It differs from traditional scholarly publication in being team-based, distributed in its production and outcome, dependent on networked resources (technical and/or administrative), and in being iterative and ongoing, rather than fixed or final, in its outcome.
Burdick et al. “Project- Based Scholarship,” in Digital_Humanities
(Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2012), 130.
As a skeptical student hailing from the English department, my expectations for the class were limited. I had a preconception that the word “digital” in digital humanities weighed much more heavily on the discourse than its literary counterpart. The immediate usage of computers on the first day of class also had me slightly nervous, taking into account that I had previously struggled through Intro to CS and my experience with computers was similar to that of a potato. Regardless of my idea that the course would be focused on computer-driven concepts, the fact that the word “humanities” was attached to some technological term kept my curiosity piqued and my attendance in class.
While I read the passages for homework, I was particularly struck by a sentence from the “Project-Based Scholarship” section. It talked about how digital humanities were more focused on the process of discovery rather than the actual discovery itself; this struck a chord with me. This was something I could relate to. No fixed outcome? Sounds good! In past classes, I always labored over finding the right answer. Whether it be how to debug the code or how to solve the equation, my mind was never cut out for the logistics of having a definitive conclusion. This sentence opened my mind to the humanities aspect of the course, something I was struggling to find at the beginning.
Because I have devoted the rest of my undergraduate career to reading novels and plays, my mind has shifted to fit the mold of a literary critic. Finding out that my brain will be able to understand the thought process of this course and not have to cater to the logistic thinking of computer science turned out to be a huge relief for me. I realized the possibilities of so many aspects of the present technology that can link humanities to the field, making this class not only applicable to me but insightful as well.
I am most interested to learn how to utilize technology to make my understanding of the humanities more fruitful. This is a skill that was not an option in the past, so figuring out how to harness this new power may be a gift!
One reply on “Suspicious Relief”
I am in the same position of wanting to harness the power of digital tools to apply to the humanities-focused research of which I am already capable. I feel that we may need to take a little bit more of a STEM-oriented approach to problems when we need to find a way to make something work in the way we want to and the wrong choice may result in an incomplete project or result. However, the humanities mindset of focusing on the research will allow us to overcome obstacles and be more creative with the way that we apply the tools that we will learn.