New Digital Humanities Minor Blends Modern, Traditional Disciplines

Jim Russell ’83 – Computer science faculty member David Vampola (left) helped information science major Kingsley Ibezim ’19 add the new digital humanities minor to his academic coursework.

The computer age meets the study of traditional disciplines—literature, history, philosophy and more—in digital humanities, a new minor at SUNY Oswego.

Broadly defined as a multidisciplinary, collaborative academic field that applies modern computational tools and information science to the arts, linguistics, cultural studies and others, digital humanities as a minor launched in fall 2017.

Computer science faculty member David Vampola developed and now coordinates the new minor, with instructional support from faculty members teaching courses in such areas as English, history, linguistics, cognitive science and more.

“This is the marriage of the technical with the traditionally non-technical,” Vampola said. “This generation [of college students] grew up with computers. They are already conversant with some of the techniques used in research and the presentation of data in the digital humanities.”

For years, Vampola has taught Introduction to Digital Humanities, which helps students understand how information technology, computational methods and cognitive approaches can assist in the presentation and analysis of data in the humanities.

Textual analysis of Shakespeare, applying hypertext markup language to an art exhibition and comparative analysis of the ways different societies developed science over time are examples of the ways digital humanities can deepen understanding.

“I see digital humanities as an exciting intellectual adventure,” Vampola said. “It is an endeavor that widens the horizon for students and scholars of the humanities.”

For more information, contact Vampola at david.vampola@oswego.edu.

http://catalog.oswego.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=36&poid=4452

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