In our second digital humanities class, we discussed the definition of digital humanities and also looked at various digital projects. We discussed how digital humanities encompassed research, learning and teaching about various topics including literature, history, classics, and the arts in a digital aspect. This digital aspect can vary from individual to individual. One can build and use their software to interact with readers, others create websites and databases etc. I learned that the subject is accessible, flexible, diverse, and interactive. By the end of class, I got a clearer picture on the topic. I have come to the conclusion that I will form my own definition for digital humanities as I progress deeper into the course.
During the second half of class, we split into groups and looked at three different digital projects. My groups picked: Her Hat was in the Ring, The Valley of the Shadow, and Voting America. My personal favorite of the three was Her Hat was in the Ring and my least favorite was The Valley of the Shadow. I enjoyed Her Hat was in the Ring because it was very well organized, professional, and neat. The purpose of the website was to give a short bio on women in politics. In this website, you could search a woman by her name, state, office and party. I learned from Miriam Posner’s blog that the use of programming
languages might come in handy while designing these projects. This website may have used languages such as Python or JavaScript to manipulate data as well as customize the website. I also liked how all the creators were listed along with research students. They also clearly their sources. Overall, this project was very readable, diverse, and accessible.
The Valley of the Shadow conveys the life in two
American communities during the Civil War. In this digital archive, you could look at letters, diaries, newspapers, speeches, as well as census data and church records. For me, this website was complicated and not very user friendly. I found it difficult to navigate through the different sections of the website. However, it is important to consider that this archive was put together in the 90s. Therefore, it would have been difficult to digitize all the resources and present them in this digital archive.
After looking through all the digital projects, I am a little more confused on how I am going to go about my project. At the same time, I am very excited to get started and start exploring different options and formats. I look forward to learning more about the subject of digital humanities as well as different technologies that I could implement in my project.
This is a really nice reflection on the themes that we discussed in class that makes good use of specific examples from both the readings and the projects that you explored to support the points you make. I’m just sorry that you’re more confused about what your final project might focus on; hopefully we’ll be able to rectify that in the coming weeks!
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