Discovering the Digital Humanities

Before the semester I really had no idea what digital humanities was. Then, after our first class meeting, I went from knowing absolutely nothing about digital humanities to becoming extremely overwhelmed. At this point, after making my way through some of the readings over the past couple of weeks, I feel like I'm starting to have a little better understanding of what the term means and what the field consists of. I have also quickly learned that the field of DH is extremely broad and reaches many different disciplines, but also offers lots of opportunities for interdisciplinary connection. The readings for this week include the introductions to The Emergence of the Digital Humanities and Doing Digital Humanities . I read The Emergence of the Digital Humanities first and was a little surprised at the detail and attention given to 3D Printers. And while I may not have completely understood the whole point the author was trying to make, one particular idea did resonate with me. ...

Rhetorical Precis In his article, “The Differences Between Digital Humanities and Digital History,” Stephen Robertson explains that “digital history’s use of the Web and computational tools are two areas that distinguish the discipline within digital humanities.” Robertson supports his claim by detailing how digital historians have used the Web to present and distribute material, have employed the use of digital mapping more than any other discipline within the digital humanities, and have adapted to challenges in using search tools. His purpose is to provide an explanation of how digital historians are different from other scholars in the digital humanities in order to show how other disciplines should embrace the disciplinary differences so that they, too, can contribute to the digital humanities as an interdisciplinary field. Robertson writes in a casual tone, but includes specific, academic language, indicating an intended audience of academic peers who are also interested in...

I’ve never read Neuromancer , but in reading the article from The Guardian and thinking about the line  between real and digital spaces, I was particularly struck by two sentences that appear close to the  end of the article. “The characters are themselves fixated on technology, and wonder aloud at how its powers  might be stretched even further” (Mullan). This idea is particularly relevant to humanity’s ongoing relationship with technology. As technology  continues to advance, there will always be someone looking to advance it even further. There will  never be a conclusion to the advances of technology. There will always be someone working on  developing the newer, better, faster, bigger version of any given piece of technology. And in the  modern world, this obsession is not necessarily limited to niche communities anymore; instead,  the connection to technology is a daily norm for most people. In the general public, people cla...

In the course of reading Graphs Maps Trees by Franco Moretti, I experienced several different reactions. In the beginning, I was a little confused while reading the “Graphs” chapter. I had a hard time following the information that was being presented and I kept going back to previous passages for clarification. Initially, I just assumed my confusion was due to my unfamiliarity with the topic. Being a “lit” person, graphs haven’t come up too often in the courses I have taken and the scholarship I have studied. However, eventually, I was able to make sense of the information in the chapter and I found myself really engaged and interested in learning more about the rise and fall of the various genres of novels in Britain in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Conversely, I was completely drawn into the “Maps” chapter of the book. From the first paragraph of this section, everything kind of “clicked” with me. I was particularly struck by Barrell’s quote fr...