Hello and Welcome!
As a quick intro to this blog entry, we have been asked to review/respond to one of the readings we were previously assigned. The whole concept of digital humanities is new to me and while complex, I feel there is a lot to be said in support of it, but I must admit its interdisciplinary nature holds great appeal for me as an english and geography enthusiast. For instance, in the process of obtaining the pdf I will explore below, I was forced to engage with the digital and the human (putting faces to the names). This firstly showed me what can be achieved with an online professional portfolio (see Matthew’s blog). Secondly I began to engage with the community of ‘‘DHers’’ (5), a status that I hope can be applied to myself in the near future.
Downloadable here: ePub.
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= Digital Humanities
It could be said that I had a very proactive reaction to the article ‘‘What is Digital Humanities and what’s it doing in English Departments?’’, a reaction which I would attribute to the digital nature of the humanities and the very online world Kirschenbaum relates to the reader through his discussion. While I appreciated his retrospective look on the origins of the digital humanities I think he could have focused more on his title and less on the past.
Say I was studying a chapter from a book, I would be less inclined to go searching further afield for people or events that are mentioned unless it is pivotal to my knowledge. Such activity would take time, redefining searches and following broken links or poorly archived sources. In contrast, with this piece I was quickly able to search for a hashtag on twitter (that being #MLA14, see Image 1.0) and find not only material that Kirschenbaum mentions (e.g. Croxall’s paper) but also the creators behind the materials (e.g. Rosemary Feal) and other digital humanities themed material (e.g. DigitalHumanitiesNow) and even Kirschenbaum himself.
Image 1.0: The humans behind the digital interface.
A small sample of how twitter hashtags allow a community to interact and relate information across time and space.
Therefore I very much agree with his line of thought and support Jennifer Howard’s proclamation which he cites that ‘twitter has had an impact on scholarly communication’ (5). This is even espoused by myself and my peers at a local scale, as this seminar class intends to partake in the hashtag #Textualities2014 in order to suggest and share subjects which may be of interest to one another.
Our seminar leader put forward the idea that there has been a ‘democratising paradigm shift in the humanities’ which is evident through the use of online interaction via twitter, blogs etc. something Kirschenbaum’s piece also subscribes to. Where before only the elite could access and contribute ideas, open access on such sites now allows for anyone with internet access and an idea to compete and publish their opinions or research. This is not an element I had previously thought much about, but having also discussed it in an urbanism geography lecture earlier this week in relation to ICT in the city today, it seems a vital point to convey.
In second year geography we studied qualitative research methods, taking note of the complex notions of reflexivity (the self-conscious scrutiny of self) and positionality (how we are all positioned amidst a hierarchy of power & privilege) both as defined by England (289). For any piece of academic writing it is important to recognise these two ideas and understand that one another’s responses to something can be totally different but still equally valid and valuable. I would hope to see this in the work of my peers, whose blogs you can also follow (see here). From Kirschenbaum I gathered the importance of the collective and what we can achieve together; inter-dependence can help us thrive. This brings me to his final point and I particularly like the way in which he summarises the essence of the digital humanities as I feel this pertains exactly to what we are undertaking in this seminar, ‘a scholarship and pedagogy that are collaborative and depend on networks of people and that live an active 24/7 life online’ (6).
Works Cited.
Kirschenbaum, Matthew. ‘‘What is Digital Humanities and what’s it doing in English Departments?’’ mkirschenbaum.wordpress.com, 2010. Web. 13 Oct 2014.
England, Kim. ‘‘Producing Feminist Geographies’’. Approaches to Human Geography (2006): 286-297. Print.
Please feel free to leave a comment below or email me at 112362596@umail.ucc.ie with any enquiries.
Katie O'Sullivan 