Digital Humanities constitutes a broad academic field, which uses digital technologies, such as mapping, digitizing archives, and computational programs, in teaching and scholarship. In addition, Digital Humanities contributes to other disciplines by facilitating the visualization and analysis of data, and creating interdisciplinary tools of connection.
Personally, when I think about Digital Humanities, one definition that comes to my mind is the application of computing tools to study disciplines such as literature, sociology, and history among others. The incorporation of technology into these so-called “traditional” fields helps scholars to have a visual, more comprehensive understanding, analytical interpretation of information and data sets. Moreover, in my opinion, Digital Humanities opens a new concept about the integration of dynamic models, such as interactive digital maps and archives, to the research and learning process. Thus, I really like the idea of saying that Digital Humanities is “about building things…If you are not making anything, you are not …a digital humanist” (Ramsay cited by Gold). In fact, in my opinion, digital humanities means the use of dynamic technologies and practices in order to approach common humanities issues.
On the other hand, it is undoubtedly that Digital Humanities constitutes a field that is rapidly expanding and evolving in the academic world. For instance, Digital Humanities incorporates not only the application of digital tools, but also helps important data to become more accessible to larger audiences. Also, Digital Humanities helps us to create a digital academic world in which the visualization of information and data plays a key role in the learning process of students. As Lauren F. Klein and Matthew K. Gold explain in the reading Digital Humanities: The Expanded Field, “along with the digital archives, quantitative analyses, and tool-building projects that once characterized the field, DH now encompasses a wide range of methods and practices: visualizations of large image sets, 3D modeling of historical artifacts, ‘born digital’ dissertations, hashtag activism and the analysis thereof, alternate reality games, mobile makerspaces, and more.” In regarding to this, I can mention that thanks to the digitization of archives from 1930’ s and 1940’s of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Roma–Biblioteca Digitale, I was able to access important material that helped me write my research about the image of italian women in magazines during the period of fascism. I find this completely fascinating because the digitalization of historical materials represents a platform that is accessible to all people around the world. At the same time, we can see how the application of Digital Humanities becomes an important connection between the past and the present, which allows us to analyze new ways to improve our future.
Consequently, I think that Digital Humanities is the use of digital resources and technology to approach different practices in humanities. Its contribution to the academic world helps to understand a visual concept of information and data. Moreover, living in a world, in which technology is everywhere and digital media connects people in a way never seen before, the role of Digital Humanities creates new interpretations and ways of thinking, understanding and analyzing data. Thanks to the technology that Digital Humanities applies to the research work, data can be used to analyze real society problems and create solutions to improve the world.
References
Gold, Matthew K. 2012. The Digital Humanities Moment In Debates in the Digital Humanities, edited by Matthew K. Gold. University of Minnesota Press
Klein, Lauren F., and Matthew K. Gold. 2016. “Digital Humanities: The Expanded Field” In Debates in the Digital Humanities 2016, edited by Matthew K. Gold and Lauren F. Klein. University of Minnesota Press.
