The big question for week one was: What is digital humanities? The group read and discussed many definitions of “digital scholarship” or “digital humanities” and discovered that the term digital humanities does not really have an exact definition. Digital Scholarship can be both individual and collaborative, traditional and creative. Everyone has their own definition for what digital scholarship is and how to go about producing digital scholarship. If you wanted a simple and unimaginative definition, you could take a textbook approach and say that digital humanities “is an area of research and teaching at the intersection of computing and the disciplines of the humanities”(Yes, that is directly from Wikipedia). Alternatively, you could be creative in your definition and make it philosophical or just plain funny like some of the definitions on http://whatisdigitalhumanities.com/.
My own boring definition of digital humanities would be “the interdisciplinary approach to presenting the humanities by using digital tools,” but I also think that the definition of digital humanities depends on your own project and what you want it to achieve. It is extremely hard to define digital humanities because we cannot define its boundaries yet. Digital humanities is so interdisciplinary. It compasses a wide range of ideas, resources, and talents.
One value or definition that was tossed around in our discussions and readings that I thought was a good definition to play with was that digital humanities is collaborative. Whether you are working individually or in a group, there is always going to be some sort of collaboration–either between people, or the collaboration of digital and non-digital tools. I also agreed with the idea that the digital humanities are open. There is a level of openness between digital scholars and the public. This openness directly correlates with collaboration–you need to be open to collaborate. Another value that was expressed was the idea of sharing. You have often heard the phrase “sharing is caring”, in the case of digital humanities I believe that sharing gets things done and accomplished. I would like to see all three of these values embodied in my own practice of digital scholarship. I believe that our group has been embodying these values since day one and will continue to collaborate, share, and be open. Although we are all working on different projects, we share our thoughts regarding our projects and digital scholarship with one another, are open to suggestions and help, and collaborate with one another, constantly asking for or giving advice.
At the end of this ten week fellowship, I will look back on this blog post. I will have some sentimental reasons for looking at this blog post, especially seeing how far we have come as a group or reflecting on the fact that I could still consider myself a First Year at Gettysburg College when I wrote this post. But, I will also look back to see if there was any growth. Have my perceptions of digital humanities changed? If so, why? Why have they not changed? What have I learned throughout the course of this fellowship? Do I have a new definition for digital humanities? _______________________________. The line will remain blank until I answer my self-assigned questions when it is week ten.
