Digital Humanities Initiative

About

Mission Statement

The Digital Humanities initiative (DHi) at Hamilton College is a collaboratory - digital parlance for a research and teaching collaboration - where new media and computing technologies are used to promote humanities-based teaching, research, and scholarship across the liberal arts.

DHi challenges the ways in which teachers and students interact, use, and create digital collections (archival holdings) through the design and implementation of new digital tools.

DHi creates opportunities for new interdisciplinary models and methods of collaboration between faculty and students. These activities support a fundamental shift in humanities research, leveraging the potential of technology to access and manipulate rich media collections in ways that increase collaborative scholarship (not only within Hamilton humanities but also, potentially, with other institutions around the world) and lead to the generation of new knowledge.

DHi promotes a fundamental shift in the humanities through new interdisciplinary models and methods of collaboration between faculty and student-scholars, as co-researchers and co-creators of new knowledge.

DHi supports innovative inter and multidisciplinary research while integrating that research with teaching at the undergraduate level and with programs designed for a larger public.

DHi sponsors a wide range of activities, including faculty development workshops, media literacy programs, scholarly conferences and symposia, undergraduate seminars, and a fellows program for Hamilton College students and faculty.

Curricular and Pedagogical Initiatives

The DHi functions to promote curricular initiatives in Hamilton's inter and multidisciplinary new minor in Cinema and New Media Studies (CNMS). This minor introduces students to history, theory, literacy and production skills in film and new media. CNMS brings together courses involving historical and theoretical study and/or hands-on experience of photochemical, electronic and digital media. Hamilton's HILLgroup, coordinating academic support for mediabased constructivist learning assignments, will be the foundation upon which connections between DHi research projects and the curriculum are built. DHi, functioning as an incubator for innovative digital humanities research, will support development of projects that have an existing course connection and/or state potential course/assignment designs subsequent to the research.