Bryan Alexander and Rebecca Frostdavis
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816677948
- eISBN:
- 9781452948379
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816677948.003.0037
- Subject:
- Education, Philosophy and Theory of Education
This chapter examines the liberal arts sector, small colleges, and universities focused on traditional-age undergraduate education, ones that have apparently played little role in the digital ...
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This chapter examines the liberal arts sector, small colleges, and universities focused on traditional-age undergraduate education, ones that have apparently played little role in the digital humanities movement. It considers the sector’s relative silence, as it identifies a series of reasonable objections to the engagement of liberal arts colleges in the digital humanities. It summarizes these objections and then identifies responses. This call-and-response framing is used in order to take criticism seriously, while fully delineating the liberal arts sector’s achievements. The mismatch between critique and liberal arts practice uncovered by this framing is revealing. Ultimately, those achievements have come to constitute a different mode for the digital humanities, a separate path worth identifying, understanding, and encouraging, one based on emphasizing a distributed, socially engaged process over a focus on publicly shared products.Less
This chapter examines the liberal arts sector, small colleges, and universities focused on traditional-age undergraduate education, ones that have apparently played little role in the digital humanities movement. It considers the sector’s relative silence, as it identifies a series of reasonable objections to the engagement of liberal arts colleges in the digital humanities. It summarizes these objections and then identifies responses. This call-and-response framing is used in order to take criticism seriously, while fully delineating the liberal arts sector’s achievements. The mismatch between critique and liberal arts practice uncovered by this framing is revealing. Ultimately, those achievements have come to constitute a different mode for the digital humanities, a separate path worth identifying, understanding, and encouraging, one based on emphasizing a distributed, socially engaged process over a focus on publicly shared products.
Caroline T. Schroeder
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780823287024
- eISBN:
- 9780823288908
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823287024.003.0016
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter simultaneously traces the history of early Coptic and Syriac public digital humanities projects and reassesses the history of what is usually considered the “founding moment” in digital ...
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This chapter simultaneously traces the history of early Coptic and Syriac public digital humanities projects and reassesses the history of what is usually considered the “founding moment” in digital humanities, Roberto Busa’s computational work on Thomas Aquinas. It argues that each of these endeavors should be considered comparable acts of cultural heritage preservation focused on computational or digital examinations of a community’s canonical cultural heritage. The primary differences between Busa’s work and early Coptic and Syriac computational research are not methodology but issues of canon and resources.Less
This chapter simultaneously traces the history of early Coptic and Syriac public digital humanities projects and reassesses the history of what is usually considered the “founding moment” in digital humanities, Roberto Busa’s computational work on Thomas Aquinas. It argues that each of these endeavors should be considered comparable acts of cultural heritage preservation focused on computational or digital examinations of a community’s canonical cultural heritage. The primary differences between Busa’s work and early Coptic and Syriac computational research are not methodology but issues of canon and resources.
Gary Hall
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780262034401
- eISBN:
- 9780262332217
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262034401.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
Chapter 2 considers the extent digital humanities offer us one productive way to think about new ways of being theorists. It examines the “computational turn”, whereby techniques and methodologies ...
