Digital humanities is an interdisciplinary area of study that lies in the intersection between the humanities and digital technology. Research in digital humanities goes in two directions: it uses digital technologies to ask questions about and to create new knowledge in the humanities, and uses the humanities to ask questions of and to reflect upon digital technology. The digital technologies in digital humanities come in the form of tools, applications and software (purpose-built for digital humanities or not) that can be used for the effective production and dissemination of research in the humanities.

Digital humanities tools can be useful in the three main stages of a research project: they can help you to advance in your research, to disseminate your results more effectively, and they can help your audience to understand what you’re trying telling them.

Different tools can facilitate the advancement of your research by giving you an environment in which your data and research can be stored, managed and analysed. Data visualisation tools can highlight relationships within and between networks, help you to spot patterns, uncover and draw your attention to trends previously hidden in the data, encourage you to view information in other ways and cause you to make new enquiries. Many digital humanities tools also offer a collaboration function, meaning that you can work together with your colleagues on the same file.

As for diffusing your findings, digital humanities can offer you a wide range of platforms for presenting and sharing your data, in many different ways.

Data presented in innovative formats will make your research more accessible and understandable by different types of learners. Visual representations could be better for younger audiences or those unfamiliar with your area of study because reading and interpreting visualisations of data can be easier and quicker than databases or text. Data in visual forms are also more attractive and more likely to be remembered, thereby facilitating their retelling.

Examples of digital humanities tools reviewed on this blog: Palladio, Zotero.

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