# digital humanities

> an area of scholarly activity at the intersection of computing or digital technologies and the disciplines of the humanities

**Wikidata**: [Q1026962](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1026962)  
**Wikipedia**: [English](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_humanities)  
**Source**: https://4ort.xyz/entity/digital-humanities

## Summary
Digital humanities is the scholarly field that combines computing technologies with traditional humanities disciplines to research, analyze, and present cultural materials. It represents a methodological shift in how scholars study texts, artifacts, and historical data using digital tools and computational approaches.

## Key Facts
- Classified as a branch of science and subclass of humanities with 42 Wikipedia language editions covering the topic
- Recognized by multiple international library systems including Library of Congress (sh2008122106) and German National Library (1038714850)
- Encompasses specialized subfields including digital classics, digital art history, digital history, and historical network analysis
- Practiced by professionals known as digital humanists
- Commonly abbreviated as DH and known by multiple international names including Humanités numériques (French) and Geistesinformatik (German)

## FAQs
### Q: What disciplines fall under digital humanities?
A: Digital humanities encompasses computing applications in literature, history, art history, classics, archaeology, and other humanities fields. It includes specialized areas like digital history, digital art history, and digital classics.

### Q: How is digital humanities different from traditional humanities?
A: Digital humanities applies computational methods and digital technologies to humanities research, enabling large-scale text analysis, data visualization, digital archiving, and interactive presentation of cultural materials that would be impossible with traditional methods.

### Q: What are some practical applications of digital humanities?
A: Digital humanities projects include creating searchable digital archives, analyzing historical networks using social network analysis, developing visual search engines for art history, and building participatory digital archives for contemporary events like the COVID-19 pandemic.

## Why It Matters
Digital humanities transforms how we understand and interact with cultural heritage and historical materials. By applying computational methods to humanities research, scholars can analyze vast quantities of texts, images, and artifacts that would be impossible to process manually. This field bridges the gap between technological capabilities and humanistic inquiry, enabling new forms of research that combine quantitative analysis with qualitative interpretation. Digital humanities projects like corona-memory.ch demonstrate how digital platforms can collect and preserve contemporary experiences for future historians. The field also democratizes access to cultural materials through digitization and online platforms, making rare texts and artifacts available to researchers worldwide. As our world becomes increasingly digital, digital humanities provides essential methods for preserving, analyzing, and understanding both historical and contemporary culture in digital forms.

## Notable For
- International scope with coverage in 42 Wikipedia language editions and recognition by major national libraries worldwide
- Interdisciplinary nature combining computer science expertise with humanities scholarship
- Multiple specialized subdisciplines including digital art history, digital classics, and historical network analysis
- Active research community with numerous computer scientists and researchers contributing to the field
- Practical applications ranging from visual search engines for art to participatory digital archives

## Body
Digital humanities emerged as a distinct scholarly field at the intersection of computing technologies and humanities disciplines. The field encompasses various specialized areas including digital classics, which applies digital methods to classical studies; digital art history, which uses digital technologies for art historical research and teaching; and digital history, which examines the relationship between historical studies and digital media.

Historical network analysis represents another important subfield, applying social network analysis methods to historical research questions. The broader category of digital human sciences encompasses these various specialized approaches.

The field has gained international recognition, with authoritative identifiers from major library systems including the Library of Congress and German National Library. It's known by various names across different languages and contexts, including humanities computing, e-humanities, and computational humanities.

Digital humanities projects demonstrate practical applications of these methods. The corona-memory.ch project, launched in 2020 in Switzerland, serves as a digital participatory archive collecting personal memories of the COVID-19 pandemic. Tools like imgs.ai provide visual search capabilities specifically for digital art history applications.

The field involves collaboration between humanities scholars and computer scientists. Numerous researchers contribute to digital humanities development, including Clemens Beckstein (born 1960), a German researcher in digital humanities, and Brigitte Mathiak, who earned her doctorate in computer science. Other contributors include researchers from various German universities and institutions, combining expertise in computer science with humanities applications.

## Schema Markup
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  "@type": "Thing",
  "name": "digital humanities",
  "description": "An area of scholarly activity at the intersection of computing or digital technologies and the disciplines of the humanities",
  "sameAs": ["https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q205961", "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_humanities"],
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## References

1. Freebase Data Dumps. 2013
2. Integrated Authority File
3. Quora
4. National Library of Israel
5. KBpedia
6. [OpenAlex](https://docs.openalex.org/download-snapshot/snapshot-data-format)
7. Wikibase TDKIV