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Chapter 2 considers the extent digital humanities offer us one productive way to think about new ways of being theorists. It examines the “computational turn”, whereby techniques and methodologies drawn from computer science are being increasingly used to produce new ways of understanding texts in the humanities. Will the use of digital tools and data-led methods to help us analyze the networked nature of knowledge in post-industrial society produce a major change in theory and the humanities? Chapter 2 addresses this question by means of an analysis that moves from Jean-François Lyotard’s account of how science is augmenting the power of states and corporations, through the relation between the digital humanities and twentieth-century critical theory, to Lev Manovich and the Software Studies Initiative’s work on Cultural Analytics.The overarching question raised by this chapter is: Should we be looking to develop still newer forms of theory and the humanities in the twenty-first century, characterized by an ability to combine the methodological and the theoretical, the quantitative and the qualitative, digital and the traditional humanities? Or do we need “something else besides”: a theory that we might begin to think of as being not just post-digital but post-humanities too?Less
Chapter 2 considers the extent digital humanities offer us one productive way to think about new ways of being theorists. It examines the “computational turn”, whereby techniques and methodologies drawn from computer science are being increasingly used to produce new ways of understanding texts in the humanities. Will the use of digital tools and data-led methods to help us analyze the networked nature of knowledge in post-industrial society produce a major change in theory and the humanities? Chapter 2 addresses this question by means of an analysis that moves from Jean-François Lyotard’s account of how science is augmenting the power of states and corporations, through the relation between the digital humanities and twentieth-century critical theory, to Lev Manovich and the Software Studies Initiative’s work on Cultural Analytics.The overarching question raised by this chapter is: Should we be looking to develop still newer forms of theory and the humanities in the twenty-first century, characterized by an ability to combine the methodological and the theoretical, the quantitative and the qualitative, digital and the traditional humanities? Or do we need “something else besides”: a theory that we might begin to think of as being not just post-digital but post-humanities too?
Lisa Spiro
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816677948
- eISBN:
- 9781452948379
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816677948.003.0003
- Subject:
- Education, Philosophy and Theory of Education
This chapter argues that the digital humanities community must develop a flexible statement of values that it can use to communicate its identity to itself and the general public, guide its ...
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This chapter argues that the digital humanities community must develop a flexible statement of values that it can use to communicate its identity to itself and the general public, guide its priorities, and perhaps heal its divisions. Rather than debating who is in and who is out, the digital humanities community needs to develop a keener sense of what it stands for and what is at stake in its work. Taking an initial step toward this goal, the chapter discusses the rationale for creating a core values statement by drawing on the literature about professional codes; suggests a process for engaging the community in developing a values statement; explores models for and influences on digital humanities values; and analyzes the digital humanities literature to put forward potential values.Less
This chapter argues that the digital humanities community must develop a flexible statement of values that it can use to communicate its identity to itself and the general public, guide its priorities, and perhaps heal its divisions. Rather than debating who is in and who is out, the digital humanities community needs to develop a keener sense of what it stands for and what is at stake in its work. Taking an initial step toward this goal, the chapter discusses the rationale for creating a core values statement by drawing on the literature about professional codes; suggests a process for engaging the community in developing a values statement; explores models for and influences on digital humanities values; and analyzes the digital humanities literature to put forward potential values.
Celeste Tường Vy Sharpe and Timothy B. Powell
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780252042232
- eISBN:
- 9780252050978
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252042232.003.0011
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Celeste Tường Vy Sharpe and Timothy B. Powell describe how they use the design of digital platforms as teachable problems to engage students in a digital humanities course about the stories of ...
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Celeste Tường Vy Sharpe and Timothy B. Powell describe how they use the design of digital platforms as teachable problems to engage students in a digital humanities course about the stories of Indigenous peoples and the Eurocentric “control over time.” Sharpe and Powell task students with creating a digital project that explores a more culturally specific and nuanced model of Iroquois or Haudenosaunee temporality. In the process, students and teachers alike imagine solutions that may enable digital humanities tools to more accurately represent how Indigenous peoples tell their histories.Less
Celeste Tường Vy Sharpe and Timothy B. Powell describe how they use the design of digital platforms as teachable problems to engage students in a digital humanities course about the stories of Indigenous peoples and the Eurocentric “control over time.” Sharpe and Powell task students with creating a digital project that explores a more culturally specific and nuanced model of Iroquois or Haudenosaunee temporality. In the process, students and teachers alike imagine solutions that may enable digital humanities tools to more accurately represent how Indigenous peoples tell their histories.
Patrik Svensson
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816677948
- eISBN:
- 9781452948379
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816677948.003.0004
- Subject:
- Education, Philosophy and Theory of Education
This chapter explores the contemporary landscape of digital humanities starting from the discourse of “big tent” digital humanities. What is it exactly that needs to be incorporated into the tent ...
