What Is Digital Humanities and What’s It Doing in English Departments? Matthew G. Kirschenbaum: Explanation
At its core, digital humanities is methodological and interdisciplinary. It utilizes computational tools, techniques, and approaches to investigate, analyze, synthesize, and present information in electronic form. This field examines how digital media and technologies influence the humanities disciplines and explores how these disciplines contribute to our understanding and use of computing.
Digital humanities encompasses a wide range of activities and practices. Scholars and researchers in this field might engage in text mining and analysis, data visualization, digital mapping, archival digitization, computational linguistics, interactive storytelling, virtual reality, and more. The field encourages collaboration between experts from diverse backgrounds, including humanities scholars, computer scientists, librarians, archivists, and information specialists.
The development of digital humanities has been facilitated by the emergence of advanced computing technologies, digital archives and repositories, and the availability of large-scale datasets. These resources enable scholars to explore new research questions, generate new insights, and present their findings in innovative ways using digital tools and platforms.
The significance of digital humanities in English departments is notable. English departments have been at the forefront of integrating digital approaches into their research and teaching practices. They have embraced digital tools and methodologies to analyze literary texts, explore linguistic patterns, study historical contexts, and engage with digital forms of expression and communication.
Digital humanities in English departments allows scholars to investigate literary works in new ways, conduct distant reading and analysis of large corpora of texts, collaborate on digital editions and archives, and create interactive platforms for engaging with literature. It expands the possibilities for research, pedagogy, and scholarly communication within the field of English studies.
In summary, digital humanities refers to the application of computational methods and technologies in the humanities disciplines. It involves the use of digital tools for research, analysis, and presentation of information, and it fosters interdisciplinary collaboration. In English departments, digital humanities plays a crucial role in exploring and reimagining the study of literature, language, and cultural artifacts in the digital age.
Digital humanities is not limited to a specific set of texts or technologies, but rather represents a methodological outlook shared by scholars in various disciplines. It involves the application of digital tools, techniques, and approaches to study and explore topics in the humanities.
To gain a quantitative understanding of the digital humanities outlook, researchers can use computational tools like Voyeur, which allows for text analysis. This can involve mining conference proceedings to identify topic frequencies, analyzing key terms, or visualizing citation networks.
On the qualitative side, digital humanities centers and projects provide insights into the field. These centers support a range of projects, from digitizing Shakespearean works to preserving and archiving computer games and virtual communities.
Digital humanities is also a social undertaking. It involves networks of scholars who have been collaborating, sharing research, and working together for many years. The field has achieved significant milestones, such as the development of the Text Encoding Initiative and the Orlando Project, which were completed before the recent surge of interest in digital humanities.
The term "digital humanities" gained popularity due to specific circumstances. The Blackwell Companion to Digital Humanities, a book project initiated in 2001, contributed to the term's rise. Additionally, discussions among scholarly organizations, such as the Association for Computers in the Humanities and the Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing, led to the formation of the Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations (ADHO) as an umbrella entity for various organizations with shared interests.
In summary, digital humanities encompasses the use of digital tools and methods to study the humanities. It is a multidisciplinary field with a focus on collaboration, research, and exploration of topics using digital technology.
By 2005, the Blackwell's Companion to Digital Humanities had been published, and the Alliance for Digital Humanities Organizations (ADHO) had been established. Another significant event was the launch of the Digital Humanities Initiative by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) in 2006.
Brett Bobley, the NEH's Chief Information Officer (CIO), described how the term "digital humanities" was chosen. During a brainstorming session in 2006, Bobley considered various names such as humanities computing, e-humanities, and digital humanities. After researching them, he found that "digital humanities" had the most relevant hits and connections to the field. He also appreciated that it conveyed a broader scope than "humanities computing," which could be misconstrued as solely focusing on computing rather than the humanities.
In 2008, the Digital Humanities Initiative became the Office of Digital Humanities, solidifying its place within the NEH. This move, supported by the NEH's allocation of resources and grant opportunities, played a pivotal role in establishing digital humanities as a recognized field in the United States.
