Introduction to Digital Humanities
What is it? Why do it?
Jessica Dauterive, Digital Humanities Consultant
Mellon Humanities Postdoctoral Fellows Program
jessica_dauterive@contractor.nps.gov
How do you define the humanities?
Investigating the experience and expression of human society and culture.
Our Fellows: American Studies, History, English, Anthropology, Gender Studies, Communications, Environmental Sciences, and Music.
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using information technology to illuminate the human record, and bringing an understanding of the human record to bear on the development and use of information technology
Susan Schreibman, Ray Siemens, and John Unsworth,
"The Digital Humanities and Humanities Computing: An Introduction"
Today's Goals
Understand the state of Digital Humanities
Explore and discuss DH Projects
Debrief / Brainstorm
Next Steps
- Since late 1990s (or 1970s? or 1950s? or 1930s?)
- Grounded in ideas about democratization of knowledge with the WWW
- Last 3 decades has moved from margins to center of humanities disciplines
Digital Humanities:
A Brief History
Story-centered
Center work on a story, argument, or question
Find a tool that fits your story
Audience-centered
Design research and production plans based on audience and stakeholders
Open Source/
Open Access
Code available for use and reuse
Content free and accessible
New scales of analysis and publication
Allows for new questions
Finds new answers
Shares more widely
Collaborative
Team building matters
Brings new people in conversation
Digital Archives and Collections
- Archives and collections
- Edited volumes
- Digital Memory Banks
- Content Management Systems (CMS)
- Digitized or born digital?
Teaching and Learning
- Projects for educators and students
- Archives and sources for use in classrooms
- Online curriculums and resources
- Trainings and certifications
Digital Exhibits and Projects
- Interpret and present digitized sources
- Can replace, complement, or stand alone from physical exhibits
- CMS make these easy to build--story first!
Digital / Multimedia Storytelling
- Multimedia essays
- Podcasts
- Videos/documentaries
- Video games
- VR, AR, and 3D modeling
Data-driven history
- Using and adapting data science methods to ask and answer humanities questions
- Text analysis
- Metadata and databases
- Programming languages
- Digital essays
Sources, processed and presented
Sources
What humanities sources are used in this project?
Ex: letters; photographs; artwork; maps; interviews
1
Processed
What was done to the sources to get them online?
Ex: digitized, georeferenced, transcribed, recorded
2
Presented
How are they presented? How can you explore them?
Ex: an exhibit, an archive, a map, a network graph, a gallery
3
(Adapted from Miriam Posner, "How Did They Make That," https://miriamposner.com/blog/how-did-they-make-that)
What's Next?
- Regular check-ins, webinars, and workshops
- Guides, tutorials, and best practices for creating and archiving digital products
- Available for questions, meetings, or support anytime
Find me (Jessica Dauterive) on teams!
NPS_Digital Humanities Introduction
By jdauteri