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This chapter explores the contemporary landscape of digital humanities starting from the discourse of “big tent” digital humanities. What is it exactly that needs to be incorporated into the tent that was not there before? Does a larger tent come with expanded responsibilities? Why do we need a tent or a bounding mechanism in the first place? Is there place for private as well as public institutions of higher education in the tent? Is a very inclusive notion of digital humanities problematic? The chapter ends by suggesting that the community may benefit from a “no tent” approach to the digital humanities and that “trading zone” or “meeting place” may be useful, alternative structuring devices and ideational notions.Less
This chapter explores the contemporary landscape of digital humanities starting from the discourse of “big tent” digital humanities. What is it exactly that needs to be incorporated into the tent that was not there before? Does a larger tent come with expanded responsibilities? Why do we need a tent or a bounding mechanism in the first place? Is there place for private as well as public institutions of higher education in the tent? Is a very inclusive notion of digital humanities problematic? The chapter ends by suggesting that the community may benefit from a “no tent” approach to the digital humanities and that “trading zone” or “meeting place” may be useful, alternative structuring devices and ideational notions.
Alexander Reid
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816677948
- eISBN:
- 9781452948379
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816677948.003.0036
- Subject:
- Education, Philosophy and Theory of Education
One of the many challenges and opportunities emerging from the rapid expansion of, and growing interest in, the digital humanities is the question of how to prepare graduate students for academic ...
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One of the many challenges and opportunities emerging from the rapid expansion of, and growing interest in, the digital humanities is the question of how to prepare graduate students for academic careers in the humanities. This chapter argues that the reformation of graduate education in the face of digital humanities is not a matter of using blogs or wikis or creating Twitter or YouTube accounts. Neither is it not about learning to use specific technologies or programming languages. Rather, it is about all these things and a hundred others yet to come. Fundamentally the challenge lies in recognizing our humanities disciplines as they have been shaped by twentieth-century technologies and realizing that they must be shaped anew. In doing so, we need to examine the ways in which our ethics have developed in the context of past technological networks so that we may engage directly in establishing new ethical practices that meet the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities that digital media present us.Less
One of the many challenges and opportunities emerging from the rapid expansion of, and growing interest in, the digital humanities is the question of how to prepare graduate students for academic careers in the humanities. This chapter argues that the reformation of graduate education in the face of digital humanities is not a matter of using blogs or wikis or creating Twitter or YouTube accounts. Neither is it not about learning to use specific technologies or programming languages. Rather, it is about all these things and a hundred others yet to come. Fundamentally the challenge lies in recognizing our humanities disciplines as they have been shaped by twentieth-century technologies and realizing that they must be shaped anew. In doing so, we need to examine the ways in which our ethics have developed in the context of past technological networks so that we may engage directly in establishing new ethical practices that meet the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities that digital media present us.
Alan Liu
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816677948
- eISBN:
- 9781452948379
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816677948.003.0049
- Subject:
- Education, Philosophy and Theory of Education
This chapter discusses how the digital humanities have been oblivious to cultural criticism and how the lack of engagement cultural criticism prevents the digital humanities from becoming a full ...
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This chapter discusses how the digital humanities have been oblivious to cultural criticism and how the lack of engagement cultural criticism prevents the digital humanities from becoming a full partner of the humanities. It argues that the appropriate, unique contribution that the digital humanities can make to cultural criticism at the present time is to use the tools, paradigms, and concepts of digital technologies to help rethink the idea of instrumentality. The goal is to think “critically about metadata” (and everything else related to digital technologies) in a way that “scales into thinking critically about the power, finance, and other governance protocols of the world.” Phrased even more expansively, the goal is to rethink instrumentality so that it includes both humanistic and STEM fields in a culturally broad, and not just narrowly purposive, ideal of service.Less
This chapter discusses how the digital humanities have been oblivious to cultural criticism and how the lack of engagement cultural criticism prevents the digital humanities from becoming a full partner of the humanities. It argues that the appropriate, unique contribution that the digital humanities can make to cultural criticism at the present time is to use the tools, paradigms, and concepts of digital technologies to help rethink the idea of instrumentality. The goal is to think “critically about metadata” (and everything else related to digital technologies) in a way that “scales into thinking critically about the power, finance, and other governance protocols of the world.” Phrased even more expansively, the goal is to rethink instrumentality so that it includes both humanistic and STEM fields in a culturally broad, and not just narrowly purposive, ideal of service.
