Category: Reflective Post 1

Exactly a week ago, I had my own ideas and stereotypes regarding the idea of Digital Humanities. It was somewhere in between my consciousness and subconsciousness. I was sure that I could uphold DH values, however, it was the moment that I did not have clearly established and defined to myself what those values actually were. The idea, which I loved even before reexploring DH independently and profoundly, was accessibility. I believe DH aims to reach out diverse and wide audience despite their expertise. At the same time, the language for the DH project should be inclusive and welcoming. Since last Monday my fenced box for DH definition has been expanding and I have been enjoying the interdisciplinary humanism of it and the collaborative and friendly spirits of people involved in DH.

Last week we had to brainstorm and define three concepts: digital, humanities, and then DH values. I realized that I had a hard time defining digital by itself because of the discourse of our fellowship. I also struggled to define humanities, because I don’t think it has a vivid border anymore. However, in terms of DH, my mind had the most freedom to get creative and excited. And I acknowledged this is the main reason why I want to be a part of the DH world because it advocates unlimited creativity and freedom within its values.

Then I read “This Is Why We Fight”: Defining the Values of the Digital Humanities“ by Lisa Spiro, who beautifully describes and evaluates the following DH values: Openness, Collaboration, Collegiality and Connectedness, Diversity, Experimentation. Her definition of each well-known concept started triggering excitement in my mind for perceiving the beautiful nature of DH. I especially enjoyed accenting the relationship part of this field. How much DH values healthy, supporting, and open relationships in order to achieve a goal. She introduces the idea of a non-hierarchical community where each contributor’s expertise is fully acknowledged and respected, but yet the community by itself is non-hierarchical with its nature. Another highlight for me was the importance of experimentation and even failure in the process of building something new in the DH world. I think curiosity toward a challenge is very often a wonderful pathway of creating something that is going to be innovative. And the failure of this challenge for the first attempt only shows the courage of the initiators to take something risky and trust their curiosity. As Lisa Spiro reinforces failure becomes a wonderful lesson for the DH community for the future successful final product.

Amanda Visconti in her talk Digital Humanities: What? Why? How goes more in-depth analyzing different questions around the DH. She emphasizes what she believes is DH, what it is not, how much creativity and originality is required in DH, whether people involved in DH automatically become scholars, and does even titles in DH matter. I really enjoyed how much she cherishes the interdisciplinary nature of DH. At the same time, the diversity of skills and professionalism is equally crucial for creating a DH product. She also emphasizes the significance of the desire to learn and I think this is the key attraction to her argument for me. I believe in our reality as we are all surrounded by unlimited information and opportunities the definition of professionalism for me becomes having the ethical capacity to ask questions and project the urgency of lifelong learning. In the DH community, one person can be an expert in their own professional field and a beginner in a tool or a field that can be taught by the other community member. And the beauty of the community is the eagerness to share each other’s expertise for creating something challenging and innovative but accessible to a wider audience.

I really enjoyed the blog essay Amanda Visconti included that describes the transparent border between service and scholarship. It opened up new thoughts and ideas to myself and I would encourage anyone, especially people like me who are stepping their first steps in DH to read this wonderful essay by Mark Sample.

It has been only a week since the fellowship has started and during the wonderful sessions with the amazing cohort of our library and guest speakers and all their provided materials have been expanding the definition of DH. What I have been enjoying the most is the role of humanism and interdisciplinarity in DH.

I am very excited and lucky to have this opportunity to keep pushing my ideas, opinions, abilities, stereotypes, boundaries, and definitions with our wonderful team.

Written by Ana Vashakmadze ’22, Student at the Sunderman Conservatory, Gettysburg College, part of the DSSF Summer ’21 wonderful Cohort.

Everybody nowadays is using the internet and resource on web for many purposes whether it is to do research, read daily news, connect with friends or attend online classes. Digital resources are very convenient, fast and accessible globally, making it a number one go-to place. Joining the Digital Humanity Scholarship Fellowship, I thought I know what a Digital Humanity is and what I should do to achieve the goal of a DH project, but little did I know that I had a misunderstanding of what DH is all along.

During the first week of the fellowship, I have a great experience discussing the aspect of digital humanity’s definition, elements and values, and explore different fascinating DH projects that was done in the past. Though there are some misunderstanding I have had of what a DH project should look like, being in such sessions have helped me figure out the purposes of my individual DH project and what I should do in order to get started. This first week is full of unique understanding and transformative thought, redirecting my misunderstanding to a rightful path of purposeful digital humanity project. It really is impacting my plan and experience for the whole summer.

