The Digital-Humanities Bust

After a decade of investment and hype, what has the field accomplished? Not much

 By Timothy Brennan October 15, 2017

Do see the 53 comments in the thread at the end!!!

Also from the Chronicle Review:

‘Digital’ Is Not the Opposite of ‘Humanities’ By Sarah E. Bond, Hoyt Long, and Ted Underwood November 01, 2017

There Is No Such Thing as ‘the Digital Humanities’ By Eric Weiskott November 01, 2017

 

From:

Yes or No to a Career in the Humanities ???

Majoring In The Humanities Does Pay Off, Just Later

From: Susan Adams, Forbes Staff, 22/1/2014

Majoring in the humanities seems like a bad idea these days. Employers don’t want to hire you, we hear, and when they do, they pay poorly (I’ve written three stories saying as much in the last two weeks). But a new study out today gives hope to liberal arts graduates.  ...But at least humanities graduates hold their own.

Liberal Arts Grads Win Long-Term

From: Allie Grasgreen, 22/1/2014

reporting on the US report  “How Liberal Arts and Sciences Majors Fare in Employment,”

Employers consistently say they want to hire people who have a broad knowledge base and can work together to solve problems, debate, communicate and think critically, the report notes – all skills that liberal arts programs aggressively, and perhaps uniquely, strive to teach.

Employment in the Humanities

 From: Dispatches from Drury's Humanities Division

 One fact about the Humanities that is well acknowledged is that studying it leads to personal satisfaction...Does this personal satisfaction come at a practical cost? Some will have you believe that students interested in the Humanities must choose between personal or economic satisfaction. Thankfully, the data does not support this re a recent study commissioned by the Academy of the Arts and Sciences (AAS) collected data on available jobs.

Salaries in the Humanities

From: Dispatches from Drury's Humanities Division

In addition to discussion about unemployment rates, it is important for people to have a good idea of the salary implications of majoring in the Humanities. Now, remember, here we are talking about only majoring in the Humanities. Double majoring in a Humanities field and in a non-Humanities field combines the power of the skill sets for both sides. Here, however, we focus just on single majors.
Humanities majors do well! On average they do make less than their non-Humanities counterparts, but not much less. In fact, particular Humanities fields, such as philosophy, history, and marketing, earn more at mid-career than the non-Humanities average. Additionally, philosophy majors (along with physics majors) see the largest start to mid-career salary boost – a whopping 104.5% increase over that period re the latest Georgetown study

Five things we mean when we say digital humanities

Libraries as Problem Shapers: some thoughts sparked by Brian Croxall (five things that we mean when we say digital humanities)

Brian Mathews (Virginia Tech.) comments: It was great to learn about Emory’s Center for Digital Scholarship but the real reason Brian Croxall was on campus was to talk about digital humanities. We hosted him in the library and his talk was insightful and entertaining.

The main takeaway for me was his five things that we mean when we say digital humanities:

1. Humanistic examination of digital objects
2. Digital scholarly communication
3. Digital pedagogy
4. Creation of digital archives and primary source materials
5. Digital examination of Humanistic objects

 From: The Ubiquitous Librarian, 24th November 2014

Reports on Humanities in SA - relevancy & future actions 2014+?

1. Report on the Charter for Humanities and Social Sciences 2011

Report commissioned by the Minister of Higher Education & Training for the charter for Humanities and Social Sciences June 2011

Department Higher Education and Training, Republic of South Africa

2. Consensus Study on the State of Humanities in South Africa: status, prospects and strategies

Published by the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf)  August 2011

ISBN- 978-0-9814159-3-2

Humanities Graduates valued/needed?

Move over, Stem: why the world needs humanities graduates

Global problems can't be resolved without a humanities perspective, so academics need to get out into the world and make the case for their subject...

So what's up with our cloistered historians and philosophers, our literary critics, classicists and scholars of the fine, performing and otherwise liberal arts? Clearly there's some gathering global anxiety within the academy and it's mainly around the difficulty of getting broader social recognition for the two convictions about humanities that are motivating these discussions.

Humanities graduates have unique skills

Humanities perspective is needed in all global challenges

From: The Guardian's Higher Education Network, posted by Paul Smith 19 March 2014
Paul Smith is director of the British Council in the US. He spoke at Oxford University as part of the activist humanities conference.

 

Digital Humanities

How the Humanities Compute in the Classroom

Computer-assisted scholarship in the humanities dates back decades. In the past five years, though, the kinds of work collectively known as the digital humanities have taken on fresh luster. Observers have called this technology-inflected research "the next big thing."
Beyond the headlines and hoopla, digital scholarship has begun to work its way into the academic ecosystem. In the following collection of articles, read more about how the digital humanities play now in the undergraduate classroom, whether they pay off in tenure and promotion, and what it takes to create a work of digital scholarship that will last.

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- See more at: http://m.chronicle.com/article/How-the-Humanities-Compute-in/143809/?cid=wb#sthash.ttugUO0c.dpuf

Computer-assisted scholarship in the humanities dates back decades. In the past five years, though, the kinds of work collectively known as the digital humanities have taken on fresh luster. Observers have called this technology-inflected research "the next big thing."
Beyond the headlines and hoopla, digital scholarship has begun to work its way into the academic ecosystem. In the following collection of articles, read more about how the digital humanities play now in the undergraduate classroom, whether they pay off in tenure and promotion, and what it takes to create a work of digital scholarship that will last.