Matthew K. Gold (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816677948
- eISBN:
- 9781452948379
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816677948.001.0001
- Subject:
- Education, Philosophy and Theory of Education
Encompassing new technologies, research methods, and opportunities for collaborative scholarship and open-source peer review, as well as innovative ways of sharing knowledge and teaching, the digital ...
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Encompassing new technologies, research methods, and opportunities for collaborative scholarship and open-source peer review, as well as innovative ways of sharing knowledge and teaching, the digital humanities promises to transform the liberal arts—and perhaps the university itself. Indeed, at a time when many academic institutions are facing austerity budgets, digital humanities programs have been able to hire new faculty, establish new centers and initiatives, and attract multimillion-dollar grants. Clearly the digital humanities has reached a significant moment in its brief history. But what sort of moment is it? This book explores its theories, methods, and practices and to clarify its multiple possibilities and tensions. From defining what a digital humanist is and determining whether the field has (or needs) theoretical grounding, to discussions of coding as scholarship and trends in data-driven research, this cutting-edge volume delineates the current state of the digital humanities and envisions potential futures and challenges. At the same time, several essays aim pointed critiques at the field for its lack of attention to race, gender, class, and sexuality; the inadequate level of diversity among its practitioners; its absence of political commitment; and its preference for research over teaching.Less
Encompassing new technologies, research methods, and opportunities for collaborative scholarship and open-source peer review, as well as innovative ways of sharing knowledge and teaching, the digital humanities promises to transform the liberal arts—and perhaps the university itself. Indeed, at a time when many academic institutions are facing austerity budgets, digital humanities programs have been able to hire new faculty, establish new centers and initiatives, and attract multimillion-dollar grants. Clearly the digital humanities has reached a significant moment in its brief history. But what sort of moment is it? This book explores its theories, methods, and practices and to clarify its multiple possibilities and tensions. From defining what a digital humanist is and determining whether the field has (or needs) theoretical grounding, to discussions of coding as scholarship and trends in data-driven research, this cutting-edge volume delineates the current state of the digital humanities and envisions potential futures and challenges. At the same time, several essays aim pointed critiques at the field for its lack of attention to race, gender, class, and sexuality; the inadequate level of diversity among its practitioners; its absence of political commitment; and its preference for research over teaching.
Julianne Nyhan
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780262034654
- eISBN:
- 9780262336871
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262034654.003.0014
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Technology and Society
Humanist is an online, international seminar on digital humanities that was set up in 1987 by Willard McCarty. Since its inception, it has taken the form of an electronic mailing list and, within the ...
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Humanist is an online, international seminar on digital humanities that was set up in 1987 by Willard McCarty. Since its inception, it has taken the form of an electronic mailing list and, within the context of the history of computing in the humanities, can be viewed as a proto-social media platform. Newer and slicker social media and crowd-driven platforms may have come (and, in some cases, gone) but Humanist has endured. Indeed, it arguably remains digital humanities’ most vital locus of questioning, imagining and reflecting on and about itself and its many interdisciplinary intersections. In this paper, the author discusses conversations conducted via Humanist in its inaugural year in order to identify and analyze references to disciplinary identity. After focusing on the contradictions that emerge, she reflects on what they might reveal about longer-term dynamics of Digital Humanities’ disciplinary formation and emphasizes the value of Humanist archives in such research.Less
Humanist is an online, international seminar on digital humanities that was set up in 1987 by Willard McCarty. Since its inception, it has taken the form of an electronic mailing list and, within the context of the history of computing in the humanities, can be viewed as a proto-social media platform. Newer and slicker social media and crowd-driven platforms may have come (and, in some cases, gone) but Humanist has endured. Indeed, it arguably remains digital humanities’ most vital locus of questioning, imagining and reflecting on and about itself and its many interdisciplinary intersections. In this paper, the author discusses conversations conducted via Humanist in its inaugural year in order to identify and analyze references to disciplinary identity. After focusing on the contradictions that emerge, she reflects on what they might reveal about longer-term dynamics of Digital Humanities’ disciplinary formation and emphasizes the value of Humanist archives in such research.
