Introduction to Digital Humanities

Enhancing Scholarship with the Use of Technology

Kathryn C. Wymer

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000396928
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Informatica
• Subtopic: Media digitali

Introduction to Digital Humanities is designed for researchers, teachers, and learners in humanities subject areas who wish to align their work with the field of digital humanities. Many institutions are encouraging digital approaches to the humanities, and this book offers guidance for students and scholars wishing to make that move by reflecting on why and when digital humanities tools might usefully be applied to engage in the kind of inquiry that is the basis for study in humanities disciplines. In other words, this book puts the "humanities" before the "digital" and offers the reader a conceptual framework for how digital projects can advance research and study in the humanities. Both established and early career humanities scholars who wish to embrace digital possibilities in their research and teaching will find insights on current approaches to the digital humanities, as well as helpful studies of successful projects.

1 Reasons to Engage with the Digital Humanities

In 1981, the music video was very much a new art form. When MTV launched in August of that year, they began by broadcasting “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Buggles, a song that highlights the tension between old and new technologies. The song’s lyrics reflect fears of how television might negatively impact audiences’ ability to connect with musical performances. Video is not the only innovation addressed. They also discuss technology’s ability to impact musical composition: “They took the credit for your second symphony, Rewritten by machine on new technology, And now I understand the problems you can see.”¹ Of course, these lyrics are accompanied not by acoustic instruments, but by synthesizers, further underscoring how, no matter how we may feel about it, technological change in the arts is inevitable.

When considering technological advancements in music, literature, and the humanities more generally, many people have voiced similar fears about change. Some notable authors in their personal lives have adopted stances critical of digital technologies, including Ray Bradbury, the author of Fahrenheit 451, who famously refused for years to allow publishers to create digital editions of his books.² However, scholars can be quick to point out that printed books themselves are a technology, developed after handwritten manuscripts and scrolls. Similarly, the radio referenced in the Buggles song was simply the technology that preceded television. As we move forward, it is impossible not to engage with the fact that the technologies of the future are digital, and the study of the humanities has been and will continue to be impacted by that change.

Defining the Digital Humanities

What do we mean, then, when we talk about the digital humanities? When scholars attempt to define the digital humanities, they often consider the discipline broadly and inclusively. Indeed, this book explores the many approaches one can take to the digital humanities, including the practical and the theoretical. Simply using digital tools as a humanities scholar is part of this process, as is the assessment of how artists employ digital tools in their work. If taken at face value, then, any humanities work involving a computer could be considered digital humanities. However, it is generally accepted that digital humanities work requires scholars to think about and engage with digital tools more deeply in their own research and teaching. Kathleen Fitzpatrick has offered one way to think about it:

Scholarly work across the humanities, as in all academic fields, is increasingly being done digitally. The particular contribution of the digital humanities, however, lies in its exploration of the difference that the digital can make to the kinds of work that we do, as well as to the ways that we communicate with one another.³

As Fitzpatrick points out, the use of digital technology is nearly inescapable in current scholarly work. Moving beyond routine use of digital technology to thinking instead about how it can transform scholarship is to engage with the digital humanities.

It is important to note that the term “digital humanities” has itself been called into question, as scholars have often grappled with how to define the term.⁴ Scholars have even debated whether to consider the term singular or plural or to preface it with the definite article: “the digital humanities” as opposed to “digital humanities.” Alan Liu conducted a study of academics that found that no unified standard has yet emerged despite the fact that scholars do seem to approach it as a “unitary field.”⁵ Sometimes the debates around the term have become quite contentious. Michael Piotrowski has claimed that articles attempting to define the digital humanities have become a genre unto themselves, with those articles unhelpfully usually coming to the conclusion that the term is undefinable.⁶ Ryan Cordell has offered that sometimes sidestepping the terminology can be helpful as, regardless of how one attempts to label them, the core concepts common to definitions of the digital humanities are beneficial to scholars and teachers and can inspire a great deal of enthusiasm and creative output.⁷ This volume will, nevertheless, continue to embrace the term “digital humanities,” acknowledging that for all its imperfections, it provides a way to bring together concepts and practices related to the use of digital technology to transform our study of the humanities.

Motivations for Engaging with the Digital Humanities

How do scholars begin to engage with the digital humanities? To answer this question, we can consider the kinds of external forces that inspire scholars to implement digital approaches to their work. Institutional priorities, stakeholder interests, and the enhanced ability to share ideas about an area of expertise often affect scholars’ decisions about how to conduct research. We can also consider scholars’ internal motivations. The reasons people begin digital humanities work range from the personal to the pragmatic. Scholars who are intrinsically motivated by their own personal reasons are often very optimistic about the possibilities of incorporating technology into their research and teaching. Those scholars who are requested (or required) by employers and institutions to transition to using digital tools may experience more trepidation. Even for those who may be approaching the digital humanities more reluctantly, this book seeks to enumerate the possibilities of embracing the digital turn in research, teaching, and scholarship. Those possibilities are reliant, however, upon the key to any successful digital humanities project: keeping the humanities at the forefront of your planning process in incorporating any new technologies.

