Digital Humanities is a field of study in which different disciplines work to analyze, archive, and preserve historical material in the digital medium.  

There are many different reasons why I came to the definition I came up with. Digital Humanities, for one, crosses a vast amount of different disciplines in the field of history. Professors might work with archivists on a research project he or she is working on. A student might turn towards a librarian to find a book they are looking for. Along with the collaboration across different disciplines, there is also the use of the digital during that collaboration. Matthew G. Kirschenbaum explains, “The digital humanities, also known as humanities computing, is a field of study, research, teaching, and invention concerned with the intersection of computing and the disciplines of the humanities.”¹ This joining of the different disciplines and the digital medium is why I chose to include it in my definition.

The second part of my definition includes analyzing, archiving, and preserving historical material in the digital medium. Each one of these three activities are important in the realm of Digital Humanities. With the use of digital tools, new ways of analyzing open up new ways of looking at different materials. Those same materials can now also be archived differently thanks to Digital Humanities. The collecting, scanning, and cataloging of these materials makes them easily accessible. Not only that, but the preservation of these materials is achievable since digital items are much harder to destroy than physical.  

1. Matthew G. Kirschenbaum, “What is Digital Humanities and What’s it Doing in English Departments?”. ADE Bulletin 150 (2010): 2, originally published in “Digital Humanities,” Wikipedia.