Luke Waltzer
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816677948
- eISBN:
- 9781452948379
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816677948.003.0035
- Subject:
- Education, Philosophy and Theory of Education
The humanities in American public higher education have suffered recurrent crises over the past three decades, brought on by budget constraints. These include increased class sizes, elimination of ...
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The humanities in American public higher education have suffered recurrent crises over the past three decades, brought on by budget constraints. These include increased class sizes, elimination of departments and programs, and abandonment of searches for open faculty positions. In contrast, the subfield of digital humanities appears to be on the rise, as evidenced by the increasing number of job openings, intensifying discourse, and the creation of an Office of the Digital Humanities (ODH) at the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) in 2008. This chapter considers the tensions that arise when the upward trajectory of the digital humanities meets the tenuous place of the humanities in American higher education. It argues that although it should not be up to the digital humanities or any one field to “fix” the problems in American higher education, the digital humanities can—and, indeed, is uniquely positioned to—invigorate arguments about why the humanities matters, how it relates to our progress as a society, and why universities must protect and promote it vigorously in the face of increased pressure to quantify its relevance.Less
The humanities in American public higher education have suffered recurrent crises over the past three decades, brought on by budget constraints. These include increased class sizes, elimination of departments and programs, and abandonment of searches for open faculty positions. In contrast, the subfield of digital humanities appears to be on the rise, as evidenced by the increasing number of job openings, intensifying discourse, and the creation of an Office of the Digital Humanities (ODH) at the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) in 2008. This chapter considers the tensions that arise when the upward trajectory of the digital humanities meets the tenuous place of the humanities in American higher education. It argues that although it should not be up to the digital humanities or any one field to “fix” the problems in American higher education, the digital humanities can—and, indeed, is uniquely positioned to—invigorate arguments about why the humanities matters, how it relates to our progress as a society, and why universities must protect and promote it vigorously in the face of increased pressure to quantify its relevance.
Dave Parry
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816677948
- eISBN:
- 9781452948379
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816677948.003.0044
- Subject:
- Education, Philosophy and Theory of Education
This chapter examines various conceptions of what digital humanities is. It then suggests that the digital humanities can be defined as an understanding of new modes of scholarship, as a change not ...
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This chapter examines various conceptions of what digital humanities is. It then suggests that the digital humanities can be defined as an understanding of new modes of scholarship, as a change not only in tools and objects but in scholarship itself. There is no studying of the humanities separate from the digital. To study the humanities (or any kind of socially relevant, engaged-in-the-present object of inquiry) necessitates a realization that the world is now digital. There is no humanism separate from the digital. This is not about the means of study (computers to process text), nor is it about the object of the study (digital media)—although both are implicated. Rather, it is about how the idea of studying itself is altered by the existence of the digital.Less
This chapter examines various conceptions of what digital humanities is. It then suggests that the digital humanities can be defined as an understanding of new modes of scholarship, as a change not only in tools and objects but in scholarship itself. There is no studying of the humanities separate from the digital. To study the humanities (or any kind of socially relevant, engaged-in-the-present object of inquiry) necessitates a realization that the world is now digital. There is no humanism separate from the digital. This is not about the means of study (computers to process text), nor is it about the object of the study (digital media)—although both are implicated. Rather, it is about how the idea of studying itself is altered by the existence of the digital.
Ashley Reed
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780252042232
- eISBN:
- 9780252050978
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252042232.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Ashley Reed describes her work with students to create an annotated online edition of a nineteenth-century scrapbook by Prudence Person, a member of a prominent North Carolina family. She outlines ...
