FAQ About Digital Humanities

What are the Digital Humanities?

The Digital Humanities is the use of information technology—particularly the Internet and New Media—to improve our understanding of the human experience. It can involve traditional methods such as the creation of larger and more useful bibliographies and the editing and annotation of scarce manuscripts and documents. But it can also utilize new approaches such as Geographic Information Systems to organize knowledge about places as they change through time (e.g., an interactive map showing Hope College in 1870, 1900, and 1950). Three-dimensional mapping software can enable scholars to re-create and walk through historic buildings and even cities (e.g., a virtual rendering of the “World’s Columbian Exposition” in Chicago in 1893). More importantly, the transformation of relatively inaccessible resources into a universally available archive of texts, images, audio, and video is the most important scholarly undertaking in the history of the humanities. Unlike many academic fields today, the Digital Humanities is well-funded by universities, corporations, and the federal government, and it needs contributors at every level of experience, from first-year undergraduates to senior faculty members.

How is it changing scholarship and teaching?

The Digital Humanities also represents a rapidly growing awareness that the foundational methods of teaching and learning can be radically enhanced and productively transformed by the ongoing emergence of new technologies. In particular, the open and collaborative quality of information gathering, data-mining, and analysis enabled by the Internet—perhaps most familiar as wikis and social networking sites—has challenged the notion of scholarship as a solitary activity; more significantly, it is changing our understanding of effective teaching from an activity led by one person in a narrow block of time to a collaborative, ongoing relationship between learners with different kinds of knowledge who are mutually seeking answers to complex questions without pre-defined answers. Following that approach, this course aims at the production and management of useful knowledge—at the service of a global conversation—rather than mere tasks designed to demonstrate mastery of specific skills.

What are the goals of the course?

To some extent, the outcomes are self-determined, but, beyond that, the course has five primary objectives:

1. To introduce the methods and critical vocabulary of the digital humanities, particularly as they apply to literary and cultural studies.
2. To cultivate traditional skills in writing and research while learning new approaches to constructing knowledge, such as digital archives, social networking sites, geographic information systems, as well as advanced work with PowerPoint, Podcasting, and Vodcasting.
3. To cultivate habits of teamwork and leadership.
4. To provide students with opportunities to collaborate with one or more faculty members to produce “Digital Learning Modules” for use in courses at Hope College and at the service of the larger community (e.g., teaching in the developing world).
5. To make students aware of the increasing number and variety of learning opportunities, funding sources, and post-graduate job opportunities in the field, and to prepare students to seek those opportunities by giving them practical experience.

Who should take this course?

The course welcomes students with varied career aspirations, including teaching (from elementary to college-level), public history, computer programming, professional writing, management consulting, corporate communications, missionary work, library science, journalism, broadcasting, filmmaking, public relations, and Web design. The course will assume no prior experience in the humanities or technology, but it particularly welcomes students with advanced skills who are interested in team-leadership experiences and work opportunities.

What, exactly, will I have to do?

Grading will be based primarily on contributions to team projects in addition to a few exams and short papers addressing objectives 1 and 2 (see above). Typical team projects will involve working with a faculty member to create “Digital Learning Modules”—a collection of online resources utilizing a combination of video podcasting, interactive maps, exercises, and group activities—in support of the development of hybrid and online versions of interdisciplinary courses with a focus on literature and culture. The duration and scope of such projects are variable and will need to be negotiated as the course develops, but your time commitment will be comparable to other two-credit courses that meet for half of the semester (the second half in this case).

What will classes be like?

Initially, the class will meet on Monday and Wednesday evenings for two hours in the beautiful archives of the Van Wylen Library. The first few weeks will involve some lecture and discussion of readings on the fundamentals of the Digital Humanities as well as introductions to various practical applications. After that, the schedule will become more flexible in order to provide access to technological resources and individual support for each team’s projects.

For more information, please contact the instructor at pannapacker@hope.edu.