About

Workshop Description

For the last ten years, the field of digital humanities has increasingly become a staple of campuses across the country. However, a great deal of this work is happening under the direction of English, New Media, and Languages departments. With the exception of a few scholars, historians and history departments have been much slower to embrace digital research and pedagogy. However, this past summer, the Association of American Historians published their Guidelines for the Professional Evaluation of Digital Scholarship in History. The guidelines present the first attempt for a historical association to outline how historians and departments should understand and evaluate digital history. According to the guidelines, “The AHA puts forward “a broad working definition of digital history” as “scholarship that is either produced using computational tools and methods or presented using digital technologies.”[…] Digital history in various forms, in other words, may represent a commitment to expanding what history is, and can do, as a field.” (3-4) While these guidelines are a welcome step, there remains a great deal of uncertainty and hesitancy around digital history. This workshop aims to create a space to build upon the AHA guidelines for both the department and the broader campus community, considering digital history as a connected, but also distinct branch of digital humanities. The workshop will introduce the field of digital history to scholars through a select series of readings, case studies, and presentation from an expert visiting speaker in the field of digital history. Ultimately, this workshop hopes to open a discussion about how and when digital history constitutes meaningful scholarly research, as well as help interested scholars think through how digital history could add a new dimension to their research. This workshop hopes to move beyond the dichotomy of traditional and digital history, towards a more iterative and integrated approach to history that includes a variety of mediums and tools.

Goals:

• Provide an introduction to digital history through a set of curated readings, case studies, and presentations.
• Engage with the AHA guidelines on evaluating digital history and consider how this impacts our research and campus.
• Demonstrate the utility of digital history in existing research projects, and consider critically when and how this field can answer historical questions.
• Discuss the barriers to entry with digital history, and the potential for building institutional support for digital history on campus.
• Bring together interested faculty and students to hopefully form an ongoing community for sharing and discussing digital history within the department.