Digital Humanities: "Digitality", Citizenship and the Human Sciences.

Mike MertensCEO DARIAH-EU

EIFL General AssemblyRiga, 13 November 2015

Overview

DARIAH-EU: in brief!The Humanities – Challenging timesWhat is Digital Humanities?Digital Citizens in a Data Age – from digital literacy to digitalityLibraries and Digital Humanities“Wisdom for the Common Good”

Purpose of DARIAH?Identify, fund, enhance,

embed and further digital research across, for and by the Arts and Humanities.

Established for 20-year evolution in digital research

Who is DARIAH for?

Literary Studies Medieval StudiesArchaeology

A wide variety of research communities across the arts and humanities, e.g.

Network of affiliated projects

ArchaeologistsMedieval and

Modern Historians

HolocaustResearchers

Digital Methods

Digital Textual Scholarship

Cultural Heritage conservation

Network of Services

Scholarly events

Open access archiveAcademic blogging

The Humanities – Some Definitions“The study and interpretation of...language...linguistics; literature; history; jurisprudence; philosophy; archaeology; comparative religion; ethics; the history, criticism and theory of the arts”

National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act, 1965

“Since the nineteenth century the humanities have generally been defined as the disciplines that investigate the expressions of the human mind.”

Rens Bod, A New History of the Humanities, 2013

“Research stemming from a detailed understanding of human behaviour, economies, cultures and societies can dramatically redefine the crucial decisions we need to make.”

The British Academy for the Humanities & Social Sciences, “Press Pack”, 2014

Alan Liu http://4humanities.org

The Humanities: The Challenge?

“The Humanities, the studies that laid the foundation for language and thought...is missing two things: students and respect...Students now are investing in careers instead of educations.”Oh, the Humanities - Can They be Saved, Dennis B. Roddy, August 20, 2015

http://www.pittsburghmagazine.com/Pittsburgh-Magazine/September-2015/Oh-the-Humanities-Can-They-be-Saved/

Benefits:

1. reviving Classics programs,2. enrich the CV of a humanist graduate with significant technical competences (training in XML-TEI, editing software, etc.)

Deep economic crisis? Dramatic youth unemployment rate?

More digital skills = more chances of employment success!

Involving students in building the digital library

What is Digital Humanities?

http://whatisdigitalhumanities.com/

Humanities->”Close reading”

Digital Humanities->”Distant reading”

What is Digital Humanities?(Spot the technology...)

“Our objectives are the advancement of knowledge...in the academic sphere and beyond it. We call for the integration of digital culture in the definition of the general culture of the twenty-first century.”

A Manifesto for the Digital Humanities, 2010, Paris

“The Digital Humanities seeks to play an inaugural role with respect to a world in which, no longer the sole producers, stewards, and disseminators of knowledge or culture, universities are called upon to shape natively digital models of scholarly discourse for the newly emergent public spheres of the present era (the www, the blogosphere, digital libraries, etc.).”

Digital Humanities Manifesto 2.0, 2009

The Public, Digitality & Citizenship

“Digitisation offers tremendous opportunities and potential for synergies to develop. Policymakers therefore must actively support this structural change and adopt a framework in which we can all live, learn, work and do business in the digital world, and in which everyone can participate in the digital transformation.”

German Federal Government, Digital Agenda 2014 – 2017

European Open Science Agenda

“Removing barriers and creating incentives (e.g. Text and Data Mining (TDM), alternative metrics, research integrity)Developing infrastructures for Open Science (e.g. European Open Science Cloud)Embedding Open Science in society (e.g. citizen science, knowledge coalitions to address societal challenges).”

J.C. Burgelman et al, European Commission, DG Research & Innovation, June, 2015

http://www.liber2015.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Open-Science-from-vision-to-action.pptx

Data is Pervasive, Citizenship Changing

Data is increasingly used by the bodies that regulate our lives, decide how we are governed, given healthcare, invested in (the Humanities themselves!), etc.

To be a Digital Citizen it's not about consuming data (app culture) but actively interacting with data and even “being data”.

There needs to be a broader debate about what constitutes a "digital citizen" (it's more than "staying safe online").

Digital Humanities, Humans, Humanitarians

The Digital Humanities:

Help provide the technical and critical skills people might need to be more effective 'digital citizens/digital humanitarians'

Extend and transform the idea and reality of the academy

Reimagine our place in this new world

Digital Humanities, Humans, Humanitarians

Accelerating, advancing research practice

Return the Humanities to their original purpose of "wisdom for the common good"

There are examples of this, where we have "digital humanitarians": http://digitalhumanitarians.com/

Why Libraries? 1

“Where digital humanities aims beyond traditional academic scholars” Lisa Spiro

1) Provide wide access to cultural information

2) Enable manipulation of that data

3) Transform scholarly communication

4) Enhance teaching and learning

5) Make a public impact.

Why Libraries? 2

Skilled and indispensible interface with the public You have the content! Major pillar of sustainability Builds on 'Maker spaces' Extends and deepens pedagogic role Strengthens relevance

Why Libraries & Digital Humanities?

Digital Humanists & Libraries are constantly refining their significance & modes of response - developing new structures, services, modes of outreach, impact

Want to transform content Face disruption boldly with experimentation Reshape and recast what knowledge is produced, how it

is produced and for whom Data is pervasive, skills and networks to comprehend

data not - let's make sure they are.

“At its core, DH shares the most basic goal with the library – accessibility of information.”

Micah Vanderbilt

Thanks & Acknowledgements

With thanks to:

Marianne Ping Huang, Aarhus University

Alice Borgna, Piedmont University

Acknowledgements

Alan Liu, UC Santa Barbara

Micah Vandegrift, Florida State University

Lisa Spiro, Executive Director of Digital Scholarship Services at Rice University’s Fondren Library

Jen Schradie, Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse

UCC (University College Capital) Campus Nordsjælland, Denmark

mike.mertens@dariah.eu