DH CENTERS IN THE USA
Diane M. Zorich (2008). A Survey of Digital Humanities Centers in the United States. In preparation for the 2008 Scholarly Communications Institute (SCI 6) focused on humanities research centers, the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) commissioned a survey of digital humanities centers (DHCs). The immediate goals of the published survey were to identify the extent of these centers and to explore their financing, organizational structure, products, services, and sustainability. The longer-term goal was to provide SCI 6 participants with a greater understanding of existing centers to inform their discussions about regional and national centers.
Zorich notes: Digital humanities centers are entities “where new media and technologies are used for humanities-based research, teaching, and intellectual engagement and experimentation. The goals of the center are to further humanities scholarship, create new forms of knowledge, and explore technology’s impact on humanities-based disciplines.”
Author's Name not given. A Review of Selected Digital Humanities Centers and Initiatives (March 2016) Digital Arts and Humanities (DARTH),
DEBATES ABOUT DH RESEARCH CENTERS - ARTICLES AND REPORTS
Schaffner, Jennifer and Ricky Erway. 2014. Does Every Research Library Need a Digital Humanities Center? Dublin, Ohio: OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) Research. Schaffner and Erway share examples of successful collaborations with DH, but caution that one size does not fit all.
Joan Lippincott et al (2024) "Trends in Digital Scholarship Centers", Educause Review June 16, 2014. Key Takeaways:
- Experiences gained from existing digital scholarship centers can help uninitiated institutions better launch their own efforts and thereby increase support for the research, teaching, and learning needs of their campus communities.
- A key attribute that distinguishes digital scholarship centers from more traditional research institutes is that they are service organizations, staffed by individuals with specialized skills who support work in the digital environment.
Mila Oiva (2020). The Chili and Honey of Digital Humanities Research: The Facilitation of the Interdisciplinary Transfer of Knowledge in Digital Humanities Centers. Digital Humanities Quarterly, Vol. 14 No. 3.
This article examines digital humanities (DH) centers as focal points of the interdisciplinary transfer of knowledge. It is based on the assumption that the manner in which the knowledge-transfer activities of DH communities are facilitated affects the knowledge they produce. Following an analysis of eight semi-structured interviews of directors, researchers, and administrators, the article considers how DH professionals describe the facilitation of the interdisciplinary transfer of knowledge in DH centers, and suggests that it is important to continue the discussion on the boundaries for the transfer of knowledge in DH..
John Unsworth (2007) Digital Humanities Centers as Cyberinfrastructure . Digital Humanities Centers Summit. National Endowment for the Humanities, Washington, DC.
The ACLS report on Cyberinfrastructure for Humanities and Social Sciences (available online at http://www.acls.org/cyberinfrastructure/index.htm) was a response to what is now called the Atkins report, after Dan Atkins, who chaired the NSF-appointed blue-ribbon panel on Cyberinfrastructure that produced it: he also served as an advisor to the ACLS Commission. The ACLS report had eight recommendations: Unsworth looks at each of those recommendations with an eye to the critical contributions that digital humanities centers can make in these areas, in order to ensure that the goals outlined in that report are realized. He argues that digital humanities centers are cyberinfrastructure for humanities and social sciences--not the only kind, but one of the most important kinds, especially given where those disciplines are and where they need to go.
DH CENTERS WORLDWIDE
CenterNet is an international network of digital humanities centers formed for cooperative and collaborative action to benefit digital humanities and allied fields in general, and, in particular, centers as humanities cyberinfrastructure. CenterNet was created as a result of a meeting, in April 12-13, 2007 in Washington D.C. , hosted by the U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities and the University of Maryland, College Park, in response to the American Council of Learned Societies' report on cyberinfrastructure for the Humanities and Social Sciences, published in 2006. See their International Directory of Digital Humanities Centers and their Resources for Starting and Sustaining Digital Humanities Centers
CenterNet enables individual DH Centers to network internationally — sharing and building on projects, tools, staff, and expertise. Through initiatives such as Day(s) of DH, and Resources for Starting and Sustaining DH Centers, CenterNet provides a virtual DH center for isolated DH projects and platform for educating the broader scholarly community about Digital Humanities.
DH CENTERS IN EUROPE
European Association for Digital Humanities (EADH) - Digital Humanities Centers - A selective and small listing of universities or colleges which have established DH centers in which technology and arts work closely together. Some of these centers also offer DH courses and modules, workshops and other education formats.
DEBATES ABOUT DH RESEARCH CENTERS - BOOKS
People, Practice, Power by Call Number: Available OnlineISBN: 1452965137Publication Date: 2022-01-18Focusing on the complex infrastructure that undergirds the field of digital humanities, People, Practice, Power examines the economic, social, and political factors that shape such academic endeavors. The multitude of perspectives within this collection offers both a much-needed critique of the existing structures for digital scholarship and the means to generate broader representation within the field. It is a self-reflexive examination of the current conditions under which the digital humanities are evolving, while helping to open up new sustainable pathways for its future.
See Chapter 10 (pp. 142-158): Brennan Collins and Dylan Ruediger, “A ‘No Tent’ / No Center Model for Digital Work in the Humanities.”
"Georgia State University (GSU) is a large, urban, public institution and one of
the most diverse universities in the country, with a high percentage of first
generation and Pell-eligible students. We are an R1 university, but in terms
of endowment, funding, and a focus on undergraduate education we share more
with comprehensive teaching universities than with flagship public schools or elite
private institutions. As is the case in many similar institutions, the humanities have
been a low institutional priority. However, GSU does have a strong commitment to
undergraduate education and the sum total of resources spread across the university is considerable. The Student Innovation Fellowship (SIF) takes advantage of these dispersed resources, gathering bits and pieces of resources from many university units to collaborate with faculty and staff on research and pedagogy projects, particularly those that involve emerging technologies, creative media, and humanistic inquiry. By accessing this network of human, technological, location, and funding resources and connecting our work to undergraduate education at every turn, we have managed to create something that looks like a DH center at an institution that otherwise is unlikely to fund one."
Debates in the Digital Humanities by Call Number: Available OnlineISBN: 0816677956Publication Date: 2012-01-09Encompassing new technologies, research methods, and opportunities for collaborative scholarship and open-source peer review, as well as innovative ways of sharing knowledge and teaching, the digital humanities promises to transform the liberal arts--and perhaps the university itself. Indeed, at a time when many academic institutions are facing austerity budgets, digital humanities programs have been able to hire new faculty, establish new centers and initiatives, and attract multimillion-dollar grants. Clearly the digital humanities has reached a significant moment in its brief history. But what sort of moment is it? Debates in the Digital Humanities brings together leading figures in the field to explore its theories, methods, and practices and to clarify its multiple possibilities and tensions. From defining what a digital humanist is and determining whether the field has (or needs) theoretical grounding, to discussions of coding as scholarship and trends in data-driven research, this cutting-edge volume delineates the current state of the digital humanities and envisions potential futures and challenges.
See pp. 281-291: Neil Fraistat, "The Function of Digital Humanities Centers at the Present Time," This chapter attempts to provide a specific sense of the things a representative digital humanities center actually does. It then discusses the general function of the digital humanities center as an institution. To that end, it begins with a brief tour of the center that the author directs, the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH). The tour illustrates the diverse kinds of research and the complex blend of faculty, staff, students, disciplines, partnerships, audiences, and funding streams that revolve around a major digital humanities center. The chapter also argues that the ultimate function of the digital humanities center at the present time is to be an agent of change. These centers have become rare sites of genuine collaboration and intellectual synergy, crossing disciplinary boundaries and even the cherished hierarchies of academic rank."