Start your engagement with the digital humanities by focusing on your own needs and interests. As you begin a new digital project as a student or scholar of the humanities, you should first ask yourself, “Why do I want to align my work with the digital humanities?” Maybe you are excited about the possibility of building on work you are already doing with new technologies. Sharing your work more widely may be another attraction to the field. Perhaps, on the other hand, you have been asked to do so by your employer, who has made digital humanities a priority for your research center, school, or library. It is also possible that you anticipate encouraging grant opportunities or job prospects for people with digital humanities experience. Reflecting on your reasons for incorporating digital humanities into your work is important as you develop your eventual project because those reasons impact your decision-making processes in important ways. As you begin your work, it is also essential that you think about how your digital practices can be more inclusive. The digital humanities of the future must include in its construction commitments to justice, including but not limited to racial equity,⁸ respect for indigenous practice,⁹ and advocacy for universal design.¹⁰

Consider the following common motivations as you reflect on your own goals for digital humanities work, and think about how they impact the decisions you will make as you begin a new project.

Motivation #1: Finding New Ways to Answer Questions and Solve Problems

Often, long-standing problems in humanities subject areas can be addressed by new approaches with digital technology. Digital technologies can not only provide new ways to answer old questions, but they can also prompt new and exciting lines of inquiry. For many digital humanities researchers, the need to find new ways to consider their subject area is a primary motivation for engaging in digital projects.

Sometimes the research process is tedious. We wish we could wave a magic wand and have the answers we are looking for. Unfortunately, technology is not a magic wand, and the results it gives are not perfect. Nevertheless, it can speed up many processes. Computing makes possible in a short span of time types of inquiry that were only previously achievable through a lifetime of labor. For an example of a simple use of technology, one could use a search function in a digital text to find all instances of a certain word. Scholars used to answer those kinds of research questions by carefully poring over every page of a text. Computers can have those answers in seconds.

The constant advancement of technology opens new doors for scholars of the humanities, and that can provide exciting opportunities for learning. Digital technologies can offer us more nuanced ways to examine familiar objects. The use of certain digitization and magnification tools allows us to see things we never before would have seen. For instance, some researchers use high-resolution cameras to examine the surfaces of manuscripts and canvases to see if there are faint impressions of work done before or other clues to the early life of an object. What they find can change how they think about that object and what they hope to learn about it.

Motivation #2: Building on Digital Work you are Already Doing

Undoubtedly, you have been using digital technologies extensively in your personal and professional life. Research for many scholars depends upon electronic databases, even if the end result of using that database is finding access to a physical book or artifact. Communicating with librarians who help provide access to materials, with colleagues who are collaborating on a project, or with potential audiences for a project all often depend on e-mail, social media, video conferencing, and other digital technologies. Teaching, for many instructors, includes utilization of multimedia and other digital sources, often distributed via online learning management systems (such as Blackboard, Moodle, or Canvas).

Using your previous experience and expertise with digital tools is a great way to get into the digital humanities. However, you should not let the tools you are using keep you from thinking of new approaches. The most successful digital humanities practitioners are open to playing with new technologies and experimenting with using digital tools in new ways. This willingness to engage with emerging technologies is crucial because technology advances at a rapid pace, such that upgrades are often needed even in the midst of a project. Bringing a willingness to work with technology as well as an openness to learning new things is a path to success in digital projects.

With any successful digital humanities project, the first place to focus is on the research question that interests you about your humanities subject area. The digital tools you employ should always be in the service of your research. Don’t shift your research goals to try to fit electronic tools. Attempts to build projects around specific digital tools are not going to be as successful as projects that begin with a clear focus on answering questions grounded in the humanities.

Motivation #3: Sharing Ideas More Widely

A main component of Fitzpatrick’s definition of the digital humanities involves the differences that digital work can make to “the ways that we communicate with one another.” The printed book or journal remains an important contribution to scholarship, but many publishers are now turning to electronic books and journals. With that innovation, the possibility of linked information arises, including linking references online for faster access of sources. It is not a big leap to consider the increased possibilities of including multimedia in addition to more traditional text-based sources. In fact, certain projects, such as the Manifold Scholarship initiative, have already moved publication in that direction.¹¹ These faster connections increase the speed with which we access work and also help increase the sharing of that work.

As we share ideas in digital format, it can also change our methods for processing the information we find. Many scholars find the possibility of providing information in nonlinear format exciting and challenging. How we access information affects how we understand that information, and such nonlinear works might inspire creative, exploratory approaches to our subjects. For disciplines that study visual arts and performance arts, the increased possibility of including high-quality representations of the art form makes a big impact as well.

A noteworthy consideration, however, is that sometimes digital projects do not (or cannot) deliver on the promise of access for all audiences. Links to sources are of minimal value when those publications are paywalled. Sometimes, too, a digital project requires certain kinds of computing equipment for access that not all potential users may be able to acquire. Nevertheless, keeping these cautions in mind, scholars can design projects that plan ahead for broader acc...