Flipped Learning: Digital Humanities
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1) What is Digital Humanities? What's it doing in English Department?
Introduction
The emergence of digital humanities (DH) represents a significant shift in the way scholars in English and related disciplines engage with texts, knowledge production, and pedagogy. Traditionally, humanities scholarship emphasized close reading, interpretation, and theoretical frameworks rooted in literary, historical, and cultural contexts. However, the increasing integration of digital tools and computational methods has transformed both the scope and practices of the humanities. Matthew G. Kirschenbaum, in his essay “What Is Digital Humanities and What’s It Doing in English Departments?” (2010), provides a comprehensive account of the field’s institutional growth, methodological diversity, and academic implications. His discussion reveals that DH is not merely a technological supplement to literary studies but an evolving methodological and social movement that reshapes the future of the humanities.
Defining Digital Humanities
Kirschenbaum acknowledges that the question “What is digital humanities?” has become almost a genre in itself. Earlier, the term “humanities computing” was common, but the shift to “digital humanities” reflects a broader and more inclusive vision. DH is best understood not as a fixed body of texts or technologies but as a methodological outlook. According to definitions cited in the essay, DH involves the intersection of computing with humanities disciplines, encompassing research, teaching, and invention. It emphasizes investigation, analysis, and presentation of information in electronic form while simultaneously considering how digital media reshape humanistic inquiry
digital humanities kirschenbaum…
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This definition highlights DH as interdisciplinary and methodological, privileging processes over fixed objects. For instance, the use of tools like Voyeur for text analysis or projects such as the Shakespeare Quartos Archive illustrate how computational resources support both preservation and innovative forms of interpretation.
Institutional and Professional Structures
One of the most striking aspects of DH, as Kirschenbaum notes, is the professional apparatus that has developed around it. Organizations such as the Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations (ADHO), the Digital Humanities Quarterly, and summer institutes at universities provide formal structures for training, collaboration, and publication. Moreover, digital humanities centers—often housed in English departments—have become hubs for research projects that span from archiving historical texts to preserving virtual worlds.
The institutionalization of DH demonstrates that it is not a fringe activity but a recognized academic field with its own conferences, journals, and funding opportunities. Importantly, initiatives like the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Office of Digital Humanities illustrate how DH has gained legitimacy at the federal level, securing resources that affirm its long-term role in higher education.
Social Dimensions and Scholarly Communities
Kirschenbaum stresses that DH is not only about tools and projects but also about networks of people. Collaboration, interdisciplinarity, and openness are central values within the community. The “Day of Digital Humanities,” where scholars document their work online, exemplifies the field’s collective identity. Similarly, social media platforms such as Twitter have become important for real-time scholarly exchange, shaping conferences and amplifying academic conversations.
The social dimension also intersects with broader concerns in academia. For example, the case of Brian Croxall—whose paper at the MLA convention gained visibility online despite his physical absence due to financial constraints—shows how DH platforms can democratize scholarly communication. Such episodes reveal how DH provides a space to question traditional hierarchies of academia while enabling greater accessibility and participation.
Why English Departments?
Kirschenbaum identifies several reasons why English departments have been particularly receptive to DH. First, text, unlike images or audio, has historically been the most manageable data type for computers. Thus, computational methods such as stylometry and authorship attribution naturally aligned with literary studies. Second, the field of composition studies has long integrated computers into pedagogy. Third, debates around editorial theory in the 1980s dovetailed with the rise of electronic archives, leading to projects like Jerome McGann’s Rossetti Archive. Fourth, experimental forms like hypertext literature expanded literary inquiry into digital media. Fifth, cultural studies opened the door to examining digital artifacts as cultural objects. Finally, large-scale digitization projects such as Google Books have enabled scholars like Franco Moretti to pursue “distant reading” on unprecedented scales.
These convergences explain why English departments, more than other humanities fields, became central homes for DH.
Challenges and Transformations
Kirschenbaum also situates DH within the changing landscape of higher education. With declining public funding, adjunctification, and the rise of online education, DH has been framed as both an opportunity and a site of resistance. Its emphasis on collaboration, openness, and non-hierarchical practices contrasts with traditional academic structures. Furthermore, debates around open-access publishing, peer review, and tenure show how DH intersects with pressing institutional and ethical questions about the ownership and dissemination of knowledge.
