A new digital initiative for the Faculty of Arts has been launched, focusing on how digital technologies can identify new research issues and methods in the humanities. The network comprises researchers and teachers who are all linked to the Faculty of Arts. They come from across the faculty’s departments and centres, and they are interested in how digital technologies can be used in research and teaching.

The network has just published a strategy in support of the faculty’s overall objective with regard to increasing the focus on the potential and consequences of digitalisation in the humanities. The strategy will be implemented over the next three years.

“The faculty gives high priority to the potential and challenges of digitalisation, so it will be giving financial support to the network. Thanks to the new strategy for digitalisation at the faculty, as well as a network of highly committed researchers, we can now face the future with confidence. And the future will undoubtedly mean even more digitalisation and new technological revolutions which will have a major impact on both research and teaching,” says Dean Mette Thunø at the Faculty of Arts.

New research opportunities

Here are some examples of subject areas within the humanities that can be digitalised: the works analysed by historians of art/literature, the sources used by historians of culture, analysis of forms of political communication by rhetoricians, studies of language acts by language researchers, and studies of children’s play by ethnographers. These areas can all be digitalised to an increasing extent – or created in digital formats from the outset. This will generate brand-new research opportunities, explains network manager Christian Ulrik Andersen, an associate professor of information studies at the Department of Aesthetics and Communication. He uses history research as an example:

“Historians can now access their source material electronically using new search methods, making it possible to study huge amounts of material in new ways that can help them to ask entirely new research questions,” says Andersen. He underlines the vision of the network: making digitalisation a dynamo for cross-disciplinary cooperation in research projects.

“Digitalisation reveals new links and contexts because the technology enables us to cope with great amounts of material. What’s more, the technology also helps to shape the way we think about what we find. It makes us think differently as researchers. But we also need to maintain a critical sense of perspective on this,” he says.

Impact of digitalisation on teaching

Digitalisation will change the face of teaching too, which is why the network will also be focusing on cooperating with the subject environments that are starting to introduce the new technologies into their teaching.

“It’s all about making the most of the competences we already have in this area – and about combining them in creative ways. Among other things, this means that the network will cooperate with CUDiM – the Centre for Teaching Development and Digital Media – with a view to developing subject courses in which digital technologies can support learning processes,” says Thunø, adding that the network will also be part of the national partnership known as the Digital Humanities Lab.

 Read the strategy for a digital initiative at the Faculty of Arts.

Single portal for digital initiatives at the faculty

The network is interested in attracting new researchers and PhD students; but the faculty also has a wide range of centres, research units and individual researchers who have been involved in this field for a number of years. The network wants to ensure that these environments and researchers get to know each other better with a view to achieving joint development. To achieve this goal, the network has set up a mailing list and a blog where people can make announcements or keep up to date with ongoing activities.

The network also has its own programme of events. On 6 June Professor Gary Hall, co-founder of the Open Humanities Press, is coming to visit the network to discuss how digital forms of publication influence research in the humanities. More information

A conference has been planned on 2-3 October. And on the first Friday each month, the members will be meeting to discuss selected themes. More information about the events.

Contact

Mette Thunø
Dean of the Faculty of Arts
E-mail: mettethunoe@au.dk
Mobile: (+45) 2979 9330

Christian Ulrik Andersen
Associate professor of media studies, Department of Aesthetics and Communication
E-mail: cua@dac.au.dk
Tel.: (+45) 8716 1998