With that in mind, my project is going to embrace the value of DH: openness, collaborative, connectedness, diversity and experimentation. In the community of digital scholarship summer fellowship 2021, I am planning on utilizing all the available resource on campus, working with others in the team and library partners, trying out new digital tools and experimenting new perspective of the project. In addition, focusing on the experience of Cambodian immigrants in the US during 1970s, this project requires a global understanding of cultural and historical diversity of the two communities, in which I am going to incorporate into my project. Once built, my DH project is going to be made accessible for people who have interest in the topic, and someone who might need it as a resource for their paper or future project under educational purposes.

To make the most out of the summer, I plan to not only deliver a fully built individual DH project, but also do my best to help the DSSF cohort live and work best together. By being an open communicator, a supporter and an optimist, I will do my best to become someone who is reliable for the others, responsible for her own work, and embrace these learning process through the whole summer. One of the most important expectations is to be physically and mentally healthy, which mean that I should know my limit, take breaks when needed, and especially eat and sleep well. It might be a typical expectation, but it can be hard to adapt, especially when lacking awareness; however, staying on track and being on the top of everything is what I am planning to do this summer. There are more exciting things to learn, and I am looking forward to embracing those experiences.

What Does Digital Humanities Mean to Me?

When one thinks of the “humanities,” it typically conjures up thoughts of academic disciplines like English, History, and Philosophy. Oftentimes, those same thoughts are associated with books, libraries, and essays or papers on all sorts of topics. Even though I have grown up in an increasingly digital age, my own understanding of the humanities is tied to those same broad notions of the humanities as separate from the digital realm. Admittedly, I have found relief in learning primarily through reading books, rather than having to learn how to code or other technical skills required in different fields of study. What I have learned from brief run-ins with technology during my academic journey is how useful it can be to research or to accessibly store resources. Perhaps that is where I first discovered the world of digital humanities, and how I realized its applicability for promoting the humanities.

As Amanda Visconti writes in A Digital Humanities What, Why, & How (DLF eResearch Network Talk), the term “digital humanities” is overly defined. Visconti provides this image to define digital humanities generally:

To Visconti, digital humanities is as much about applying digital tools to research, teaching, and learning about the humanities as it is to applying humanities practices to the digital realm. So where does this leave those of us who barely understand the digital world as it is?

There is beauty and simplicity to be found in learning straight out of a book, or by taking notes from a professor’s lecture. To many different generations of people, technology is a foreign world that is difficult to navigate. But to others, it represents the promise of change and the evolution of human progress. But where can the middle ground be found? Digital humanities is one such bridge. It combines research from a wealth of topics that would most likely be confined to papers and essays that few would read outside of academic circles, with the accessibility and speed of the internet. I have become so comfortable with the minutia of the humanities; how to engage in historiography and use proper citation. To become equipped to succeed in this broad academic field of study, I had to learn the “language” of the humanities. For that very same reason, I first approached the digital world with apprehension. Digital humanities has another academic language, one that is defined by the collaboration between two different worlds which together form an extremely useful tool.

There are five main values of digital humanities, which are described in detail in Lisa Spiro’s book chapter “This is Why We Fight: Defining the Values of the Digital Humanities.” These five values are: Openness, Collaboration, Collegiality/Connectedness, Diversity, and Experimentation. Understanding these values is key towards utilizing digital humanities to its fullest extent possible. While each value may mean something different to every person, the pursuit of them in digital humanities makes our work more comprehensive. What I have learned so far about digital humanities is that it is ever-evolving, and as much about the end product as it is the process.

Written by B. Johnson, Student at Gettysburg College and part of the DSSF Cohort for the Summer of 2021.

Hi there! My name is Carlee Mayo and I am one of the Digital Scholarship Summer Fellows for summer 2021. I am a rising senior at Gettysburg College with a double-major in English literature and Cinema/Media Studies. For our six-student cohort, this blog will be our opportunity to touch base about our progress and development throughout the summer.

So, the first prompt: what does DH mean to me? Prior to this fellowship – I’m almost embarrassed to admit – I had only heard of “digital humanities” in passing, and could barely define it in the vaguest of terms. It has hardly been on my radar, even though I am a humanities student.