---

- See more at: http://m.chronicle.com/article/How-the-Humanities-Compute-in/143809/?cid=wb#sthash.ttugUO0c.dpuf

 Computer assisted research in the humanities dates back decades. In the past five years, though, the kinds of work collectively known as the digital humanities have taken on fresh luster...digital scholarship has begun to work its way into the academic ecosystem. Read more for how digital humanities play out in the classroom and for collection of articles.

From: Chronicle of Higher Education, Marc Parry, January 6 2014

Computer-assisted scholarship in the humanities dates back decades. In the past five years, though, the kinds of work collectively known as the digital humanities have taken on fresh luster. Observers have called this technology-inflected research "the next big thing." - See more at: http://m.chronicle.com/article/How-the-Humanities-Compute-in/143809/?cid=wb#sthash.ttugUO0c.dpuf

Computer-assisted scholarship in the humanities dates back decades. In the past five years, though, the kinds of work collectively known as the digital humanities have taken on fresh luster. Observers have called this technology-inflected research "the next big thing."
Beyond the headlines and hoopla, digital scholarship has begun to work its way into the academic ecosystem. In the following collection of articles, read more about how the digital humanities play now
- See more at: http://m.chronicle.com/article/How-the-Humanities-Compute-in/143809/?cid=wb#sthash.ttugUO0c.d

Computer-assisted scholarship in the humanities dates back decades. In the past five years, though, the kinds of work collectively known as the digital humanities have taken on fresh luster. Observers have called this technology-inflected research "the next big thing."
Beyond the headlines and hoopla, digital scholarship has begun to work its way into the academic ecosystem. In the following collection of articles, read more about how the digital humanities play now
- See more at: http://m.chronicle.com/article/How-the-Humanities-Compute-in/143809/?cid=wb#sthash.ttugUO0c.dpuf

Computer-assisted scholarship in the humanities dates back decades. In the past five years, though, the kinds of work collectively known as the digital humanities have taken on fresh luster. Observers have called this technology-inflected research "the next big thing."
Beyond the headlines and hoopla, digital scholarship has begun to work its way into the academic ecosystem. In the following collection of articles, read more about how the digital humanities play now
- See more at: http://m.chronicle.com/article/How-the-Humanities-Compute-in/143809/?cid=wb#sthash.ttugUO0c.d

Computer-assisted scholarship in the humanities dates back decades. In the past five years, though, the kinds of work collectively known as the digital humanities have taken on fresh luster. Observers have called this technology-inflected research "the next big thing."
Beyond the headlines and hoopla, digital scholarship has begun to work its way into the academic ecosystem. In the following collection of articles, read more about how the digital humanities play now in the undergraduate classroom, whether they pay off in tenure and promotion, and what it takes to create a work of digital scholarship that will last.
- See more at: http://m.chronicle.com/article/How-the-Humanities-Compute-in/143809/?cid=wb#sthash.ttugUO0c.dpuf

Computer-assisted scholarship in the humanities dates back decades. In the past five years, though, the kinds of work collectively known as the digital humanities have taken on fresh luster. Observers have called this technology-inflected research "the next big thing."
Beyond the headlines and hoopla, digital scholarship has begun to work its way into the academic ecosystem. In the following collection of articles, read more about how the digital humanities play now in the undergraduate classroom, whether they pay off in tenure and promotion, and what it takes to create a work of digital scholarship that will last.
- See more at: http://m.chronicle.com/article/How-the-Humanities-Compute-in/143809/?cid=wb#sthash.ttugUO0c.dpuf

Computer-assisted scholarship in the humanities dates back decades. In the past five years, though, the kinds of work collectively known as the digital humanities have taken on fresh luster. Observers have called this technology-inflected research "the next big thing."
Beyond the headlines and hoopla, digital scholarship has begun to work its way into the academic ecosystem. In the following collection of articles, read more about how the digital humanities play now in the undergraduate classroom, whether they pay off in tenure and promotion, and what it takes to create a work of digital scholarship that will last.
- See more at: http://m.chronicle.com/article/How-the-Humanities-Compute-in/143809/?cid=wb#sthash.ttugUO0c.dpuf

Computer-assisted scholarship in the humanities dates back decades. In the past five years, though, the kinds of work collectively known as the digital humanities have taken on fresh luster. Observers have called this technology-inflected research "the next big thing."
Beyond the headlines and hoopla, digital scholarship has begun to work its way into the academic ecosystem. In the following collection of articles, read more about how the digital humanities play now in the undergraduate classroom, whether they pay off in tenure and promotion, and what it takes to create a work of digital scholarship that will last.
- See more at: http://m.chronicle.com/article/How-the-Humanities-Compute-in/143809/?cid=wb#sthash.ttugUO0c.dpuf

Crisis in the Humanities, 2011-2012 debates

Special Report

Crisis in Humanities

Whether South Africa's humanities and social sciences will survive a university-centred and national crisis remains a controversial question. 

Collection of articles from the Mail & Guardian

State of Humanities in South Africa, 2009-2010 debates

A list of links to articles, reports, interviews etc on the status and role of the Humanities in South Africa

Includes the Mellon Report on Reforming the Humanities Ph.D. & Keith Thomas's TLS article on:

What are Universities For?

Content from the ASSAf website ( Academy of Science of South Africa)

Open Library of Humanities: a community-grounded approach to academic publishing

 The Open Library of Humanities is a newly-launched project aiming to provide an ethically sound and sustainable open access model for humanities research. By coordinating the discussion and implementation of a community-grounded approach to academic publishing, OLH aims to create an outlet better able to serve academics, libraries, and the wider research community. Co-founder Martin Eve describes the current “ideas phase” of the project and outlines his vision of where it will go from here.  

In the spirit of PLoS, the Open Library of Humanities aims to bring sustainable open access publishing to the humanities.