Conclusion
Kirschenbaum’s essay demonstrates that digital humanities is not simply about digitizing texts or adopting new technologies. Rather, it is a dynamic, interdisciplinary field that blends methodological innovation, institutional support, and social networks. English departments have played a crucial role in nurturing DH because of their textual orientation, openness to new media, and engagement with cultural studies. At the same time, DH reflects broader tensions in academia, particularly concerning labor, access, and institutional change. Ultimately, digital humanities represents a form of scholarship and pedagogy that is collaborative, public, and deeply embedded in the infrastructures of contemporary academic life. Its rise signals both a transformation in how we study texts and a reimagining of the humanities’ place in the digital age.
2) Introduction to Digital Humanities | Amity University |
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Introduction
The rise of Digital Humanities (DH) as a field of study marks one of the most dynamic transformations in contemporary scholarship. At its core, DH represents an intersection between computing technologies and the traditional concerns of the humanities. A recent webinar organized by the Amity School of Languages, Amity University Rajasthan, and delivered by Professor Dileep Bharat from Maharaja Krishna Kumar Singh Ji Bhavnagar University, Gujarat, provided an illuminating overview of this field. The session emphasized the interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary character of DH, exploring its definitions, origins, and key areas of application. It also highlighted the broader ethical, pedagogical, and cultural implications of integrating digital technologies into humanistic research and teaching.
The Nature and Scope of Digital Humanities
Professor Bharat began by contextualizing DH as both a discipline and an umbrella term. Unlike narrowly defined fields, DH embraces a broad scope, incorporating computational methods, collaborative scholarship, and multimodal criticism. Its evolution from “humanities computing” to “digital humanities” reflects the ongoing effort to capture the expanding range of digital interventions in scholarship. This evolution underscores DH’s ability to transcend disciplinary boundaries and generate innovative approaches to research and pedagogy. By framing DH as both a methodology and a movement, the webinar underscored its flexibility and responsiveness to the challenges of the digital age.
Digital Archives as the Foundation
A significant part of the discussion centered on the role of digital archives. These repositories, which make literary and cultural materials accessible in searchable and interactive formats, are foundational to the digital turn in the humanities. Early projects such as the Dante Gabriel Rossetti Hypermedia Archive and Victorianweb.org were cited as pioneering efforts that reshaped how scholars and students engage with primary sources. More recent initiatives, including Google Arts & Culture, the Valmiki Ramayana project, and Tagore’s digital archives, demonstrate the democratizing power of digital platforms. They not only preserve cultural heritage but also extend access globally, thereby enriching pedagogy and broadening scholarly participation. The interactivity of such archives offers new modes of engagement, enabling deeper and more dynamic encounters with texts and cultural artifacts.
Computational Humanities and Corpus Linguistics
Moving from preservation to analysis, the webinar explored computational humanities, particularly corpus linguistics, as a tool for research. Digital technologies allow large-scale textual analysis that combines quantitative precision with qualitative interpretation. For example, the application of corpus linguistics to student academic writing reveals critical patterns of stance-taking and argumentation. Such research underscores the potential of DH to enhance pedagogy by providing instructors with insights into writing practices and discourse features. The use of computational tools for literary criticism and language studies reflects how DH methodologies bridge gaps between language, literature, and education, enriching both scholarly inquiry and classroom practice.
Pedagogical Innovations and the Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of digital tools in higher education, and the webinar addressed this shift in detail. Innovative teaching methods, such as the use of glass boards, multi-camera setups, and hybrid classrooms, were highlighted as examples of how DH principles are shaping pedagogy. These technologies challenged the traditional “chalk and talk” paradigm, fostering interactive, multimodal, and inclusive learning environments. By enabling remote participation and diverse modes of engagement, these innovations demonstrate how DH is not confined to research alone but is equally transformative in teaching and learning practices.
Generative Literature and Questions of Creativity
One of the more provocative aspects of the session concerned generative literature, in which algorithms produce poetry and prose. A live quiz revealed that participants often struggled to distinguish between human-authored and computer-generated texts. This raised pressing questions about creativity, authorship, and literary value in the digital age. Should AI-generated works be attributed to humans, machines, or collaborative efforts? More fundamentally, how do such texts alter our understanding of creativity as an inherently human activity? By engaging with these questions, DH positions itself as a field uniquely capable of addressing the philosophical and aesthetic implications of digital technology in culture.
