Dyson College of Arts and Sciences
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16 Dyson College of Arts and Sciences The Digital Humanities—What's in a Name? The fast growing field of digital humanities is broad in scope and dynamic in nature. DH, as digital humanities is known, can include students using Google Maps to create classroom projects that plot the location of a character in a novel, to the visualization of a poem, to crowdsourcing a collection of letters written in Ireland in the year 1916. The one thing that academics seem to agree upon is the lack of agreement on its definition. So, what is digital humanities and what are some of its tools and practices? A good example of digital humanities is found in Woolf Online, a project for which New York City Campus English Professor Mark Hussey acted as coordinator of scholarly content. Hussey is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant for this work. Woolf Online is a digital archive of Virginia Woolf's 1927 novel, To the Lighthouse, that employs digital tools to create searchable databases and archives of primary texts. Accessibility is one of the most exciting aspects of digital humanities because it enables anyone with an Internet connection to conduct research, regardless of physical distances, or in the case of Woolf, without leaving one's room (no pun intended, for Woolf fans). Archives, which might have previously required a visit to a reading room at the New York Public Library to view, are now accessible from most anywhere, whether the researcher is in the south of France or South Africa. Digital World Dyson Launches its First Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) In September, Chemistry and Physical Sciences Lecturer Peggy Minnis launched Dyson College's first massive open online course (MOOC). The course was GIS (geographical information systems) Mapping Basics, which teaches analytical mapping. GIS mapping has many applications, including numerous digital humanities projects. Status Update—Dyson's Social Media Social media has changed the way we interact with one another and Dyson uses this valuable tool to connect with students, faculty, and alumni, and to reach new friends. Beginning in 2014, Dyson embarked on a strategic campaign to increase its social media presence and engagement. The campaign has been a phenomenal success. A distinguishing feature of digital humanities work is the inherent "lab culture," which embraces open access and collaboration among scholars. Since work in the digital humanities is often very labor-intensive and behind-the-scenes, sustainability then becomes the elephant in the room, as projects go live but are continually being refined and revised. Hussey cites that Woolf Online is a great example of the collaboration mentioned above, since it "required a team of more than a dozen people nearly five years to build, and is perhaps a good indication of the kind of commitment and resources institutions need to devote to this new field if they wish it to flourish." Opportunitas, indeed.