Words, Words, Words: How the Digital Humanities Are Integrating Diverse Research Fields to Study People

Abstract

The rapidly developing field of digital humanities (DH) is showing how unprecedented volumes of data such as written expression can be studied to reveal new insights into humans and, therefore, into individual and collective experiences within and across societies. Scholars from disciplines such as literature and history are collaborating with scientists from disciplines such as statistics and computer science. Moreover, these interdisciplinary teams often reach beyond campuses to companies as well as local, national, and international public and nonprofit institutions. Surprisingly, the computational research that began in the humanities in the 1950s did not develop an important presence within mainstream scholarship until half a century later. The DH experiences thus far reflect the complexity of both human expression and research collaborations across diverse fields and sectors. Learning from past successes and failures will help meet today's data analytic challenges and prepare us for opportunities in statistical applications ranging from literary studies and cybersecurity to business intelligence and health indicators.

Cross-national digital humanities research collaborations: structure, patterns and themes

“…A great deal of DH research topics are exploratory in nature, and many researchers attempt to provide structure to the field by analyzing its progression and charting future directions. Some researchers use the lessons and themes of previous research and past accomplishments to observe and explain the development of DH and where it may lead in the future (Gaffield, 2018; Rodriguez Ortega, 2018). Others use biometric analyses of DH publications to better understand the field through topics of interest in the literature (Wang, 2018; Tang et al , 2017).…”

Digital humanities research: interdisciplinary collaborations, themes and implications to library and information science

“…Some researchers use the lessons and themes of previous research and past accomplishments to observe and explain the development of DH and where it may lead in the future (e.g. Gaffield, 2018;Rodriguez Ortega, 2018). Others use biometric analyses of DH publications to better understand the field through topics of interest in the literature (e.g.…”

“…(1) Status, (lack of) coverage and development of higher education in DH (Risam et al, 2017;Gaffield, 2018;Poole, 2017);…”

“…(2) Collaborative human studies of culture, theater, art, race and gender studies in DH (Rodriguez Ortega, 2018;Gaffield, 2018);…”

“…Previous research has also noted growing trends in certain interdisciplinary collaborations. For example, scholars from literature and history have begun collaborating with those from statistics and computer science more frequently (Gaffield, 2018). History and archives have also come into play through various technological areas in an increasing digital environment (Sabharwal, 2017).…”