Pages

Thursday, September 15, 2016

Digital Humanities: What is this stuff?



Digital Humanities is a spectrum that combines the newer concept of technology with the older study of the humanities. While the combination of these terms may sound simple, it is a broad term that has, in more recent years, become it's own field of study. Technology has become a vital aspect of human life. Due to it's vitality, it has essentially entered the realm of human studies, writings, culture, and understanding.

The study of Digital Humanities is said to have started in the late 1940s with the work of Roberto Busa, and continues to be heavily studied and researched to this day. Digital Humanities, often abbreviated as DH, allows people to use the tools that technology has to offer to study the humanities. By combining the digital world with the humanities, works involving digital mapping, hypermedia, e-literature, and other forms of art that scholars are continuing to study and create.

This is MY definition of digital humanities. However, a true definition is something that DH scholars across the world have been attempting to discover since the '40s. It's as if you're looking through a magnifying glass, attempting to find key aspects of the field and shortly summarize the term, in a way that most definitions are produced. When you look into this metaphorical magnifying glass when attempting to define digital humanities, however, you feel like you are looking into a kaleidoscope- there's so much there, and it can be difficult to make sense of it. It is a field that will, in my opinion, continue to develop and change as technology continues to advance.

No comments:

Post a Comment