What is Digital Humanities?

Digital humanities, what is it? If you had asked me two weeks ago, I would’ve looked at you like you had five heads. However, after taking a few classes I can say that I have a very basic understanding of it. In its simplest form, Digital humanities is a discipline that joins together computing and the humanities. You can think of computing as having to do with software, data, computers, or just technology. In terms of humanities, it is the different aspects of human culture and civilization. This could be literature, law, religion, art, etc. The digital humanities involve investigation, exploration, and being able to present your information through the Internet. At its core, digital humanities are collaborative. In this field of study, you see groups of people working together, sharing information, and forming arguments for different topics.

I had never thought of creating a blog, that was until I had to take a digital humanities class. To make a long story short, I created this blog for presenting my digital humanities projects. I understand that the term “projects” can seem very vague. What is a digital humanities project? Well, here are some examples: Quantizing Color in William Blake’s Illuminated Books, Dancing with Robots, and Let Them Speak: An Anthology of Holocaust Testimonies. I tried to pick a diverse group of projects for my example, but you can always explore the Yale digital humanities website. And, here are some other websites that you can check out: Immersive realities lab for the humanities and CUNY digital humanities resource guide.

As you look through the projects you may notice some similarities. The first being that they are free and accessible. After that, you may notice that some projects list the tools. This is important because if someone wants to re-create the project they know what to use. On that note, they also utilize technology and programming (again, going into the digital aspect of this field of study), they are typically housed on academic websites, and they involve some sort of humanities. For instance, Quantizing Color in William Blake’s Illuminated Books involves art. This is because they are visually analyzing the change of colors for Blake's book covers. Lastly, a software called BlakeTint was used to spot the color differences and color scheme. 

Even though I can explain what digital humanities is and provide some examples I do have some questions regarding it. What are some careers out there for those interested in digital humanities? What are some arguments within digital humanities? How did the digital humanities originate? And is digital humanities sustainable? Hopefully, as I take more digital humanities classes I will be able to answer these questions.