While I do not think it’s necessary for humanity students to be top of the line programmers, I do believe that humanities student should learn how to code in order to understand and partake in the surge of Digital Humanities projects that are out there. This past week, I spent some time on Codecademy, where I took courses in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Before these lessons, I had never took a minute to code, and I was surprised to see how easy to follow it was (as a result of Codecademy’s magnificent tutorials). While I considered myself to be doing just fine up that point, I realized how many doors began slowly opening for me as I learned the different components of coding. My eyes suddenly opened up to all that I could do. This ranged from making a website about myself to present to professionals or family and friends to making an app that would help organize my day. All of these possibilites are accurately portrayed in Hello Worlds (why humanities students should learn to program) by Matthew G. Kirschenbaum, as he makes several key points on the benefits of humanity students learning how to code. He begins his piece by pointing out the fact that “programming is about choices and constraints, and about how you choose to model some select slice of the world around you in the formal environment of a computer.” As the uses of Digital Humanities are becoming progressively more and more versatile for its users, we see the transformation of computers being seen as ” black boxes” to “understood as engines for creating powerful and persuasive models of the world around us.”
Kirschenbaum also points out that it has become increasingly more common for programmers to talk freely of the aesthetics of code; the words “beautiful” and “artistic” are tossed around in the same way that “a grandmaster might describe a game of chess.” It is not hard to find that the work that code is capable of producing has started to “blend functional computer code with creative composition.”
That raises the question, “should a graduate student be allowed to substitute demonstrated proficiency in a computer-programming language instead? and with that, should they replace other, more traditional forms of humanities?”
To answer the first question, I believe that the two are more similar than one would think. I believe that such languages share a similar function: achieving globalization. As for the second, I believe the two benefit each other. If anything, the digital humanities restores certain categories of humanities that are beginning to be left behind with our quickly evolving generation.
In A “Hello World” Apart (why humanities students should NOT learn to program), Evan Donahue argues that “[students] should not let their inability to program prevent them from engaging with the computer sciences.” While he offers a completely valid point, in my opinion, I predict that the difficulty to separate one from the other will only continue to grow as time goes on. I do not believe that a student must learn every in and out of programming that there is, however, I have come to the conclusion that one must be able to understand the basic principles of coding in order to get the most of any digital humanities project out there, especially if they are aspiring to create their own or build on a pre-existing DH project to match their purpose.
There are many communities that make such an ideal possible. For example, DHCommons, is an online hub whose focus is to match digital humanities projects seeking assistance with others interested in project collaboration.
No matter what your path is in life, the rise of the use of technology will allow you to pursue and share your work with anyone around the world, leading to more opportunities for all.
Wow! I really enjoyed reading your blog! It delivers an abundance of information and you have presented a strong argument. Even though my argument differs than yours, I think I am still fully persuaded! Also, I appreciate how you have extracted so much quotation to reinforce your points and perspective. I do have a minor suggestion (which may not matter after all)- perhaps you could employ some media information, such as images, in your blog. This can help you to attract your readers more 😉
Tonya, this is a nuanced and well supported argument in favor of learning how to, at minimum, understand how coding works. I’m curious about your statement that programming languages and foreign languages “share a similar function: achieving globalization.” Care to elaborate? Are there issues of access and privilege that impeded this goal?
Austin, to respond to your question, I believe that both foreign languages and programming languages increases interaction between people, companies, and government from nations across the globe. However, there is still an issue with getting everyone to be included in that, given that some countries are more privileged than others. Nevertheless, I believe there is a lot of initiative to get that issue solved, but it will take a fair amount of time.