Summary of "What is Digital Humanities?"

Main ideas and lessons

Digital Humanities (DH) is a broad, evolving field that blends technical skill, theoretical critique, and pedagogical innovation.

DH is practiced in three primary ways:
1. Use of digital resources and methods to support humanistic inquiry — applying tools, data, and computational methods to humanities research.
2. Humanistic critique of computing technologies — examining and critiquing the social, political, and ethical dimensions of the technologies we use.
3. Digital pedagogy — using technology in the classroom to teach and learn, often through project-based approaches.

San José State’s approach emphasizes student co-creation of knowledge and project-based learning rather than passive consumption.

Key features:
- Students co-create knowledge through hands-on projects.
- Project-based classes produce real, public-facing work.
- Students adopt interdisciplinary roles and identities (for example: art-theorists, programming humanists, critical race coders, theoretical archivists, activist-scholars).
- The pedagogy aims to combine creating, learning, critiquing, and civic engagement — benefiting both project builders and project audiences.

DH is continually shifting and adaptable; its boundaries and practices change over time.
The field mixes technical skill, theoretical critique, and pedagogical innovation.
It opens wide possibilities for creative, critical, and civic engagement.

Apply digital tools and methods to humanities questions:
- Use digital resources such as databases, digitized archives, GIS, and text analysis to support interpretation and research.
Practice humanistic critique of technology:
- Analyze biases, power structures, and impacts embedded in computing systems and digital platforms.
Implement digital pedagogy:
- Design project-based courses where students co-create knowledge.
- Assign hybrid roles that combine humanities theory and technical practice (e.g., coding with critical perspectives, theorizing archival practice).
- Foster student agency and encourage public-facing or activist-oriented projects when appropriate.

Unnamed narrator / voiceover (primary speaker in the subtitles)
San José State University (institutional source describing its DH pedagogy)
Students (represented by the roles they take: art-theorists, programming humanists, critical race coders, theoretical archivists, activist-scholars)