Digital Humanities

[MedievalMadness]

Just out of curiosity, how many of you have participated in any digital humanities projects? Or attended conferences/written papers? I'd love to hear about your experiences and what kinds of things you have done.

[guinevere29]

Just out of curiosity, how many of you have participated in any digital humanities projects? Or attended conferences/written papers? I'd love to hear about your experiences and what kinds of things you have done.

 

I have been interested in the digital humanities for a while. Last semester I was part of a digital project for MAPS (Medieval Association of Place and Space) in which graduate students wrote Wikipedia-like entries for an online database on Arthurian legend. I also took a class that was completely dedicated to the "digital turn," but the professor was mainly interested in rhetoric rather than literature so any lit students were on their own to apply it to their fields. I ended up doing a video with a voice recording of the poem The Wanderer in the original Old English, so students who are learning to read OE could hear what the poetry sounds like when read aloud. 

I have to say, I'm still not sure I could come up with a finite definition of the "digital humanities." It seems to encompass a lot of different types of projects and research interests. I think to some extent its popularity as a category distinct from other research methods and presentation media will fade out as more and more people who grew up with computers get jobs as professors. People will of course still be working with digital media and talking about it theoretically, but it will be more semlessly integrated into pedagogy and research. Just my opinion!