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Ashley Reed describes her work with students to create an annotated online edition of a nineteenth-century scrapbook by Prudence Person, a member of a prominent North Carolina family. She outlines the lessons she learned as the project progressed from its first phase in a classroom of nineteen students to an independent study with only two. When the smaller group integrated more field-specific knowledge, the students and the project thrived: they visited historic sites, presented at undergraduate research forums, and took ownership of the content. Reed addresses the difficulties and benefits of launching a context-rich DH project in a general education classroom, and she imagines its future iteration as the centerpiece of an intensive upper-level course on nineteenth-century print culture.Less
Ashley Reed describes her work with students to create an annotated online edition of a nineteenth-century scrapbook by Prudence Person, a member of a prominent North Carolina family. She outlines the lessons she learned as the project progressed from its first phase in a classroom of nineteen students to an independent study with only two. When the smaller group integrated more field-specific knowledge, the students and the project thrived: they visited historic sites, presented at undergraduate research forums, and took ownership of the content. Reed addresses the difficulties and benefits of launching a context-rich DH project in a general education classroom, and she imagines its future iteration as the centerpiece of an intensive upper-level course on nineteenth-century print culture.
Matthew Handelman
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780823283835
- eISBN:
- 9780823286270
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823283835.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Logic/Philosophy of Mathematics
This book’s conclusion explores the persistence of intellectual anxieties related to mathematics in current debates over computational and quantitative approaches to humanistic inquiry known as the ...
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This book’s conclusion explores the persistence of intellectual anxieties related to mathematics in current debates over computational and quantitative approaches to humanistic inquiry known as the digital humanities. The digital humanities offer broader access to cultural and aesthetic products and new insights into their composition, circulation, and interrelations. And yet those skeptical of the digital humanities—akin to Horkheimer and Adorno’s criticism of the Logical Positivists—accuse digital humanists of uncritically yielding to business and science, objecting that reorienting the humanities around technology and code forfeits politics and language, history and critique. Negative mathematics offers a third way for the humanities to move between naïve positivism and critical rejectionism. Drawing on Scholem, Rosenzweig, and Kracauer, this third way finds in mathematical-computational approaches to negativity new ways to retain the silences of marginalized ideas and erasures of minoritarian experiences in historical and aesthetic thought.Less
This book’s conclusion explores the persistence of intellectual anxieties related to mathematics in current debates over computational and quantitative approaches to humanistic inquiry known as the digital humanities. The digital humanities offer broader access to cultural and aesthetic products and new insights into their composition, circulation, and interrelations. And yet those skeptical of the digital humanities—akin to Horkheimer and Adorno’s criticism of the Logical Positivists—accuse digital humanists of uncritically yielding to business and science, objecting that reorienting the humanities around technology and code forfeits politics and language, history and critique. Negative mathematics offers a third way for the humanities to move between naïve positivism and critical rejectionism. Drawing on Scholem, Rosenzweig, and Kracauer, this third way finds in mathematical-computational approaches to negativity new ways to retain the silences of marginalized ideas and erasures of minoritarian experiences in historical and aesthetic thought.
Ryan Cordell, Benjamin J. Doyle, and Elizabeth Hopwood
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780252042232
- eISBN:
- 9780252050978
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252042232.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Ryan Cordell, Benjamin Doyle, and Elizabeth Hopwood’s essay seizes a nineteenth-century invention, the kaleidoscope, as a model and metaphor for pedagogical practices and learning spaces that ...
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Ryan Cordell, Benjamin Doyle, and Elizabeth Hopwood’s essay seizes a nineteenth-century invention, the kaleidoscope, as a model and metaphor for pedagogical practices and learning spaces that encourage play and experimentation. Through examples that involve setting letterpress type, the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) encoding of nineteenth-century texts as an interpretive process, and the collaborative creation of Wikipedia pages, the authors describe how experiments with contemporary technologies help students claim scholarly agency over the texts and tools central to their study of the nineteenth century. Kaleidoscopic pedagogy encourages students to discover how C19 competencies like close reading and contemporary methods of coding and data analysis have the potential to be mutually constitutive, inspiring a more nuanced understanding of both periods.Less
Ryan Cordell, Benjamin Doyle, and Elizabeth Hopwood’s essay seizes a nineteenth-century invention, the kaleidoscope, as a model and metaphor for pedagogical practices and learning spaces that encourage play and experimentation. Through examples that involve setting letterpress type, the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) encoding of nineteenth-century texts as an interpretive process, and the collaborative creation of Wikipedia pages, the authors describe how experiments with contemporary technologies help students claim scholarly agency over the texts and tools central to their study of the nineteenth century. Kaleidoscopic pedagogy encourages students to discover how C19 competencies like close reading and contemporary methods of coding and data analysis have the potential to be mutually constitutive, inspiring a more nuanced understanding of both periods.
