Digital humanities allows you to enhance your love of a content area with digital tools in order to be equipped for critical thinking in the 21st century.
What is digital humanities?
The digital humanities incorporate a variety of fields of study, such as history, theology, philosophy, English, to name a few. The digital aspect of the digital humanities requires students to use and design digital tools.
PC Mag referred to Digital Humanities as “the most exciting field you’ve never heard of” in a post back in 2017. If it’s so exciting, why haven’t we heard of it? Probably because the digital humanities are happening all around us.
Defining this emerging field
Dr. Erin Laverick’s definition: “Digital humanities prepares students not only in honing their content knowledge of a particular field…it also teaches them how to use and design digital tools.”
- Content areas can include, but are not limited to: history, theology, philosophy, English, and more.
People who study this field are expert problem-solvers and thinkers. They leverage their content knowledge. They use critical thinking to research and explore ethical, social, and religious issues. This doesn’t happen in a vacuum, though. Students do this research and design these tools to be relevant to their local and global communities.
Dan Cohen, vice provost, dean, and professor at Northeastern University, talks about what digital humanities is. He says that digital humanities uses digital media and technology to bring about: “the creation of scholarly resources, to research on those resources, to the communication of results to colleagues and students.”
Defining digital humanities is hard
Digital humanities is a broad field where content areas meet digital media. This is why it can be tough to understand what this field actually is. One digital humanities scholar could take a literal approach and become an archivist at a museum. Another scholar could master the same content, but choose a different path and become a web designer.
Traditionally speaking, the humanities includes the previously mentioned content areas. The digital aspect of digital humanities can include both the digitizing of these subjects as well as the interaction of digital media and technology with these subjects.
What can you do with a Master’s in Digital Humanities?
The digital humanities is a rapidly growing field that blends life-long learning with the development of 21st century technological skills required for the global job market.
If you love the humanities, but are unsure about what jobs are out there, you might be surprised by the amount of opportunities.
- Digital Humanities Specialists manage projects, develop curricula and workshops, manage digital archives, and can work with data science.
- Web designers rely on digital humanities skills to excel at visual design, create a new idea and bring it to fruition, adapt to new techniques, and communicate with their clients and users.
- Curators acquire, maintain, store, and exhibit collections. They are involved with civic engagement, designing exhibits, developing themes, and creating and leading workshops open to the public.
These are just a few ways you can use digital humanities in the workplace.
Since this is a broad field, it’s important for you to understand your career goals and consider if a master’s is what you need to reach your them.
Do you want to know more about digital humanities?
If you’re interested in learning more about what it means to get a master’s in digital humanities, you can check out our Digital Humanities 10-Minute Webinar.
— Vanessa Lane is the Content Marketing Lead at Concordia University and can be reached at vanessa.lane@cuaa.edu. When she's not at work, she can be found playing with her kids or watching NBA basketball with her husband.
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