Digital Humanities

How is this work connected to Digital Humanities?

I would have to answer this question in two different ways: 1) the content of the work is connected to digital humanities work being done at small liberal arts college, and 2) the format of the work embodies the values of digital humanities.

Content

Because of the focus on pedagogy, this work on integrating videogames into a composition classroom does not have the typical digital humanities focus on research. This is true despite my use of research from traditional digital humanities sources. The way we can bridge this gap is by looking at the digital humanities work being done at liberal arts colleges as described by Bryan Alexander and Rebecca Frost Davis in "Should Liberal Arts Campuses Do Digital Humanities?" They say "Part of advocacy for the digital humanities on campus includes integrating with an institution's mission and culture. For example, both Hamilton and Occidental Colleges have a pedagogical focus for their digital humanities centers in keeping with their institution's academic mission" (Alexander 376). While I am doing my work at an R1 institution, no university would remove teaching from its mission. There has to be room for pedagogical innovation (I say this, knowing that it isn't always valued). Why do we have to value pedagogy? Well, for one, as Alexander and Davis say, "as liberal arts digital humanities work grows, those campuses will be sending undergraduates into digital humanities studies programs" (383). If we are serious about the future of digital humanities (and I believe we are), we need to work to perpetuate interest in the work. To do so, we need to be preparing the next generations of graduate students before they ever reach that phase of education. Can you imagine graduate literature programs whose students had never taken classes in English, who didn't know the first thing about critical theory? Finally, as Alexander and Frost do, we can move this discussion outside of the academy: "the liberal arts emphasis on involving undergraduates, local communities, and multiple campuses might contribute the sense of humanities belonging to everyone, not just trained professionals" (384). I'd suggest that digital humanities, a branch that is invested in modern culture, might even bridge this gap more effectively than traditional humanities. Pedagogy is an essential part of this process of widening the base of understanding the relevance of the humanities.