2/8/16
Notes from Workshop
August 27, 2014
1
Toward a Definition of Digital Humanities
For our Department
Digital humanities starts from a humanistic, rather than mechanistic, understanding
of digital technologies in a variety of cultural contexts. It examines how those
technologies undergird the creation of knowledge and how new knowledge [feeds
back to technical advancement] in a reciprocal and recursive way. As such DH
extends the essential work of the English Department by giving us new tools to
analyze texts, to write, to teach writing, to think, and solve problems. [some segue
to] exploring the idea of what constitutes a "text.” Digital Humanities in the English
Department includes exploring research, teaching, and social media in ways to
encourage deep analysis of literature and productive writing. As a field, Digital
Humanities encourages us to think about the relation between print, media, and
internet communication and traditional disciplines of study.
As scholars, we … [it feels like we need something more here about what we do, as
faculty members]… . We welcome the opportunities offered by new technologies
new ways to be creative and to present texts/ideas to audiences.
Students in English produce, curate, and communicate through an ever-changing
array of online and digital platforms to produce a new way of analyzing literature or
writing. Dialogue with professors and peers focuses students on the search for
meaningful questions and sites of inquiry in this digital space, prompts students to
reflect upon the implications of digital communication, and encourages them to
integrate multiple modes of composition in their creative expression and
scholarship. We expect that students will engage in projects that ask them to
produce, curate, and interact with and through digital media--blogs, hypertext,
internet, wiki, photoessays and the like--to analyze literature and
writing. Reflection will also be an important part of students’ work as they use
digital formats to explore the deep questions of the humanities. The knowledge and
skills that English students gain through work in the DH not only assists them in
their work as students but also prepares them for the writing they will do in
internships and after graduation.
Through their work in the English Department, our majors can:
employ digital tools for textual analysis;
select an appropriate digital format for a particular audience and purpose of a text
create and critique digital elements of a text;
understand ethical issues (such as intellectual property, ownership, and privacy) as
they relate to digital texts.
As Faculty we:
(maybe pick up that idea from the chapter about humanities exploration of
ambiguity and interpretation.
2/8/16
Notes from Workshop
August 27, 2014
2
Accessibility: The use of DH tools in faculty research can make texts accessible and
available that were not before. That opens up new ways to involve students in the
actual presenting and editing of texts. (It is really important that work with digitally
reproduced archival material enables students to understand and work with the
original texts and the process of transforming those texts for readers: suddenly
scholarship and teaching become more closely connected.
DH is often, but not necessarily, collaborative.
DH is frequently interdisciplinary
DH includes use of powerful digital tools to analyze corpus (corpora?) of texts.
I didn’t know where to put these suggestions:
 DH is the intentional use and critique of technologies for teaching learning
and scholarship. (then narrow to English)
 Crossing boundaries,
 Risk and technology.