Hard Lessons in the Digital Humanities

Eric Poehler at Kent last week

Digital humanities. Most of us have heard the term, but very few are aware of what it actually means or how it's created. A bit like spreadable butter or that milk they sell in opaque white cartons that stays fresh for decades. It's familiar, but at the same time not.

Luckily, the digital humanities pioneer, Eric Poehler of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, came to the University last week to talk about some of the 'hard lessons' in the fledgling discipline. Even before he got on to the lessons themselves, he was having to try and nail down the term. 'Is it singular or plural?' he asked. 'Should we use it to describe a mindset or methodology, or to label any humanities endeavour that uses technology?' As ever with DH, the answer was not straightforward, and emerged during the course of his talk.