New possibilities, new collaborative practices enliven the humanistic fields

Humanist. the word can still conjure quaintly archaic images of a lone scholar hunched over a dog-eared text, deep in study, desk-bound. And yet the humanities today are brushing aside the stereotypes and embracing methods and techniques that are increasingly collaborative, experimental, computational, and scientific. Adjectives like “edgy” are even being thrown about.

We can attribute some of this new energy to the emerging set of scholarly practices known as the digital humanities. The term lends a title to this domain where the traditional modes of humanities research intersect with new tools like data mining, statistical analytics, and graphic design. It is a pursuit that inspires collaboration across disciplines, which has in turn yielded a new breed of humanists with a set of broader, more diverse skills. This is good news for today’s graduate students; it is creating new opportunities on the job market and potentially making them more desirable as candidates.

At a recent panel discussion in the Lamont Forum Room dedicated to the subject, Jeffrey Schnapp, professor of romance languages and literatures and a pioneer in the field, touched on this argument that increased collaboration can lead to the acquisition of essential workforce expertise. “The kinds of skills associated with teamwork,” he began, “with working with diverse populations of people with different kinds of expertise, who have to collaborate on shaping research questions—iterating them and producing deliverables—those kinds of skills add to the skillset of humanists, who have been traditionally identified with a sort of solitary mode of inquiry. And we’ve therefore been deemed unsocial somehow, unable to operate in large corporations.” But with the introduction of digital humanities, this perception is finally beginning to shift. “It changes the humanities culture away from this idea that somehow making and doing is something that they do, while we think, we study. That boundary line is no longer the way it was,” explained Schnapp.

The panel was hosted by the Office of Career Services and moderated by Diana Sorensen, the FAS divisional dean for arts and humanities and the James F. Rothenberg Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and professor of comparative literature. It was meant to explore how the new practices and changing perceptions are opening new avenues for scholarship and professional development.

So how can humanists leverage these new opportunities and convey their skills to potential employers? “It’s really about marketing yourself based on the skills that you can offer, and looking for the people that compliment your skills,” offered Beth Altringer, director of the Behavior for Better Innovation Group and a visiting lecturer at the School of Engineering. Altringer went on to explain how the day-to-day tasks of a graduate student in the digital humanities really aren’t that different from, say, the steps one takes to build a business. As a student interested in the digital humanities, you build your community, you do the research and create an intelligible representation of that research, all the while asking the questions that really matter to people. These are the same skills involved in entrepreneurship; candidates just need to articulate that to employers.

It is important to recognize, however, that the intent behind the new scholarly methods is not to do away with the traditional, individualist, monographic approach, but to complement it. The essay, for instance, will always play an integral role in humanistic scholarship. Still, the world is indeed digitizing. With products like Google Glass on the horizon, the “literature of our lives” has literally gone digital, and it’s important that humanists keep up with these new forms of narrative. “As uncomfortable as it makes me personally,” admitted Altringer, “I think we can’t turn back from this moment where people are collecting more and more and more information. And if the past is any indication, people will want to document their lives and create their own autobiography. And this will happen in an environment with way more data than we’ve ever had. And as we begin to analyze this data, many more entrepreneurial opportunities for those who want to go into that, as well as research opportunities, will become available.”

Students can probe deeper and begin to experiment by getting involved with one of many Harvard affiliated organizations making waves in the field. One such group is the metaLAB, a research engine for the arts and humanities founded by Schnapp at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. The metaLAB offers part-time research positions, learning courses, community events, and a fellowship program. Both the Center for Hellenic Studies and Dumbarton Oaks have digitally focused internships and fellowships, and the Behavior for Better