Digital Humanities

Digital humanities are happening across Duke's campus! Here are some organizations, initiatives, and activities to check out

Humanities Labs

• The Duke University Game Lab is a collaborative initiative which seeks to strengthen the curriculum of undergraduate education in a University-led exploration of the role of gaming in the future of academia.
• Humanities Unbounded Labs are collaborative, faculty-led research labs. Initially funded through a Mellon Foundation grant (2018-2023), many of these labs continue their work within and across departments.
• Franklin Humanities Institute Labs are faculty-led interdisciplinary ventures organized around a central theme. Versatile in form, a lab is simultaneously a hub of research projects, a cluster of courses, a host of events, and a platform for collaborations with campus and community, national and international partners.
• Smith Media Labs integrate multi-modal inquiry, including computational design, data analysis and new media art, with scholarly investigation at the interface of the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences. The labs cover various themes including digital archaeology, digital art history & visual culture, experimental digital arts, extended reality, generative media, and information science & studies.

Graduate Working Groups

The Franklin Humanities Institute (FHI) supports multiple graduate student-led working groups each year. A number of these carry a digital humanities or dh-adjacent component.

Collaborative Projects

Many collaborative projects have been developed over the years in the labs above, in individual departments, and across curricular and co-curricular programs. Here is a list of some of them, both present and past.

Curricular Programs

• The Computational Media undergraduate major & minor is a collaboration between the departments of Art, Art History & Visual Studies and Computer Science.
• The undergraduate Digital Intelligence certificate equips students to develop foundational knowledge in computational technologies and their relationship to society.
• The Digital Art History/Computational Media Master's program is designed for graduate students focused on the study, creation, and use of digital media and computation in the arts and humanities. It is offered by the Department of Art, Art History and Visual Studies in partnership with the Information Science + Studies Program.
• The Game Development, Design & Innovation Master of Engineering Master's program is a hands-on, industry-centered program that prepares students to work for AAA and indie studios, or to create serious games in fields like education, health care, and scientific exploration.
• The Computational Media Arts & Cultures PhD program focuses on the intersection of media arts and humanities, sciences, and technology, both in theory and in practice. The program is co-sponsored by Art, Art History & Visual Studies, the Literature Program, the Franklin Humanities Institute, and Information Science + Studies.
• The Information Science + Studies graduate certificate focuses on the study and creation of new information technologies and the analysis of their impact on art, culture, science, medicine, commerce, society, policy, and the environment. The program is designed for master's and doctoral students wishing to complement their primary disciplinary focus

Co-curricular Programs

• Bass Connections is a university-wide academic program that supports collaborative, interdisciplinary research through faculty-led year-long research teams, intensive summer programs, semester-long courses, and student research grants. Here is a list of current and recent projects.
• The Plus Programs are immersive, faculty-led experiential learning opportunities across a wide range of disciplines that take place over each summer. Many of the programs include one or more digital-humanities-oriented project each year.

Training & Support

• The Bryan Center Studios provides the Duke community with professionally-equipped recording spaces for all your video and audio needs.
• The Compute & Data Services Alliance, a partnership between Duke Libraries, the Office of Information Technology, and the Office of Research & Innovation, is dedicating resources to improving technical and human infrastructure in support of research using digital technologies.
• Duke Arts Studio provides undergraduates with mentorship and funding to support their creative projects.
• Duke Libraries offers workshops, in-class instruction, and consultations through its Digital Humanities Consultant, Center for Data & Visualization Sciences, and Repository Services.
• In addition to assisting students with computer questions, The Link offers a selection of equipment for loan.
• OIT's Innovation Co-Lab offers workshops, makerspaces across campus with walk-in hours, and funding for student projects. 

Previous Grant-Funded Initiatives

While the following initiatives focused on the humanities broadly, many outcomes included digital humanities components.

• (2018-2023) Humanities Unbounded was an initiative funded by the Mellon Foundation designed to nurture collaboration and inventive expressions of the humanities at Duke — and beyond our campus.
• (2014-2017) Humanities Futures, supported by the Mellon Foundation, was a multi-faceted exploration of the states and directions of the humanities, in light of the interdisciplinary developments of recent decades.
• (2011-2016) Humanities Writ Large was a Franklin Humanities Institute initiative supported by the Mellon Foundation aiming to redefine the role of the humanities in undergraduate education. This initiative was made up of a series of related components including Undergraduate Research, Emerging Humanities Networks, Humanities Labs, Visiting Faculty Fellows, Bridge Appointments for New Faculty, Library and Technology, Assessment and Evaluation.

Banner image credit: Duarte de Armas' Livro das Fortalezas, 1509-1510, courtesy of the Book of Fortresses.