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

  1. Using and adapting data science methods to ask and answer humanities questions
     
  2. Text analysis
     
  3. Metadata and databases
     
  4. Programming languages
     
  5. 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

Email me at: jessica_dauterive@contractor.nps.gov

Find me (Jessica Dauterive) on teams!