Digital Public Humanities (DPH) is a method of interpreting historical information as data through software and modeling systems, and creating platforms to share those findings with a larger audience. It seeks to find new ways of understanding the past and our relationships with one another through the use of technologies that were previously thought to be impossible. As a discipline, DPH is collaborative in nature and therefore relies on communication between fields in order to further the creation of new ideas.
What does Digital Public Humanities mean to me?
First, let’s split this term into its three distinct parts; digital, public, and humanities. “Humanities” in the historical sense, refers to the study of human experiences of the past on either a collective or individual scale. “Digital” arises from the use of technologies such as computers, modeling software, simulations, and algorithms employed to analyze data from humanists. And “public” concerns the dissemination of that information in un-biased, and articulate means to a wide audience.
What is the job of Digital Public Humanists?
DPH is not a replacement for the study of traditional humanities, but rather, an outgrowth which corresponded with the rise of modern computers’ abilities. In the 21st century, professionals from various, diverse fields began to echo the growing sentiment that new technologies were not being fully taken advantage of. Today, it is not only our job as Digital Public Humanists to employ every possible method of examining data at our disposal, but also to create and design new methods ourselves for others to use.
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