Defining Digital Humanities: A Reader

The study of digital humanities is going from strength to strength. Defining Digital Humanities: A Reader comes as a timely primer for those new to the area, either new students or for those who support the ongoing work of digital humanists. As a new field of study, there is a lot of ambiguity around what constitutes digital humanities and what does not. The work does not shy away from exploring the debates that have shaped the early years of the field. Rather, it presents a range of views and instead of attempting to finish on a definitive statement, the editors leave it to the readers to decide.

The shape of the work begins with a broad introduction to current thinking in digital humanities about what it is and is not; it then draws together what the editors consider the essential readings on the digital humanities with a new introduction, written by the editors and authors, to each piece.

There are five parts to the book. Section 1 (six chapters), Humanities Computing, gives selected writings from before the term digital humanities was coined. Section 2 (five chapters), Digital Humanities, transforms humanities computing into digital humanities. In Section 3 (eight chapters), which provides the bulk of the readings, the editors appropriately move beyond traditional academic publishing into the realm of the Blogosphere. Section 4 (two chapters), Voices from the Community, rounds the discussion off, and Section 5, Further Materials, details the next places to explore if the reader wishes to go on discovering in this field.

One of the elements of this work that appealed to me beyond the content was the editor’s willingness to engage in writings from beyond the traditional academic media. It is significant that the largest section in this book on the digital humanities focuses on writing originating in that very digital realm of the blogosphere.

As a starting point to discovering the digital humanities, this reader offers an excellent launching pad.