The Importance of Coding

I have leaned toward the Humanities in my interests for the majority of my educational career. I enjoyed math and science, but when given the choice, I would often find myself leaning toward more Humanities-based pursuits, especially in the arts and storytelling. It wasn’t until this past fall that I chose to take a Computer Science class, and began to learn more about the world of programming and what exactly lies behind the digital interfaces that I had been working with for years. My experience learning to code for the first time had its ups and downs, but I can say without a doubt that I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I feel that students in the Humanities should be encouraged to branch out and learn the basics of at least one coding language. 

There are many reasons why Humanities students would benefit from learning a programming language from their studies, the first among them being one that Kirschenbaum points out in his article “Hello Worlds (why Humanities students should learn to program)”, the fact that programming languages are at their core, languages. Humanities students are already required to learn a second language in order to be considered Humanities students, so why not learn programming? Kirschenbaum says of his own experience that:

“[He] successfully made the case that given my interest in the digital Humanities, this was far more practical than revisiting my high-school Spanish.”

Kirschenbaum, Matthew G. “Hello Worlds (Why Humanities Students Should Learn to Program).” Matthew G. Kirschenbaum, University of Maryland, 26 May 2010,

And he is in no way alone in that experience. Most Humanities scholars today have access to a multitude of translation programs for languages across the globe, so there is no reason not to instead learn a language that will help them navigate the digital world.

Though some Humanities scholars might disagree, it is hard to deny that the world is moving in a digital direction. The stories of people living through historical events are going to come from tweets and blog posts instead of diaries, and Humanities scholars should have a working knowledge of the code behind the scenes in order to get the most out of interacting with these primary sources.

Finally, I feel personally that there is a lot that Humanities as a field can gain from expanding to teach students programming as a part of its curriculum. I mentioned before that I first began to explore the world of Computer Science this fall, so I am in no place to claim to know everything about it, but I feel like even the most basic knowledge can enhance Humanities projects by making them more interactive and interesting. I think that video games are a great way for storytellers to tell compelling stories by getting their audience involved in their worlds and characters, and I feel like even the simplest website structure allowing for a visitor to choose their own way to navigate through information does the same for historical information.

<h1> Welcome! </h1> 
<p>This website shows off a hypothetical situation
where a visitor is able to pick an area of interest
that they have so that they can take control of how
they learn about a given society. </p> 
<select>  
<option>Food</option> 
<option>Religion</option>
<option>Clothing</option>
</select>

The above code took me only a few minutes to write using HTML, and demonstrates a very simple and incomplete example of how a Humanities scholar can use programming knowledge to make accessing information easier and more user-driven. A more complete example could even look more like a choose your own adventure game as the user uses their own special interests to guide their exploration.

I think that Humanities students should learn at least the basics of one coding language. This would help them be able to create interesting, interactive projects that adapt to the digital world we live in, allowing someone with a background in Humanities to be a part of the creation process of such projects, as opposed to having a person with a Humanities background and one with a Computer Science background work separately.