Shawn Graham

Professor – Digital Humanities methods; Digital media for exploring & representing Archaeology and History; Computational Creativity

BA Hons (Wilfrid Laurier University); MA, PhD (University of Reading, UK)
Email Shawn Graham

Shawn Graham trained in Roman archaeology but has become over the years a digital archaeologist and . In 2016 he won a Provost’s Fellowship in Teaching Award and was designated a �Ӱ�ԭ�� University Teaching Fellow. His most recent SSHRC Insight Grant project was called ‘The Bone Trade: Studying the Online Trade in Human Remains with Machine Learning and Neural Networks’, which culminated in a major study with his collaborator Damien Huffer, . He was part of the multi-institution SSHRC Partnership Grant funded project, ‘CRANE: Computational Research in the Ancient Near East’ led by Tim Harrison of the University of Toronto. Graham’s sub-project involved using neural networks to complete archival photographs for photogrammetric reconstructions. Most recently, he and his collaborator at the University of Maastricht, Dr. Donna Yates, won a SSHRC Insight Development Grant to explore knowledge graphs and the antiquities trade (which have enabled them to spot hitherto unknown episodes in the trade). Graham also recently launched the XLab: Cultural Heritage Informatics Collaboratory.

He keeps an open lab notebook of his research and experiments in digital history and archaeology at his research blog, He was on sabbatical 2023-24, and used some of that time to contribute to the His MA Student Chantal Brousseau contributed to that project by overhauling an open source image annotation platform to serve as a collaborative archaeology recording system. ISSAP won the New Directions Award from the AAA and the Award for Outstanding Work in Digital Archaeology from the AIA. Graham was , and devised many of the analytical methods used in that landmark study.

He is founder and editor of the open access journal, He abandoned Twitter for Mastodon-powered Scholar Social; . He awaits the inevitable of BlueSky.

Books

An Enchantment of Digital Archaeology

is an exploration of the use of computation in archaeology as a kind of magic, a way of heightening the archaeological imagination. Agent-based modelling allows archaeologists to test the ‘just-so’ stories they tell about the past. It requires a formalization of the story so that it can be represented as a simulation; researchers are then able to explore the unintended consequences or emergent outcomes of stories about the past. Agent-based models are one end of a spectrum that, at the opposite side, ends with video games. This volume explores this spectrum in the context of Roman archaeology, addressing the strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities of a formalized approach to computation and archaeogaming.

Failing Gloriously

(open access) documents Graham’s work ”… through the digital humanities and digital archaeology against the backdrop of the 21st-century university. At turns hilarious, depressing, and inspiring, Graham’s book presents a contemporary take on the academic memoir, but rather than celebrating the victories, he reflects on the failures and considers their impact on his intellectual and professional development. These aren’t heroic tales of overcoming odds or paeans to failure as evidence for a macho willingness to take risks. They’re honest lessons laced with a genuine humility that encourages us to think about making it safer for ourselves and others to fail.”

His teaching explores historical methods and digital history at all levels, including seminars in the collaborative program, as well as in the .

The Historian’s Macroscope

Graham co-wrote ‘‘, a handbook to big data in digital history, for undergraduates with Ian Milligian (Waterloo) and Scott Weingart (Carnegie Mellon). The Second Edition with Kim Martin (Guelph) as a new author.

The open access version of the first edition, along with supplementary materials, may be viewed at The volume has been translated into .

Dr. Graham’s .

Course Trailers

Undergraduate Critical Making in Digital History Course HIST 3812

Graduate Seminar in Digital History

FORVM, a board game about Ancient Rome

Research & Supervision Interests

Computational Creativity for History & Archaeology
Machine Learning and Neural Networks
Open Access Pedagogies
Digital Public History & Archaeology (especially landscape)

Current Graduate Students

Scott Coleman. Ph.D. Byzantine History
Kavita Mistry. Ph.D. AI ethics in Archaeology/Public History
Corey Safinuk, Ph.D. Video games and Public History
Jihad Baayoun, Ph.D. Ubisoft and Public History
Sadie Cann, MA
Madeline Dejonge, MA
Sophie Miliner, MA

Dr. Graham would be pleased to consult with graduate students of any stripe concerning the digital aspects of their work.

Past Graduate Supervisions

Katherine Davidson, Ph.D. Anthropology. Davidson won the Senate Medal for Outstanding Academic Achievement
Michael Carrier. M.A. History with Digital Humanities ‘‘.
Liran Assaf. M.A. History with Digital Humanities ‘Computational Approaches To Art Crime Resarch: Network Analysis And The Case Of Ante Topić Mimara’
Chantal Brousseau. M.A. History with Data Science. ‘‘. Brousseau won the University Medal for Outstanding Graduate Work – Master’s Level
Noah Chapman. M.A. History with Digital Humanities ‘’.
Callum McDermott. M.A. Public History with Digital Humanities
. M.A. Public History with Digital Humanities ‘Remixing The Ottawa’
Cassandra Crane. M.A. Public History with Digital Humanities ‘Remembering Dianna Boileau: Towards A Trans Ethos Of Care In Canadian Public History’
Cristina Wood. M.A. Public History with Collaborative MA in Digital Humanities “Songs of the Ottawa: A Sonified Environmental History of the Changing Riverscape from the Chaudière Falls to Kettle and Duck Islands, 1880 to 1980”. Co-supervisor with Joanna Dean. Wood won the University Medal for Outstanding Graduate Work – Master’s Level
Hollis Peirce, History MA with Collaborative MA in Digital Humanities Academic Accessibility: A Case Study of �Ӱ�ԭ�� University, 1942 – 2019
Matt Dodds, History MA, on data mining the Old Bailey Online.
Danny Guay-Bélanger, Public History MA, on .
Rob Blades, Public History MA, on in Pembroke Ontario.
, Public History MA, on .

