What does “Digital Humanities” mean?
Much ink and many vector graphics and pixels have been used to figure out the meaning of the term, yet what matters is less the definition of a field and more an understanding of the activities called digital humanities. As Todd Presner, Jeffrey Schnapp, Peter Lunenfeld et al point out, digital humanities are “not a unified field but an array of convergent practices that explore a universe in which:
- print is no longer the exclusive or the normative medium in which knowledge is produced and/or disseminated; instead, print finds itself absorbed into new, multimedia configurations;
- digital tools, techniques, and media have altered the production and dissemination of knowledge in the arts, human and social sciences.”[1]
Key phrases
- a world in which “print is no longer the exclusive or the normative medium in which knowledge is produced and/or disseminated.”
- “convergent practices” and “new multimedia configurations” and changing the “production of knowledge.” ?
Because educational institutions are committed to examining, revising, and creating knowledge, they have become fertile sites for digital disruption.
Offered here are resources that can shed light on the digital humanities, a term that, perhaps, can best be viewed as a useful sign pointing to methods and collaborations integrating the sciences with the arts and humanities. In this broad sense, we can speak about the digital humanities as innovative and synergistic practices that seek to thrive in the interstices of the liberal arts, while extending their scope and enriching their value.
Scholarship
Blackwell Publishing/Wiley Online Library
by Melissa Terras, Julianne Nyhan, and Edward Vanhoutte
American Historical Association
Modern Language Association
Douglas Eyman
National Writing Project
Journals/Magazines
Oxford University Press
MIT Press
Organizations
Posted by John Muthyala, February 2024
[1] Presner, Todd, Jeffrey Schnapp, Peter Lunenfeld, et al. “Digital Humanities Manifesto 2.0.” toddpresner.com July 22, 2009