Final Thoughts

Over the course of the summer I’ve become more aware of the collaborative and experimental aspects of visual novels and how they correlate with DH values. In the beginning I only thought about how visual novels applied to DH through the combination of technology and the humanities, but after learning more about both communities I’m able to recognize more similarities between the two. Learning more about the values of DH made me notice when they did or didn’t relate to the way video games treat those same concepts.

After the first reflection, my definition didn’t change so much as expand to incorporate the knowledge I gained over the course of the last few weeks. I would define DH as reformatting the humanities with digital tools, using technology to make information more accessible and presentable in a number of different ways. Building ongoing projects with people from all different realms of experience, sharing skills and working in a diverse online environment are all encompassed by DH. There are so many different kinds of interactive experiences that can be used to present research in a more effective way than simply a long paper, and I’m glad that I now know that. I hope to incorporate the qualities of DH into future projects to make them more interesting and reflective of the subject matter I’m discussing. This program has changed my perspective when it comes to sharing and presenting information in an academic setting and I will definitely continue using the skills I’ve developed in this short period of time while introducing as many people to DH as I can.

Community in DH

Going to Lafayette was a really valuable experience because we got to speak with other students who were doing research in a similar setting but used a variety of different tools and were working for different reasons. Bucknell’s visit was also a good opportunity to interact with students who were spending the summer surrounded by DH and learn from their experiences. Discussing other people’s projects has really helped expand my definition of DH and what it encompasses. Since the rest of the cohort came in with a similar level of ignorance when it came to DH and the tools we were going to use, I found that it was useful to learn and share our discoveries with each other when it came to building our projects. 

In addition to meeting students, the workshops and presentations with different faculty members and other people who have been doing their own research and projects for a long time was a good way to see how DH can apply to our future research beyond this program. While I did not use a lot of library resources in my project and mostly read online articles, the faculty within the DSSF program have been incredibly helpful and understanding. My meetings with John Dettinger have helped me a lot throughout the planning and execution of my project as I used WordPress for the first time and continuously tried to alter my site with CSS I had no past experience with.

I think I’ve had a lot of positive interactions within the DH community this summer and that it’s a very open and accepting place. Despite being very new to DH, I don’t feel discouraged at all when it comes to considering my own involvement and thinking of ways that I can continue to interact with others within the community. I hope to continue observing more DH projects and learning about the kinds of things I can do to contribute to my own area of interest, as well as sharing the concept of DH with people who may have never heard of it.

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