INTRODUCTION TO
DIGITAL HUMANITIES
Dr. Kumaraswamy. C, Associate Professor.
Department of Social Work.
Acharya Institute of Graduate Studies, Bengaluru 560107
What are the Humanities?
The study of human culture: Art, Literature,
History, Philosophy, Music, Social Sciences, etc.
What are the 7 humanities?
The humanities include the study of ancient and
modern languages, literature, philosophy,
history, archaeology, anthropology, human
geography, law, politics, religion, and art.
What is the basic concept of digital humanities?
The digital humanities, also known
as humanities computing, is a field of study, research,
teaching, and invention concerned with the intersection
of computing and the disciplines of the humanities. It is
methodological by nature and interdisciplinary in scope.
Why is Digital Humanities important?
Enhanced teaching - Digital Humanities helps students
learn by being able to see more, experience more, and
collaborate together.
Not only does this help show the value of the study
of Humanities, but digital projects can also help inform
and engage those outside the university setting.
What are Digital Humanities?
• The digital humanities are an area of research,
teaching, and creation concerned with the intersection
of computing and the disciplines of the humanities.
• Using technology to do the work of the humanities.
• What does Digital Humanities utilize?
Digital humanities incorporates both digitized
(remediated) and born-digital materials and combines
the methodologies from
traditional humanities disciplines (such as rhetoric,
history, philosophy, linguistics, literature, art,
archaeology, music, and cultural studies) and social
sciences.
What are digital humanities tools?
Text Analysis and Data Mining
• Voyant-tools.org. "Voyant Tools is a web-based
reading and analysis environment for digital
texts."
• Wordle. A robust word cloud generator with
extensive shape, color and font options.
Google Books NGram Viewer. ...
• Culturomics - Google Ngrams Addon. ...
• Time Magazine Corpus. ...
• Juxta.
Text Encoding Initiative(TEI)
● An XML-based schema for marking up
texts
● Work began in 1987 with consortium
formed in 2000
● Currently in 5th major revision
● Formally endorsed by MLA & NEH
The problems TEIaddresses.
● Facilitate scholars’ access to textual data
● Make preservation easier by using an
open, flexible, well-documented standard
● Supply a common format for
representing knowledge about texts
● Overcome platform dependence and
obsolescence
Markup (Language)
Information about a
text that exists
alongside that text but is
distinct from the text itself.
Defining Modern Markup
“A (document) markup
language is a modern
system for annotating the presentation and
formatting of text that is separate from the
text itself.”
HTML Markup
Semantic Markup
• Separates document structure from
document display
• Asserts something about the nature of
each part of the document, i.e., it labels
components
• No display or processing instructions,
generally speaking
XML Markup
Display vs. Structure
(HTML display tags vs. semantic tags)
<FONT> <person>
<COLOR> <location>
<SIZE> <lastName>
<B> <I> <U> <flightNumber>
Examples
● http://www.wwp.brown.
edu/outreach/seminars/_current/handouts
/tei_samples/
The Swinburne Archive is a digital collection
devoted to the life and work of Victorian poet A.
Charles Swinburne.
● HTML View
● Raw XML
● Timeline
Geographical Information
Systems (GIS)
● Allows for plotting of data points on a map
● Allows you see patterns you may not
otherwise recognize
● Tools are ARCGIS, Google Maps and
openGIS
GIS Examples
● Atlas of Early Printing
○ http://atlas.lib.uiowa.edu/
● Beyond Steel: Industry and Society in
19th and 20th century LeHigh County,
Pennsylvania
○ http://gisweb.cc.lehigh.
edu/BeyondSteel/
● Caribbean Cholera Map
○ http://caribbeancholera.org
Timelines
A linear representation of data; events,
pictures, video, etc.
● http://www.timetoast.com/
● http://timeglider.com/
● http://www.tiki-toki.com/
● http://timeline.verite.co/ (jQuery)
Other DH Tools
● TEI
● GIS
● Omeka (LAMP)
● Wordpress/DH
● Custom
Projects: Digital humanities projects are more likely than traditional
humanities work to involve a team or a lab, which may be composed
of faculty, staff, graduate or undergraduate students, information
technology specialists, and partners in galleries, libraries, archives,
and museums.
Credit and authorship are often given to multiple people to reflect this
collaborative nature, which is different from the sole authorship model
in the traditional humanities (and more like the natural sciences).
There are thousands of digital humanities projects, ranging from
small-scale ones with limited or no funding to large-scale ones with
multi-year financial support. Some are continually updated while
others may not be due to loss of support or interest, though they may
still remain online in either a beta version or a finished form.
Data Visualization
Visual representation of informationthat has been
abstracted in some schematic form.
Process of Data Visualization
● Identify your data set
○ How large/small is the data set
○ What is the format
○ What is the complexity
● Analysis of data
○ Does the data need to be aggregated?
○ If so, what tools will we use to processit
● Visualize it
○ Identify what works for your dataset
○ It’s a process; wash-rinse-repeat
What can DH do for you?
Academics
○ View data in new and interesting ways
○ Get your data online (accessible to the public)
○ Motivate students of different learning styles
Technologists
○ Use your skills to solve interesting problems
○ Collaborate outside of technology
○ Use data in interesting ways
Role of Digital Humanities in Social Work Field
In Social Work Practices, we can use technology in all
the areas.
Resources
● http://digitalhumanities.unc.edu
● http://digitalscholarship.wordpress.com/
● http://omeka.org/blog/2013/08/20/back-to-
school-edition-use-omeka-in-your-class/
