The Digital Humanities Lab (DHL) is one of the newest on campus, and it indicates the Institute’s constant commitment to using modern technologies and techniques to expand the field of Humanities research. Its founding represents the Institute’s dedication to improving all fields of research and inquiry - along with the intersection of new and old techniques.
“Whenever the intensity of looking reaches a certain degree, one becomes aware of an equally intense energy coming towards one through the appearance of whatever it is one is scrutinizing.”
-John Berger
"Technology alone is not enough. It’s technology married with the liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the results that make our hearts sing.”
-Steve Jobs
These two quotes from Steve Jobs and John Berger exemplify what we are trying to do at the DHL. By combining two fields - Humanities and Technology - that are traditionally thought to be mutually exclusive, we are able to draw conclusions and find connections that would otherwise be impossible.
The use of today’s computers and processing power allows us to analyze thousands of texts in a matter of hours - as opposed to the multiple lifetimes that it would otherwise take to compile an analysis by hand. This enables the DHL to draw conclusions and perform studies on the poets, philosophers, and writers of the past in ways that were never thought possible before the advent of these methods.
Our current research concerns the use and application of gender in historical novels, pulling from authors of countless backgrounds and experiences to study how these writers described and illustrated gender in their works.