Monday, April 2, 2012

I Just Had a Thought:

Okay, quick little blurb that I had as I've been working on finishing my video. I've come to realize that the pursuit for legitimizing the digital humanities is very similar to the pursuit of attempting to legitimize the significance of studying humanities at the University level.

There is a lot of talk about how many scholars don't understand the complete significance of studying the Humanities at a university level. The argument stands that no definitive career is mapped out for you. There are too many variables and it often appears that the study of literature or art don't lead to a significant career in today's fast-paced, business-oriented world.

The other side argues that the Humanities are an essential study to our society today. Both men and women should study subjects such as literature and realize that even though there may not be a definitive career path, Humanities majors are actually far better off because they aren't limited by a chosen path. Humanities allow for a wide array of opportunities to present themselves. The door of possibilities is far larger as a Humanities major!

The contention with the digital humanities is that many people believe that taking a focus on the digital form of study hinders the significance of traditoinal forms of study. People, like Stanley Fish, feel that digital humanities can be significant if you are merely "crunching numbers." But he fears that the digital humanities can also cause people to focus more on the digital aspects and as a result many will ignore the necessity to explore texts in a more standardized format.

And then there are those who argue that the Digital Humanities allow for an expansion upon traditional forms of study. You can learn a lot of traditional studies. However, you can also apply digital study methods to enhance studies and open new avenues of comprehension that aren't available through more traditional forms.

Can you see the correlation I see?

No comments:

Post a Comment