Ben -- What is DH?

 Before I read any of our materials, I had always thought of Digital Humanities was mainly about using any form of technology in order to study literature, art, and/or history--the classics. After having read both the textbook and the manifesto, I have learned that Digital Humanities covers a much more deeper scale of topics. The manifesto refers to Digital Humanities as "an array of convergent practices" which explores a universe where print is no longer the exclusive medium in how knowledge can be produced. This take on the concept of Digital Humanities stood out to me because it forces the notion that this concept is not only one kind of topic, but rather one that makes up a collection of discussions, thoughts, and opinions. 

Digital Humanities is not just your standard, typical computer science applied to the humanities. It is also not a sort of replacement for the traditional humanistic inquiry. It's not a one-way street where humanists ask computer scientists to provide data storage or basic coding support as a kind of service. Digital Humanities can create a mutual dialogue where humanistic questions can shape technical methods. 

I haven't really ever experienced or seen or interacted with any examples that would typically fall under the Digital Humanities category. I am still very new to the idea of Digital Humanities, and after reading more about it, I still find the overall concept slightly confusing and a bit difficult to understand. However, what I do understand about the concept, is that Digital Humanities is not just about the technology, but more about the method of grappling with humanities based questions. Digital Humanities blends both digital techniques with humanistic thinking and allows for there to be experimentation and possibly collaboration. Overall, the main point I took away from the each of the readings, is that Digital Humanities--while still very new and foreign to me--has no fixed definition. It is constantly growing and expanding. 

Comments

  1. Aiden SzymanskiSeptember 6, 2026 at 4:36 PM

    I definitely share the same sentiment as you that there is no fixed definition to Digital Humanities. It seems like its constant change and evolution is by design, and that as students it's sort of our jobs to figure out how we'd define it ourselves.

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  2. Gabby M.September 8, 2026 at 11:36 AM

    Hi! I agree with the last message of your post. Digital humanities is very confusing, but I have come to believe it should be. Humanities itself is very complicated, so when you add the layer of the digital world it just puts more questions onto questions already left unanswered. In my opinion, this makes it very interesting. I have not had much experience with this subject prior to reading for this class, so it feels like there is so much to explore that I had not thought to discover before.

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