The Digital Scholarship Hub is a growing community of scholars at QUB, interested in digital research methods, data and collaboration. Our 2023-4 series of events begins with an inaugural lecture from Prof Willard McCarty (Kings College London).

Please register here to attend in person or on Teams.

View the full programme here.

'Horizons for Digital Humanities'

Abstract: Since the first decade of this century the seventy year-old application of computing to the humanities has, under the name 'digital humanities', become hugely popular in universities and an attractive career path to supplement training in a traditional discipline. Publications have mushroomed, specialist journals proliferated, numerous books published and well-attended conferences multiplied. The newcomer may feel overwhelmed by the amount to be learned and mastered, but help is at hand. Universities have responded by creating centres of various kinds and academic courses, even in a few cases, departments. Among the most interesting of these combine technical practice and project development with research positions.

The persistent question of whether digital humanities is a discipline, raised almost from its beginning, has not slowed the field down. Rather this question points to the need for a generally agreed-upon theory of what it is all about, hence its philosophical and historical fruitfulness. Its practical concern with the making of things and the experimental nature of its practice point to challenging, underdeveloped relationships with engineering and the natural sciences. Its crucial role in curating the materials of our cultural heritage bind it to the library.