Over a span of about five years, digital humanities transformed from a term used by a group of researchers into a significant movement. Scholars now identify themselves as digital humanists or "DHers," forming a strong sense of community and common purpose. Events like the Day of Digital Humanities, organized by the University of Alberta, further fostered this sense of community.
Digital humanities gained considerable attention at the 2009 Modern Language Association (MLA) Annual Convention. William Pannapacker, a blogger for the Chronicle of Higher Education, observed the vitality and emergence of digital humanities as the "next big thing." Jennifer Howard, a Chronicle reporter, noted the overflow crowds attending digital humanities panels at the convention.
Notably, Twitter played a significant role in the visibility of digital humanities at the conference. Twitter provided a platform for real-time commentary and conversation among attendees using a common tag, such as #mla09. Amanda French's analysis showed that nearly half of the attendees at the Digital Humanities 2009 conference were actively tweeting sessions, while only a small percentage of MLA convention attendees did so. Twitter became a central tool for communication within the digital humanities community and impacted scholarly discussions.
These developments established digital humanities as a recognized and influential field within academia, with its own conferences, communities, and modes of communication.
The emergence of digital humanities and its presence in English departments can be understood in several ways. Firstly, digital humanities has become a networked community facilitated by platforms like Twitter, blogs, and online outlets. These platforms create connections and interactions between individuals based on shared interests, leading to the formation of a community around digital humanities.
Furthermore, digital humanities has gained momentum due to the involvement of younger graduate students, faculty members (both with and without tenure), and other academic professionals. These individuals strategically adopt the label "digital humanities" within an institutional landscape characterized by declining public support for higher education, rising tuition costs, shrinking endowments, the rise of distance education and for-profit universities, and the shift towards adjunct labor.
One example illustrating the impact of digital humanities within this context is the story of Brian Croxall, a recent PhD graduate from Emory University. Croxall gained significant online attention during and after the Modern Language Association (MLA) Convention when he published his paper on his blog after being unable to afford to attend the convention. This story received widespread coverage and became one of the most widely seen and read papers from the convention. The subsequent discussions and cross-postings on Twitter and the blogosphere reflected the connection between digital humanities and broader academic issues. Many recognized the potential of digital humanities, with its emphasis on collaboration, openness, non-hierarchical relations, and agility, as a means for real resistance or reform within academia.
Regarding its place in English departments, there are several reasons why digital humanities has found a hospitable setting within these departments. Firstly, text-based data has long been manageable for computers, making it a tractable data type for computational analysis. English departments have a tradition of utilizing text-based data processing for research in fields like stylistics, linguistics, and author attribution studies.
Secondly, the connection between computers and composition has a rich history, making English departments natural spaces for exploring digital approaches to writing and communication.
Thirdly, there has been a convergence between discussions on editorial theory and the implementation of electronic archives and editions. Scholars like Jerome McGann have demonstrated the practical application of theory through projects like the Rossetti Archive.
Fourthly, there is an ongoing interest in hypertext and electronic literature within English departments. These belle-lettristic projects explore the possibilities of digital media and continue to thrive.
Fifthly, English departments have been receptive to cultural studies, where digital material culture becomes a central focus of analysis. For instance, the analysis of objects like the Sony Walkman as cultural artifacts has been an area of exploration.
Lastly, the current landscape includes the popularity of e-reading and e-book devices like the Kindle, iPad, and Nook, as well as large-scale text digitization projects like Google Books. Scholars such as Franco Moretti have delved into data mining and visualization techniques to perform comprehensive analyses of vast amounts of books.
Overall, digital humanities has evolved from a term used by a small group of researchers to a recognized field with increasing funding, infrastructure, and administrative support. It has become a visible form of scholarship and pedagogy, deeply intertwined with infrastructure and heavily reliant on collaborative networks of individuals. These endeavors have an active online presence and operate beyond the traditional confines of academic institutions. The value and potential of digital humanities in English departments lie in its public visibility, engagement with infrastructure, collaboration, and its ability to adapt to the evolving digital landscape.
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