The humanities in the twenty-first century have taken a decidedly digital turn. In some cases this means traditional questions are addressed with new digital skills or new modes of scholarly communication, in others, entirely new research questions are emerging with technology. The main goal of the Digital Humanities (DH) initiatives at the Department of English is to create multidisciplinary DH communities of practice where different stakeholders in the academic communities of AUB, Lebanon and the region learn together about new computing technologies and their impact on knowledge production.
In 2013, a number of selected undergraduate and graduate classes taught by Dr. David Wrisley featured course-integrated DH projects and methods of analysis (ENGL 229, ENGL 292/306V, ENGL 306K/346K).In the following years of 2014 and 2015, Dr. Najla Jarkas integrated a variety of DH assignments in Literature Survey courses: ENGL 205, ENGL 207 and ENGL 209.
In 2018, fully-fledged DH undergraduate courses that fulfill the General Education criteria for Humanities 1 and 2 Electives were developed and taught by Dr. Jarkas: ENGL 256B Introduction to Digital Humanities and ENGL 256D: Doing Digital Humanities.
In addition to pedagogically integrating DH in the Department of English, a number of workshops and events contributed to capacity building in the field:
• Forthcoming Spatial Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage (November 28-30, 2019)
• Forthcoming launching of DH Cafe will be (November 29, 2019)
• Forthcoming Linked Open Data (April 21-22, 2019)
At present, interdepartmental collaborations between DH faculty at the Department of English and faculty across campus are in progress and will be featured in new multidisciplinary courses and DH projects that will be showcased in the forthcoming Digital Humanities Institute Beirut, 2021.
To schedule a consultation session on how to integrate DH tools, methods of analysis and projects into your syllabi, contact
Dr. Najla Jarkas (
nj31@aub.edu.lb).