. 67 (2): 214–237. doi:10.1108/00220411111109449.
  • Warwick, Claire; Terras, Melissa; Nyhan, Julianne, eds. (2012). Digital humanities in practice. London: Facet Publishing. ISBN 9781856047661.
  • Williams, Shirley A.; Terras, Melissa M.; Warwick, Claire (10 May 2013). "What do people study when they study Twitter? Classifying Twitter related academic papers" (PDF). Journal of Documentation. 69 (3): 384–410. doi:10.1108/JD-03-2012-0027. ISSN 0022-0418. S2CID 18581291.
  • Terras, Melissa; Nyhan, Julianne; Vanhoutte, Edward, eds. (2016). Defining digital humanities: a reader. Farnham, Surrey: Routledge. ISBN 9781317153580.

References

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  1. ^ "Los Angeles Review of Books". Los Angeles Review of Books. 24 April 2016. Retrieved 16 April 2021.
  2. ^ "Research Computing Services Blog • Talking Digital Humanities with Melissa Terras". 5 February 2021. Archived from the original on 5 February 2021. Retrieved 16 April 2021.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g "Staff in Classics: Professor Melissa Terras". School of History, Classics and Archaeology. The University of Edinburgh. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  4. ^ a b c d "Melissa Terras". Information Studies. University College London. 19 June 2018. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  5. ^ a b "Melissa Terras". The Alan Turing Institute.
  6. ^ a b c d "Professor Melissa Terras". Data-Driven Innovation. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  7. ^ a b Terras, Melissa (2 February 2012). "Reflections on a doctorate". Melissa Terras. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  8. ^ "Big data meets the Bard". Financial Times. 18 December 2016. Archived from the original on 18 December 2016. Retrieved 16 April 2021.
  9. ^ "Artificial intelligence transcribes historic diaries of child prodigy, Pet Marjorie". www.scotsman.com. Retrieved 16 April 2021.
  10. ^ a b "Spotlight on Dr Melissa Terras". UCL News. University College London. 6 January 2012. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  11. ^ Terras, Melissa (4 March 2012). "On Academic Juvenelia". Melissa Terras. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  12. ^ Terras, M.M. (2024). "A Virtual Tomb for Kelvingrove: Virtual Reality, Archaeology and Education". Internet Archaeology (7). doi:10.11141/ia.7.5.
  13. ^ Terras, Melissa M. (2002). "Image to interpretation : towards an intelligent system to aid historians in the reading of the Vindolanda texts". E-Thesis Online Service. The British Library. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  14. ^ "Dr Melissa Terras' Homepage". www.ucl.ac.uk. 13 July 2005. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  15. ^ Terras, Melissa (1 October 2010). "Spot the Difference". Melissa Terras. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  16. ^ "Transcribe Bentham: a scholarly crowdsourcing initiative". Research Impact. University College London. 12 December 2014. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  17. ^ "Deep Imaging Egyptian Mummy Cases". UCL Centre for Digital Humanities. University College London. 14 January 2019. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  18. ^ Penfold, Rebecca (1 August 2023). "20 July Ballot Results". Society of Antiquaries of London. Retrieved 26 August 2023.
  19. ^ "Royal Academy of Engineering welcomes 71 new Fellows". Retrieved 18 September 2024.
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