Gregor Middell

Literary Scholar – Software Developer – “Digital Humanist”

Gregor Middell

Research Interests

  • Computer-Supported Collation, with the aim to semi-automatically correlate eletronic texts, analyze textual variance and determine intertextual relationships
  • Markup Theory & Practice, specifically with regard to the constraints of applying context-free grammars to the modeling of complex, natural language texts
  • Software Architecture, specifically when applied to the development of software in domains with highly varying requirements, e. g. creation of tools supporting textual scholarship
  • Literary Theory, specifically related to media studies, textual theory, semiotics and post/neo-structuralist thinking

Research Projects

  • Interedition, a European-funded development collective whose aim it is to promote the interoperability of the tools and methodology we use in the field of digital scholarly editing and research
  • Genetic Edition of Goethe's Faust, a project providing all relevant manuscripts of Faust for the first time and reconstructing the genetic relations between them, thereby delivering insights into the making of one of the most important literary works in German language
  • Juxta, an open-source cross-platform tool for comparing and collating multiple witnesses to a single textual work, coming with several kinds of analytic visualizations
  • Refine!Editor, an online transcription and publication tool for the editing of archival material, grown out of the Digital Edition of Franz Brümmer's Literary Remains

Publications

  1. Sich den Literaturbetrieb nach Hause holen. Ein Einblick in die digitale Edition des lexikographischen Nachlasses Franz Brümmer. In: B.I.T. online. Zeitschrift für Bibliothek, Information und Technologie. Wiesbaden. 4/2007.

Presentations

  1. Computer-Supported Collation with CollateX: Managing Textual Variance in an Environment with Varying Requirements. (With Ronald H. Dekker.) Supporting Digital Humanities 2011. University of Copenhagen, Denmark. 17-18 November 2011.
  2. CollateX at Work: the Beckett Digital Manuscript Project. (With Dirk Van Hulle.) Supporting Digital Humanities 2011. University of Copenhagen, Denmark. 17-18 November 2011.
  3. Faust: Multiple Encodings and Diplomatic Transcript Layout. (With Moritz Wissenbach.) TEI Members’ Meeting 2011. Würzburg, Germany. 13 October 2011.
  4. Interedition: An Open Collaborative Development Model for Digital Scholarly Editions. (With Tara L. Andrews, Ronald Dekker, Dirk Van Hulle, Vincent Neyt and Joris van Zundert.) Digital Humanities 2011. Stanford University, USA. 19-22 June 2011.
  5. Juxta, Graphs and Trees. (With Nicholas Laiacona.) COST A32 Final Conference. Munich, Germany. 28 September - 2 October 2010.
  6. Goethe’s Faust – Insights into the Lab. (With Anne Bohnenkamp.) COST A32 Final Conference. Munich, Germany. 28 September - 2 October 2010.
  7. Juxta’s Long Way to Talia (… and Beyond). (With Nicholas Laiacona.) Joint ESF-COST Workshop “Current Issues in Digitally Supported Collation”. Brussels, Belgium. 18-19 November 2009.
  8. Goethe’s Faust – the First Steps Towards the Digital Edition. (With Dietmar Pravida and Moritz Wissenbach.), <philtag n="9">. Würzburg, Germany. 2 October 2009.
  9. The Edition of Franz Brümmer's Literary Remains. <philtag n="6">. Würzburg, Germany. 12-13 October 2007.

Research Grants

  1. ESF-COST-IS0704 Short-Term Scientific Mission, visiting the Società Dantesca Italiana (Florence), contribution to the development of CollateX, a software for the progressive alignment of multiple texts
  2. Multiple ESF-COST-A32 Short-Term Scientific Missions, visiting the University of Virginia (Charlottesville) and Net7 (Pisa); contribution to the development of Juxta, a software for computation and visualization of textual variance. 2009.

Teaching in Digital Humanities

  1. Introduction to Computer Science for DH Students (Summer 2011)
  2. Programming with JavaScript (Summer 2011)
  3. Web Design (Summer 2011)
  4. Text Encoding (Winter 2010/11)

IT Projects

  • elumbus-reisen.de, IT consulting and software development for an online travel agency with branches in Germany, Brasil, Argentina and China
  • lfbrecht.de, web design, development and hosting for Literaturforum im Brecht-Haus, a centre for literary life at Bertolt Brecht’s former Berlin residence

IT Skills

  • Programming Languages: Java, JavaScript, Python, PHP, Groovy, XSLT, C/C++
  • Data Formats, Markup/Presentation Languages: HTML, CSS, SVG, XSL-FO, DocBook, TEI, TeX
  • Modeling Languages: UML
  • Frameworks: JavaEE, Spring Framework, Hibernate, YUI
  • Development Tools: Apache Maven, Apache Ant, CVS, Subversion, Git, Trac
  • Database Technologies: MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Neo4J, eXist-db
  • Network Technologies/Protocols: TCP/IP, HTTP, SMTP, POP/IMAP, LDAP, Firewalls
  • Operating Systems: UNIX-like (Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Mac OS X, Solaris) as well as Microsoft Windows

Curriculum Vitae

2017-software architect at pagina Publikationstechnologien
2012-2017team leader "Information Technology" at elumbus-reisen.de
2010-2012research assistant at Chair of Computer Philology, Julius-­Maximilians-­Universität Würz­burg
2009-2012developer for the Genetic Edition of Goethe's Faust
2007-2009developed software for the Digital Edition of Franz Brümmer's Literary Remains
2007-2008served as webmaster for lit07.de and lit08.de, an online literary magazine
2003-2004developer in the Goya3 project; created a web application for higher education management on the departmental level (deployed in 2 departments at HUB)
2000-2008studied at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin; double-majored in Modern German Literature and Computer Science (Master of Arts)
2000-2006CEO and Project Lead at cut5 systemhaus; planning and development of IT networks and web-based information systems
1996-1998worked freelance for BB-Data Systemhaus as IT Consultant “Networks and Security”
1979born in Berlin (East)

Contact

AddressNiederlausitzstr. 4, 15738 Zeuthen, Germany
Phone+49 172 3006892
e-Mailgregor@middell.net
Skypegregormiddell
Webhttp://gregor.middell.net/