Digital Ethics and Critical Perspectives
The webinar concluded by emphasizing the critical role of the humanities in evaluating the ethical, political, and social challenges arising from digital technologies. Issues such as surveillance, privacy, and algorithmic bias were foregrounded, with reference to projects like MIT’s Moral Machine, which illustrates the moral dilemmas posed by autonomous systems. Here, DH demonstrates its capacity to go beyond technical expertise, offering interpretive frameworks that ensure technological development aligns with human values. Moreover, perspectives from feminist and postcolonial digital humanities remind us that critical inquiry into power, identity, and representation must remain central as the field continues to expand.
Conclusion
The webinar provided a comprehensive overview of Digital Humanities as both a methodology and a movement that transforms scholarship, teaching, and critical inquiry. From digital archives and computational analysis to pedagogical innovation and generative literature, DH opens new avenues for research and expands the boundaries of humanistic study. At the same time, it foregrounds the urgent need to address ethical and social concerns in the digital age. Professor Bharat’s lecture made clear that DH is not merely a technical supplement to the humanities but a transformative framework that redefines creativity, collaboration, and critical reflection. Ultimately, DH invites scholars to envision the humanities not as relics of the past but as dynamic participants in shaping the digital future.
4) Watch short films linked in above article or in the blog - 'Why are we so scared of robots
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1. Human-AI Companionship and Memory: An Analytical Perspective on the Dunko Narrative
The video narrative centered on Jin-gu and his robotic companion, Dunko, presents a compelling exploration of the evolving dynamics between humans and artificial intelligence (AI) in contemporary and near-future domestic contexts. Set against a technologically advanced backdrop, the story examines themes of companionship, dependency, memory, and the ethical dilemmas arising from the impermanence of human-like machines. Jin-gu’s reliance on Dunko, particularly in light of his mother’s occupational preoccupations, foregrounds the increasing integration of AI as both a functional assistant and an emotional surrogate within family structures.
Dunko’s role encompasses multifaceted support, including academic assistance, daily care, and emotional companionship, illustrating the extent to which AI can become embedded in intimate human routines. This dependency, however, is complicated by the robot’s gradual onset of memory malfunctions, analogized to human dementia. By anthropomorphizing technological decline, the narrative invites reflection on societal attitudes toward aging and obsolescence, extending the discourse on how humans assign moral and emotional significance to non-human entities. The portrayal of Dunko’s memory deterioration exemplifies the intersection of technological vulnerability and emotional attachment, emphasizing the potential for AI to occupy quasi-familial roles.
The narrative further engages with the ethical and practical challenges associated with AI maintenance. Safety protocols necessitate the disposal or replacement of malfunctioning robots, framing a conflict between human attachment and the imperative to mitigate technological risk. This tension highlights broader concerns regarding lifecycle management in AI systems and the ethical considerations inherent in terminating sentient-like machines. Jin-gu’s emotional struggle underscores the depth of human affective investment in AI, illustrating the psychological implications of integrating such entities into personal and familial life.
In response to technological limitations, the story introduces a new robot model with enhanced memory management and safety features, reflecting the iterative nature of AI development. This progression underscores the dual imperatives of innovation and user protection, aligning with contemporary discussions in human-computer interaction and AI ethics regarding reliability, trust, and human-centered design. Moreover, the metaphorical representation of “ghost folders” and system bugs serves to highlight the fragility of digital memory relative to human cognition, reinforcing the narrative’s engagement with the epistemological and ontological dimensions of artificial intelligence.
The narrative concludes on a reflective and optimistic note, emphasizing forgiveness, familial cohesion, and the enduring nature of memory. By framing memory as a form of emotional immortality, the story asserts that while AI may be physically ephemeral, the cognitive and affective imprints it leaves endure within human consciousness. This closing perspective encourages audiences to reconsider the significance of human-AI relationships, not merely as functional dependencies but as meaningful, identity-shaping interactions that challenge traditional distinctions between the organic and the artificial.
In sum, the Dunko narrative operates at the intersection of technological speculation and emotional storytelling, offering critical insights into the evolving nature of human-AI companionship. By addressing memory, aging, ethical dilemmas, and technological innovation, the story fosters a nuanced understanding of the potential complexities inherent in integrating AI into intimate spheres of human life. It further stimulates reflection on how digital entities, through their relational and cognitive capacities, may transform conceptions of memory, loss, and the permanence of emotional bonds in a digitized world.
