Digital Humanities

As part of classroom activities assigned by Prof. Dilip Barad, this blog engages with resources like the Introduction to Digital Humanities (Amity University video), the ResearchGate article Reimagining Narratives with AI in Digital Humanities, and short films such as Why are we so scared of robots/AI? to reflect on how narratives are being reshaped in the digital age. To get more information, click here.

What Is Digital Humanities?

Digital Humanities, also known earlier as “humanities computing,” is an interdisciplinary field at the intersection of computing and the humanities. It involves research, teaching, and invention that use digital tools to analyse, represent, and preserve human culture. As Kirschenbaum notes, it is “more akin to a methodological outlook than an investment in any one specific set of texts or technologies”. Digital Humanities is not just about digitizing texts but about rethinking scholarship, pedagogy, and knowledge in a networked, 24/7 digital world.

Examples include:

• Digital archives and editions (e.g., the Shakespeare Quartos Archive).

• Text analysis and visualization (e.g., Franco Moretti’s “distant reading”).

• Preservation of digital culture (e.g., archiving video games and virtual communities).

• Collaborative online platforms and open-access publishing.

Why English Departments?

Kirschenbaum argues that English departments have been fertile ground for digital humanities because text, the most computer-friendly data, has long supported research in linguistics, stylistics, and authorship studies. Their strong ties to composition, openness to editorial theory (seen in McGann’s Rossetti Archive), and engagement with electronic literature further strengthened this link. English departments also embraced cultural studies, treating digital media as cultural artifacts. More recently, e-readers, large-scale digitization projects like Google Books, and methods such as Moretti’s “distant reading” have expanded the scope of analysis, confirming their central role in digital humanities.

1. Text as Data – Text is the most easily processed material by computers, making it central to early computational studies such as stylistics, linguistics, and authorship attribution.

2. Composition Studies – Computers have long been integrated into writing and rhetoric, connecting DH with pedagogy.

3. Editorial Theory – The rise of electronic editions and archives (e.g., Jerome McGann’s Rossetti Archive) paralleled theoretical debates in English studies.

4. Electronic Literature – Experiments with hypertext and digital narratives expanded the literary landscape.

5. Cultural Studies – English departments embraced digital culture as an object of study (from the Walkman to the iPod to e-books).

6. New Reading Practices – The advent of e-readers and large-scale digitization projects (like Google Books) allows for new modes of analysis, such as large-scale data mining.

Digital Humanities as a Movement 

By the early 2000s, digital humanities became more than just a niche interest—it emerged as a recognized scholarly movement:

• Institutions like the Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations (ADHO) provided professional structure.

• The NEH Office of Digital Humanities gave funding legitimacy.

• Conferences, journals, and online communities (blogs, Twitter) built a vibrant network.

• Scholars began to self-identify as “digital humanists,” emphasizing collaboration, openness, and innovation.

This movement also reflects larger academic tensions—such as open-access publishing, precarious academic labor, and resistance to outdated institutional structures.

Digital Humanities

Why Are We So Scared of Robots and AI?