Digital Humanities - Objectives

Objectives

Digital humanities scholars use computational methods either to answer existing research questions or to challenge existing theoretical paradigms, generating new questions and pioneering new approaches. One goal is to systematically integrate computer technology into the activities of humanities scholars, such as the use of text-analytic techniques; GIS; commons-based peer collaboration; interactive games and multimedia in the traditional arts and humanities disciplines like it is done in contemporary empirical social sciences.

Another goal is to create scholarship that is more than texts and papers. This includes the integration of multimedia, metadata and dynamic environments. An example of this is The Valley of the Shadow project at the University of Virginia or the Vectors Journal of Culture and Technology in a Dynamic Vernacular at University of Southern California.

A growing number of researchers in digital humanities is using computational methods for the analysis of large cultural data sets. Examples of such projects were highlighted by the Humanities High Performance Computing competition sponsored by the Office of Digital Humanities in 2008, and also by the Digging Into Data challenge organized in 2009 and 2011 by NEH in collaboration with NSF, and in partnership with JISC in the UK, and SSHRC in Canada.

At present, formal academic recognition of digital work in the humanities remains somewhat problematic, although there are signs that this might be changing. Some universities do offer programs related to the field.