{"id":6335,"date":"2017-09-15T15:10:37","date_gmt":"2017-09-15T19:10:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/news\/?p=6335"},"modified":"2018-03-12T15:02:17","modified_gmt":"2018-03-12T19:02:17","slug":"mellon-grant-funding-expands-exploration-of-digital-humanities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/2017\/09\/15\/mellon-grant-funding-expands-exploration-of-digital-humanities\/","title":{"rendered":"Mellon Grant funding expands exploration of digital humanities"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Though it took its first breath in the 1970s, digital humanities didn\u2019t burst to life until the beginning of the millennium with the advent of cheaper bandwidth.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an emerging field taking traditional approaches of humanities but capitalizing on the technology of more recent years,\u201d said David Kenley, director of Elizabethtown College Center for Global Understanding and Peacemaking and a professor of history. \u201cIt\u2019s the difference between writing journals and hosting a podcast,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Though Matt Skillen, associate professor of English and department chair, distills the definition as \u201cscholars who do all aspects of academia digitally,\u201d the ultimate description is up for grabs.<\/p>\n

Its validity and ethics are up for argument, too.<\/p>\n

Included in the growing realm of digital humanities is data mining and collection, research, geospatial analysis, research distribution, artifact preservation. \u201cIt\u2019s highly academic,\u201d said Skillen, \u201cbut you don\u2019t have to travel all the way to Europe to a dusty library to do the research.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those libraries, said Sarah Penniman, librarian and director of High Library, are now challenged to explore new ways of approaching research. Surprising to some, she\u2019s all about this efficient approach to understanding and sharing art, literature, history, language, spirituality and music.<\/p>\n

Almost immediately, she said, the idea of digital humanities went from intriguing to enormous. \u201cYears ago, my initial impression was that it\u2019s a great way to analyze literature text, like \u2018how many times did Shakespeare use this word or that phrase\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s a concept that pops up in the most interesting places across campus: Richard Newton\u2019s collection of six-word stories in which Religious Studies students research campuswide self-description; the capture of Tweets via hash tag designation; David Bowne\u2019s GIS mapping tools in Biology; and historic story mapping with Jean-Paul Benowitz.<\/p>\n

Wanting to amplify the opportunities for its presence on campus, Skillen and Kenley applied for a portion of a Mellon Grant to create a two-credit course that pulls together students from a variety of disciplines to acquire an understanding of this growing field. That Mellon Grant, received four years ago, and the Mellon Grant the College just landed, have digital humanities as a significant component.<\/p>\n

The aforementioned \u201cdusty library\u201d is an important partner in this development, said Skillen. \u201cThey are at the forefront of this trend,\u201d he said, \u201ccataloging our artifacts, answering our questions: How do we house and store all of this information?\u201d<\/p>\n

Though most discussion about digital humanities is positive and forward thinking, in addition to the concern over the changing role of academic and community libraries, there\u2019s also apprehension about copyrights, intellectual property, loss of income and the opinion that online writing holds less credibility, said Skillen. There\u2019s a bit of \u201cthe Luddite fear of the unknown,\u201d added Kenley.<\/p>\n

The concern over libraries, said Penniman, is actually a healthy challenge. \u201cThis gives us, as a library, an opportunity to rethink everything that we do, including the use of our physical space. Yes; we\u2019ll house fewer printed books, but we can also reach out to participate in digital humanities projects, to further those ideas and conversations, and then continue to help the students with research and the college experience in general. The challenge for libraries is that we still need to curate and manage lots of information\u201d and make it accessible for the long term\u2014streaming music, movies and newspapers are a good example.<\/p>\n

Digital humanities in the library\u2014digital subscriptions, newspapers and yearbooks, online archives, and other \u201cremarkable collections that are now searchable online\u201d\u2014is in Penniman\u2019s opinion, a \u201cfabulous opportunity that scholars didn\u2019t have before.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Jean-Paul Benowitz, director of student transition programs and prestigious scholarships and fellowships, used digital humanities to collaborate with the architectural historian for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation as his students mapped out already documented historically prominent properties on campus and in the borough.<\/p>\n

The story map project<\/a> was inspired by a proposed rebuild to a significant Market Street bridge. \u201cThe bridge fell under the Section 106 Review,\u201d said Benowitz. \u201cThere was a need to research the impact to the historical landscape.\u201d Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, initiated by President Lyndon Johnson, requires consideration of historic preservation in projects with federal involvement and the effects of projects they carry out, approve or fund.<\/p>\n

Each of Benowitz\u2019s students formulated a deed search down to the original owner for at least two properties. Some dated as far back as the Penn family. From this research they created story maps\u2014in addition to the geographical location, they include full biographical sketches, topography, images and architectural designs. Business, engineering, history and art students explored the architecture and the industry of the time, the highways and byways that moved people across the state, the technology of the bridge building based on its foundation and load, the politics, religion and economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Conoy Creek was a major link between Elizabethtown and the Susquehanna,\u201d said Benowitz. \u201cElizabethtown played an important and political role to get from Philadelphia to westward expansion.\u201d<\/p>\n

This information is now available across the world, as are other new ideas and old treasures that can reach a much broader audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve merely scratched the surface where human and computer can come together,\u201d said Skillen. \u201cThis in itself is a study of the human experience.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 Though it took its first breath in the 1970s, digital humanities didn\u2019t burst to life until the beginning of the millennium with the advent of cheaper bandwidth. \u201cIt\u2019s an emerging field taking traditional approaches of humanities but capitalizing on the technology of more recent years,\u201d said David Kenley, director of Elizabethtown College Center for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":6337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[490,1141,260,1128,12,743],"class_list":["post-6335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-achievements-2","tag-cgup","tag-english","tag-feature","tag-high-library","tag-history","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6335"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6348,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6335\/revisions\/6348"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}