Ken Cooper and Elizabeth Argentieri (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780252042232
- eISBN:
- 9780252050978
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252042232.003.0012
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Ken Cooper and Elizabeth Argentieri discuss their collaborative project about the Genesee region of Western New York, Open Valley, which invites students not just to think and act locally, but, less ...
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Ken Cooper and Elizabeth Argentieri discuss their collaborative project about the Genesee region of Western New York, Open Valley, which invites students not just to think and act locally, but, less obviously, to gather in one location otherwise unconnected types of knowledge: literary, economic, ecological, and historical. Engaging students in archival projects that stretch the possibilities of the academic term, OpenValley invites them to connect with institutions beyond the college campus by collaboratively analyzing commercial documents, building a digital map of nineteenth-century food infrastructure, and editing as-yet unpublished diaries from a local farming family. Combining in real life (IRL) experiences for students in the form of community-engaged service learning with digital humanities pedagogy, students bring local materials to new and wider audiences.Less
Ken Cooper and Elizabeth Argentieri discuss their collaborative project about the Genesee region of Western New York, Open Valley, which invites students not just to think and act locally, but, less obviously, to gather in one location otherwise unconnected types of knowledge: literary, economic, ecological, and historical. Engaging students in archival projects that stretch the possibilities of the academic term, OpenValley invites them to connect with institutions beyond the college campus by collaboratively analyzing commercial documents, building a digital map of nineteenth-century food infrastructure, and editing as-yet unpublished diaries from a local farming family. Combining in real life (IRL) experiences for students in the form of community-engaged service learning with digital humanities pedagogy, students bring local materials to new and wider audiences.
Kathleen Fitzpatrick
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816677948
- eISBN:
- 9781452948379
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816677948.003.0002
- Subject:
- Education, Philosophy and Theory of Education
This chapter discusses the field of digital humanities. Digital humanities grew specifically out of an attempt to make “humanities computing,” which sounded as though the emphasis lay on the ...
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This chapter discusses the field of digital humanities. Digital humanities grew specifically out of an attempt to make “humanities computing,” which sounded as though the emphasis lay on the technology, more palatable to humanists in general. The field’s background in humanities computing typically results in projects that focus on computing methods applicable to textual materials. As it is currently practiced, digital humanities is not just located in literary studies departments; the field is broadly humanities based and includes scholars in history, musicology, performance studies, media studies, and other fields that can benefit from bringing computing technologies to bear on traditional humanities materials.Less
This chapter discusses the field of digital humanities. Digital humanities grew specifically out of an attempt to make “humanities computing,” which sounded as though the emphasis lay on the technology, more palatable to humanists in general. The field’s background in humanities computing typically results in projects that focus on computing methods applicable to textual materials. As it is currently practiced, digital humanities is not just located in literary studies departments; the field is broadly humanities based and includes scholars in history, musicology, performance studies, media studies, and other fields that can benefit from bringing computing technologies to bear on traditional humanities materials.
Elizabeth Losh
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816677948
- eISBN:
- 9781452948379
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816677948.003.0018
- Subject:
- Education, Philosophy and Theory of Education
This chapter looks into the relationship between hacktivism and the humanities. It describes a range of related protest movements during a time when a significant cohort of professors called for ...
