Digital Humanities?

[joylkmus]

Hey everyone,

 

New poster here, and I just wanted some advice.

 

My back story is that I went to a very good state school in the south and completed a distinguished history major with highest honors, graduating in 2013. My three best friends from the program went on to PhDs and I decided to take a break because while I loved the research I was doing (medieval French history/gender history) the stress almost killed me.

 

Two years later, I am looking at terminal Masters programs in the Chicagoland area starting Fall 2016 (I don't want to move). I had been doing some digital humanities work with my advisor before I left school (transcribing and marking up manuscripts in XML) and I figure it's something quite useful for a lot of historians and it would be a neat thing to study further. I also had a good time doing it. I've been working at a tech company for the past year so I have had some experience in the field, sort of.

 

Does anyone have thoughts on if this is a good idea? I'm not married to the digital humanities idea but I would really like to stay in Chicago (I think moving and starting school all at once would not be great for me). Really, it's down to 1) doing an MA to see if I want to go into a PhD program because I actually cannot decide but think about it all the time or 2) doing an MA that would lead to me getting an actual job.

 

Joy

[dr. t]

I'm pretty well versed in DH at this point, but people mean a lot of things when they say "Digital Humanities". Can you describe what you mean by the term more precisely?

[joylkmus]

I'm pretty well versed in DH at this point, but people mean a lot of things when they say "Digital Humanities". Can you describe what you mean by the term more precisely?

 

(Not sure if quoting you is the right way to go about this but - )

 

I guess that's my problem here, my one experience with DH was digitizing and marking up manuscripts so they could go online. (So much of medieval French hagiography has not been transcribed or even catalogued.) I suppose, broadly, it's the intersection of technology and history. Using software for data visualization, mapping, archival stuff. 

 

It's hard to say what I mean since it seems like there really is no standard curriculum yet and the coursework varies from school to school, if it's even offered at all. 

Edited May 21, 2015 by joylkmus

[dr. t]

(Not sure if quoting you is the right way to go about this but - )

 

I guess that's my problem here, my one experience with DH was digitizing and marking up manuscripts so they could go online. (So much of medieval French hagiography has not been transcribed or even catalogued.) I suppose, broadly, it's the intersection of technology and history. Using software for data visualization, mapping, archival stuff. 

 

It's hard to say what I mean since it seems like there really is no standard curriculum yet and the coursework varies from school to school, if it's even offered at all. 

 

Don't Philippart and Trigalet have a fairly complete database? Or is that just early Medieval?

 

The type of DH you describe is incredibly useful (the link to the mapping project I run is in my signature), but I would encourage you to think of it as a Hilfswissenschaft above all else. Look for history MAs in programs with a strong interest and/or institutional support in DH, not DH programs. 

 

Stanford, Brown, Princeton, Harvard, and Yale fit this bill. Most other programs at best seem to have realized DH is important but haven't really figured out why. 

 

I don't know any place in the Chicago area I'd really recommend. I don't know any really good DH coming out of either NW or UoC.

[tingdeh]

Might I actually recommend looking into the University of Toronto? They've got a very strong medieval program, but they also have a robust and still-growing digital scholarship unit. They're great folks who are willing to get behind you with your projects and methods, providing the media and infrastructures to do so. I've had nothing but wonderful experiences with them. There's the XML support, but also projects using social network analysis, mapping, digital approaches to discourse, and tons of funding for digital archives.

 

Not quite in Chicago, but a Greyhound away...?

[dr. t]

Might I actually recommend looking into the University of Toronto? They've got a very strong medieval program, but they also have a robust and still-growing digital scholarship unit. They're great folks who are willing to get behind you with your projects and methods, providing the media and infrastructures to do so. I've had nothing but wonderful experiences with them. There's the XML support, but also projects using social network analysis, mapping, digital approaches to discourse, and tons of funding for digital archives.

 

Not quite in Chicago, but a Greyhound away...?

 

I had forgotten them as they're in America's Hat. Yes, I would second UoT as a good option.

[Savannah-in-the-world]

Hey fellow Chicagoan!

 

I know Loyola Chicago has a MA in Digital Humanities. Reputation? Not sure, but if you want to stay in the area it may be worth looking into. 

[tingdeh]

I had forgotten them as they're in America's Hat. Yes, I would second UoT as a good option.

 

Indeed, and the Digital Humanities unit is the fancy feather in America's Hat!

[histrybuff]

http://m.hastac.org/groups/hastac-2015-conference

I highly recommend connecting with any of the coordinators/presenters invoked with HASTAC! I just got back from their annual conference, which was at Michigan State this year. MSU's Matrix, CUNY grad center's Future Initiatives are two recommendable DH centers for your consideration. Good luck!

[bhr]

http://m.hastac.org/groups/hastac-2015-conference

I highly recommend connecting with any of the coordinators/presenters invoked with HASTAC! I just got back from their annual conference, which was at Michigan State this year. MSU's Matrix, CUNY grad center's Future Initiatives are two recommendable DH centers for your consideration. Good luck!

I am attending as well, and would recommend looking at the list of presenters and HASTAC scholars to see who is doing work that seems to align with your own interests. CUNY, Maryland and MSU have dedicated DH centers, but there are strong DH faculty at places like UIUC as well. There is a great DH workshop at IUPUI next month (HILT) that you should look at.

[histrybuff]

Not to mention ILiADS at Hamilton this August! It'll be a great week of project-based DH learning.

http://iliads.org/