As I have learned throughout my first week, the general definition of digital humanities is taking work and research already done in the humanities field, and then presenting it to your audience in digital ways. These digital resources can vary from websites and software to virtual maps, timelines, audio and video, and graphs/charts.

Personally, it goes much deeper than all that. To me, digital humanities provides an incomprehensible opportunity to share my passions with the world.

As an English major, trust me, I’ve written my fair share of papers; I would even venture to say that I enjoy writing papers. However, DH gives me the power beyond merely writing a paper because of how accessible and versatile it can be. The average person finds reading a paper or essay tedious or dull – but DH changes all that. Digital Humanities can reach a larger audience, appeal to a greater group of people, and provide a more interesting and interactive method for learning and teaching.

Another aspect of digital humanities that I love is the commitment to collaboration. Although it is a cliché, I have always agreed that “two heads are better than one.” DH allows for collaboration between people, scholars, data, and research from around the world. Is there anything better than the open flow of information for a greater increase of knowledge and understanding?

Clearly, I’m exhilarated to be a part of DSSF this summer. Each and every day brings something new and exciting to learn, explore, and experiment with, and my understanding of Digital Humanities is shifting with each week. I can’t wait to see what the rest of the summer has in store!

Cheers,
Carlee Mayo

Since committing to this project for the summer, I knew I would be immersing myself in the world of the digital humanities, but I had little clue what that would actually mean. On the surface, the digital humanities appeared pretty straight forward to me; the combination of humanities based works and technology. This means that the subject matter could be based in subjective works (the arts, culture, history, etc.) but the resources or hosts for this research could be on digital platforms like websites or computer files. As a student who frequently studies subjects in the field of humanities, I was initially nervous to look into the digital humanities since I had a somewhat low knowledge of technology.

On the first day, there was a mix of excitement and nervousness because I was eager to learn new things but also anxious to hear about the new resources I would be using. By the time we got to discussing deliverables and timelines, there was a lot to consider in terms of what I would need and by when I would need it. When using the digital humanities, I had to consider what milestones my research would need to reach but also determine the right point to get started on my digital resources (like a timeline or web platform). While the unknown was anxiety inducing (as it often times is), I consistently reminded myself that I will eventually learn to use what I need.

As the week progressed, I found myself being able to identify pieces of the digital humanities in my everyday life. The most obvious examples of this came from our workshop sessions. Working with the school’s special collections meant that we had access to pieces of history. As part of this fellowship, we are looking at the collection from Albert Chance during World War II. While serving overseas, he actively kept a journal, wrote letters, and took pictures. It was fascinating to begin looking at the materials he kept during his time in the war. Since Special Collections has begun to digitize the collection, we learned that the pieces of this collection were considered to be “data” and therefore the information behind the pieces (e.g.: the date the photo was taken or the writer of the letter) was considered “metadata”. While we were logging the metadata of these pieces into an exhibit software, I thought it was interesting that we were adapting this personal account into a technological field. In one way it felt like my first true experience practicing with the digital humanities, and in another way I felt like some futuristic museum worker, like if Indiana Jones was a time traveller.

(I couldn't get the rights to an Indiana Jones picture so just imagine that there is one right here. If you want to take a look at Indiana Jones, check this out here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_Jones_(character))

Speaking of copyright, I was shocked to learn that there were also legal factors to consider in this work. Copyright is a significant aspect in the world of the digital humanities, but in a way is also a perfect example of it in action. When thinking about the digital humanities, my main impression of the topic means humanities based topics displayed on a digital platform. In the context of copyright, the law as a means of study is considered the humanities, and therefore copyright issues fall under the topic of humanities. When we think about copyright, it has been discussed that the use of the internet has significantly impacted how copyright works as opposed to an analogue setting. Now with the internet, it is much easier to copy and share these works without seeking the owner’s permission. While these shared works could still get taken down, they can be appealed under the fair use argument or licensed to be used. In either of these cases, proper copyright use can be dicey, as there is plenty of subjective judgement on the user’s part. This is a human issue, and therefore a humanities issue, and since it is on a digital platform, it is a perfect example of the digital humanities.

Ultimately, the digital humanities were not something that I have considered in my day to day life, but now I am able to notice it in my everyday actions, like when I look at images on blog posts or Youtube videos. I look forward to seeing how using it will help me on my journey with DSSF.