What In The Heck Is Digital Humanities

The peer review with my Digital Humanities class last week clarified a few things for me. First, I didn’t really know how a blog works. And second, I STILL don’t really know what digital humanities is. I wrote an introduction in my second post about digital humanities as an aspect of the scholarly world, but I now see that it exists outside of the classroom.

The general definition that describes digital humanities as an intersection between traditional humanities and computing is pretty broad. I’m interacting with a computer right now. What is digitally human about this? So, what is digital humanities and what does it look like? What has it done, and what do we want it to do?

A search into google images instantly brings up pictures of what an untrained eye would describe as a word jumble, but through my studies of digital humanities, I know that what I am looking at is text analysis. This understanding of text analysis and it’s importance quickly came to my mind. The truth is, I have spent hours reading textbooks and definitions of digital humanities, that amounted to little. The things that really stuck with me are the things I was able to practice and experience or see first hand, and the things that I can see directly relating to the world around us.

I will continue to discover and unearth the truth and the history behind digital humanities one interaction at a time until I am able to fully understand it and successfully utilize the many research tools that come with it. Hopefully, by the final reflection, I can reveal to you what I have unearthed.

Written on September 29, 2016 by Rachael Brooks