Undergraduate Thesis Supervisions

Ryan Pickering 2015/16 The Historical Consciousness of Dwarf Fortress
Hollis Peirce, Entangled with Books:Two Moments In the Evolution of Accessibility and the Notion of Universal Design . 2014/15
Allison Smith, and 2013/14
Zack Battist, Feasting in the Bronze Age & Social Networks Analysis 2012/2013

Honours and Awards

2025 Teaching Achievement Award: The DHPrimer Project
2019 Award for Outstanding Work in Digital Archaeology for the
2016 Provost’s Fellowship in Teaching Award
2013 g, Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
2012 Educational Development Centre �Ӱ�ԭ�� University Excellence in Teaching with Technology Award
2010 Leadership Award, Grand Canyon University
2006 1^st Digital Humanities Workshop Awardee, University Nebraska Lincoln
2005-6 1^st Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Roman Archaeology, University of Manitoba
2004-9: Member of the Institute of Field Archaeologists, UK
2003-11: Register of Professional Archaeologists, North America

Current Digital Projects

The XLab The Cultural Heritage Informatics Colaboratory – Funded via a 2023 Canadian Foundation for Innovation John R. Evans Leaders Fund award and a 2021 �Ӱ�ԭ�� Multidisciplinary Research Catalyst Fund Award.
The New Organigram Project: A Macroscopic View of the Illicit Antiquities Trade – SSHRC Insight Development Grant
: Studying the Online Trade in Human Remains with Machine Learning and Neural Networks – SSHRC Insight Grant
– SSHRC Partnership Grant

Select Publications

2024. Walsh, J., S. Graham, A.C. Gorman, C. Brousseau, and S. Abdullah. PloS one 19 (8), e0304229

2024. Davidson, K., S. Graham, and D. Huffer. , Internet Archaeology 67.

2024. Yates, D., and S. Graham. ‘Reputation laundering and museum collections: patterns, priorities, provenance, and hidden crime’ International Journal of Heritage Studies, 30:2, 145-164, DOI:

2023. Huffer, D., and S. Graham. These Were People Once: The Online Trade in Human Remains and Why It Matters. New York: Berghahn Books

2023. Graham, S., D. Yates, A. El-Roby, C. Brousseau, J. Ellens, C. McDermott. ‘Relationship Prediction in a Knowledge Graph Embedding Model of the Illicit Antiquities Trade’ Advances in Archaeological Practice 11.2: 126-138

2022. Graham, S. An Enchantment of Digital Archaeology: Raising the Dead with Agent-Based Models, Archaeogaming and Artificial Intelligence. New York: Berghahn Books.

2022 Graham, S., D. Huffer, and J. Simons. ‘When TikTok Discovered the Human Remains Trade: A Case Study’ Open Archaeology 8.1: 196-219.

2021 Graham, S., and J. Simons Listening to Dura Europos: An Experiment in Archaeological Image Sonification Internet Archaeology 56.

2021 Huffer, D., Guerreiro, A., Graham, S. Journal of Borneo-Kalimantan 7.1: 67-92.

2020 Graham, S. . New York: Berghahn Books.

2020 Graham, S., Huffer, D., Blackadar, J. Towards a Digital Sensorial Archaeology as an Experiment in Distant Viewing of the Trade in Human Remains on Instagram. .

2019 Grand Forks: The Digital Press at the University of North Dakota

2019 Al-Azm, A, K. Paul with contributions by S. Graham. ‘Facebook’s Black Market In Antiquities. Trafficking, Terrorism, and War Crimes’. Athar Project.

2019 Huffer, D., C. Wood, S. Graham. “What the Machine Saw: Some Questions on the Ethics of Computer Vision and Machine Learning to Investigate Human Re- mains Trafficking”. Internet Archaeology 52.5 DOI:

2019 Graham S., S. Eve, C. Morgan, A. Pantos. “Hearing the Past” in K. Kee and T. Compeau (eds). Seeing the Past. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Pp. 318-331.

2018 Lawall, M. and S. Graham. “From Sherds on the Ground to Dots and Lines on a Screen: Moving from the archaeological record of Aegean amphoras to simulations of networks,” in J. Leidwanger and C. Knappett (eds.), Networks of maritime connectivity in the ancient Mediterranean: Structure, continuity, and change over the longue durée, Cambridge. Pp 163-183

2018 Huffer, D. and S. Graham. Fleshing out the Bones: Studying the Human Remains Trade with Tensorflow and Inception, Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology 1(1). .

2017 Huffer, D., and S. Graham. Internet Archaeology 45.5

2016 The Sound of Data. .

2015 Graham, Milligan, and Weingart. London: Imperial College Press.

2015 ‘‘ Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 22.1 248-274.

2014 ‘’ in K. Kee (ed.) Pastplay: Teaching and Learning History with Technology. (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press). 214-254.

2014 K. Kee and S. Graham, ‘’ in Kevin Kee (ed) Pastplay: Teaching and Learning History with Technology. (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press). 337-366.

2013 Graham, S. and I. Milligan. ‘‘&�Բ��;Journal of Digital Humanities 2.1.

2013 Graham, S., G. Massie, Nadine Feuerherm. ‘’ in Jack Dougherty and Kristen Nawrotzki (eds.) Writing History in the Digital Age. (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press). 222-232.

2013 ‘’ in Jack Dougherty and Kristen Nawrotzki (eds.) Writing History in the Digital Age. (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press). 75-85.

2012 Arya, A., P. Hartwick, S. Graham, N. Nowlan. “”&�Բ��;Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy 2.

2012 Graham, S., S. Weingart, I. Milligan. ‘’ in W. Turkel and A. Crymble (eds) The Programming Historian 2.