Digital Humanities Pedagogy: Practices, Principles and Politics

by Brett D. Hirsch (Editor)

Academic institutions are starting to recognize the growing public interest in digital humanities research, and there is an increasing demand from students for formal training in its methods. Despite the pressure on practitioners to develop innovative courses, scholarship in this area has tended to focus on research methods, theories and results rather than critical pedagogy and the actual practice of teaching. The essays in this collection offer a timely intervention in digital humanities scholarship, bringing together established and emerging scholars from a variety of humanities disciplines across the world. The first section offers views on the practical realities of teaching digital humanities at undergraduate and graduate levels, presenting case studies and snapshots of the authors' experiences alongside models for future courses and reflections on pedagogical successes and failures. The next section proposes strategies for teaching foundational digital humanities methods across a variety of scholarly disciplines, and the book concludes with wider debates about the place of digital humanities in the academy, from the field's cultural assumptions and social obligations to its political visions. Digital Humanities Pedagogy broadens the ways in which both scholars and practitioners can think about this emerging discipline, ensuring its ongoing development, vitality and long-term sustainability.

448 pages, Paperback

First published December 20, 2012

Reviews

[Ai Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading Digital Humanities Pedagogy as a person with no experience teaching and no background in pedagogy whatsoever, at times can be both frustrating and inspiring. Insight into the ways that the digital humanities is taught can be helpful both to professors of the digital humanities, those interested in incorporating the digital humanities, and students interested in the digital humanities. At the same time, the lack of coherent standard for digital humanities pedagogy becomes obvious not in the variety of practices (which in some ways support the digital humanities as an open source method of pedagogy) but rather in the sheer amount of duplication in the methods explained here.

That duplication in some ways makes many of the essays, especially in the 'Practice' portion of the book, feel redundant. Although it was interesting to see how much overlap there was between practices, at the same time, in many of the essays, and indeed, in some of the case studies, the duplication of method made getting through the essays incredibly difficult.

The best and most productive essays, like Lisa Spiro's "Opening up Digital Humanities Education," offer concrete and yet flexible ideas for courses in the digital humanities. Spiro's essay is especially notable because of the way it transcends the limits of institution and strict classroom, while maintaining an understanding of critique and potential problems with that idea.

In many ways, the low point of the anthology comes with "They Have Come, Why Won't We Build It? On the Digital Future of the Humanities" by Jon Saklofske, Estelle Clements and Richard Cunningham, which perpetuates the fear-mongering of the entire debate about the role of technology in academia. The apocalyptic warning that without technology as integral to education, students will cease coming to universities, completely ignores the current pressures on students to attend any type of higher education they can. The real power in the digital humanities, as so many other essays highlight, is not its role as the saving grace of higher education, but the power for collaboration that is currently so absent in the humanities.

That collaboration and the essays that highlight it (particularly Matthew K. Gold's "Looking for Whitman: A Multi-Campus Experiment in Digital Pedagogy) blow open the door on possibilities, and make this text inspiring to students of the digital humanities. In that way, this is a potentially important text not just for professors but for students to examine the way and participate in their own education.

[Yvonne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great starting point for anyone interested in pedagogy, Digital Humanities, or just the current conversation in Higher Education. This series of essays draws from leaders in the field and presents several different POV.