2. The iMom: Technological Mediation of Parenting in Contemporary Society
From the outset, the narrative emphasizes the psychological and social pressures inherent in parenting. The mother’s candid reflections—expressing doubts about her adequacy and timing of parenthood—highlight the emotional labor associated with child-rearing. In this context, the iMom is introduced as a technologically mediated solution, capable of providing emotional support, childcare, and household management. The robot’s utility extends beyond traditional domestic tasks to include assistance with homework, moral guidance, and the anticipation of educational or social challenges, demonstrating the capacity of AI systems to integrate into the quotidian rhythms of family life.
The iMom’s operational versatility is particularly salient in illustrating the convergence of caregiving and domestic automation. It performs routine household functions such as meal preparation, laundry, and adherence to dietary or cultural preferences, while simultaneously offering emotional engagement and crisis management. For instance, during emergencies such as blackouts, the iMom provides reassurance and stability, fulfilling roles traditionally.
3. Advanced Robotics, Human-Robot Interaction, and Societal Implications: An Analysis of the Anukool Narrative
The video narrative centered on Anukool, a highly advanced robotic model, provides a detailed exploration of the multifaceted interplay between artificial intelligence (AI), family dynamics, and societal structures. By presenting Anukool as a tireless, multifunctional assistant capable of learning from human counterparts, the narrative situates robotics not merely as tools for efficiency but as active participants in human life. The story foregrounds key themes including labor displacement, ethical accountability, legal governance, emotional dependency, and the shifting boundaries of familial and societal roles in technologically mediated environments.
Anukool’s integration into everyday life exemplifies the potential for AI to assume complex responsibilities traditionally performed by humans. Functioning 24/7 without fatigue, the robot challenges conventional labor paradigms, highlighting both efficiency gains and potential social disruption, including employment displacement. The narrative emphasizes how human reliance on robots can reshape work cycles, domestic routines, and interpersonal relationships, raising critical questions about dependency, trust, and the reconfiguration of human roles in technologically advanced households.
In addition to functional labor, Anukool engages in domestic and caregiving activities, such as preparing meals and providing attentive service, blurring the lines between machine and human caregiver. This intersection of utilitarian functionality and emotional engagement foregrounds ethical concerns regarding the relational dimensions of human-robot interaction. The narrative underscores how such interactions can influence family dynamics, either reinforcing bonds or generating tension as robots assume roles that were traditionally human, potentially leading to resentment, fear, or over-reliance.
A salient theme in the transcript is the existential and ethical concerns associated with advanced AI. Characters articulate anxieties about robots surpassing human intelligence, reflecting broader societal apprehensions regarding autonomy, consciousness, and control. The discussion of robots potentially outsmarting humans highlights philosophical questions about the limits of technology and the nature of human superiority, illustrating the need for robust ethical and regulatory frameworks in AI governance. Legal considerations are explicitly addressed, including rights concerning robot misconduct and the consequences for humans who harm robots. These references indicate an emerging legal landscape in which AI entities may be granted protections, complicating traditional moral and judicial systems and prompting critical reflection on accountability, agency, and rights in human-robot interactions.
The narrative also examines moral and social decision-making, as seen in discussions about the “right side” in conflicts and the ethical responsibilities of humans in technologically complex scenarios. By intertwining moral deliberation with technological presence, the story asserts that AI alone cannot resolve ethical dilemmas, emphasizing the continued primacy of human judgment and values. Moreover, the depiction of inheritance loss and financial stakes illustrates the tangible consequences of integrating advanced robotics into personal and familial spheres, highlighting that technological advancement carries both economic and emotional risks.
Finally, the narrative situates these developments within a broader cultural and societal context, reflecting anxieties and aspirations surrounding technology in transitional economies or societies experiencing rapid modernization. Human characters’ emotional responses—ranging from fear and resentment to reliance—mirror global concerns about AI’s impact on identity, employment, and social order. Anukool’s presence as both a facilitator and disruptor underscores the dual potential of technology to enhance life while simultaneously generating legal, ethical, and emotional complexities.
In conclusion, the Anukool narrative offers a nuanced examination of human-robot coexistence, highlighting the profound transformations engendered by advanced AI. By addressing labor, legal, ethical, emotional, and financial dimensions, the story demonstrates that technological integration is not solely technical but deeply human. It compels reflection on the evolving definitions of work, family, loyalty, and responsibility, suggesting that as robots become more autonomous and human-like, societies must navigate a complex landscape of coexistence, governance, and moral accountability.
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