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This chapter looks into the relationship between hacktivism and the humanities. It describes a range of related protest movements during a time when a significant cohort of professors called for hacking the academy, including department chairs, heads of national centers, and leaders of professional associations who demanded fundamental changes in fair use, peer review, and tenure guidelines. To understand these phenomena that bring either politics into academia or academia into politics, current theories both of hacking and of hacktivism, or the nonviolent use of digital tools in pursuit of political ends, are examined. The chapter also considers how dissent by students and faculty, and protest by an old guard of political organizers and a new cadre of programmers in the general public, may be related. In the context of the digital humanities, hacktivism theory offers a way to broaden and deepen our understanding of the use of digital tools and of the politics of that tool use, and to question the uncritical instrumentalism that so many digital humanities projects propound.Less
This chapter looks into the relationship between hacktivism and the humanities. It describes a range of related protest movements during a time when a significant cohort of professors called for hacking the academy, including department chairs, heads of national centers, and leaders of professional associations who demanded fundamental changes in fair use, peer review, and tenure guidelines. To understand these phenomena that bring either politics into academia or academia into politics, current theories both of hacking and of hacktivism, or the nonviolent use of digital tools in pursuit of political ends, are examined. The chapter also considers how dissent by students and faculty, and protest by an old guard of political organizers and a new cadre of programmers in the general public, may be related. In the context of the digital humanities, hacktivism theory offers a way to broaden and deepen our understanding of the use of digital tools and of the politics of that tool use, and to question the uncritical instrumentalism that so many digital humanities projects propound.
Matthew Kirschenbaum
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816677948
- eISBN:
- 9781452948379
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816677948.003.0043
- Subject:
- Education, Philosophy and Theory of Education
This chapter examines the notion of digital humanities as a tactical term. Digital humanities, on the one hand, is a term possessed of enough currency and escape velocity to penetrate layers of ...
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This chapter examines the notion of digital humanities as a tactical term. Digital humanities, on the one hand, is a term possessed of enough currency and escape velocity to penetrate layers of administrative strata to get funds allocated, initiatives under way, and plans set in motion. On the other hand, it is a populist term, self-identified and self-perpetuating through the algorithmic structures of contemporary social media. The chapter explores an example of each and then offers comments on the implications of this strange confluence. It argues that, not only is digital humanities constantly in flux, but also that the term is one whose mojo may be harnessed, either rhetorically or algorithmically or both, to make a statement, make a change, and otherwise get things done.Less
This chapter examines the notion of digital humanities as a tactical term. Digital humanities, on the one hand, is a term possessed of enough currency and escape velocity to penetrate layers of administrative strata to get funds allocated, initiatives under way, and plans set in motion. On the other hand, it is a populist term, self-identified and self-perpetuating through the algorithmic structures of contemporary social media. The chapter explores an example of each and then offers comments on the implications of this strange confluence. It argues that, not only is digital humanities constantly in flux, but also that the term is one whose mojo may be harnessed, either rhetorically or algorithmically or both, to make a statement, make a change, and otherwise get things done.
Neil Fraistat
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816677948
- eISBN:
- 9781452948379
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816677948.003.0028
- Subject:
- Education, Philosophy and Theory of Education
This chapter attempts to provide a specific sense of the things a representative digital humanities center actually does. It then discusses the general function of the digital humanities center as an ...
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This chapter attempts to provide a specific sense of the things a representative digital humanities center actually does. It then discusses the general function of the digital humanities center as an institution. To that end, it begins with a brief tour of the center that the author directs, the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH). The tour illustrates the diverse kinds of research and the complex blend of faculty, staff, students, disciplines, partnerships, audiences, and funding streams that revolve around a major digital humanities center. The chapter also argues that the ultimate function of the digital humanities center at the present time is to be an agent of change. These centers have become rare sites of genuine collaboration and intellectual synergy, crossing disciplinary boundaries and even the cherished hierarchies of academic rank.Less
This chapter attempts to provide a specific sense of the things a representative digital humanities center actually does. It then discusses the general function of the digital humanities center as an institution. To that end, it begins with a brief tour of the center that the author directs, the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH). The tour illustrates the diverse kinds of research and the complex blend of faculty, staff, students, disciplines, partnerships, audiences, and funding streams that revolve around a major digital humanities center. The chapter also argues that the ultimate function of the digital humanities center at the present time is to be an agent of change. These centers have become rare sites of genuine collaboration and intellectual synergy, crossing disciplinary boundaries and even the cherished hierarchies of academic rank.
