GSAS Graduate Student Council Digital Humanities

The goal of the Graduate Student Digital Humanities (GSDH) charter group is to foster the application of digital tools to humanistic enquiry within the Fordham community. Digital tools allow humanists access to a wider source base, enable them to supplement traditional scholarship with quantitative analysis, and to present their conclusions more broadly and in new formats. Digital skills, however, while they much sought after both within the academy and in career paths outside it, are not yet a standard part of liberal arts education.

The GSDH charter group is intended to provide opportunities for basic training in these skills, and to foster a community of practice for the sake of mutual development and assistance. While our group is focused primarily on the application of computing skill to the humanities and social sciences, we are open to all interested graduate students; the techniques of digital presentation are equally applicable in humanistic and scientific fields, and more analytical applications of computing pose an opportunity for interdisciplinary exchange.

The Fordham GSDH charter group welcomes students from all disciplines, whether or not they have experience using the tools and methods related to the digital humanities. The group should be of special interest to students who are preparing for a professional academic career in the humanities, a career that most likely will require digital fluency in regards to teaching, research, and publishing. At the same time, the group should appeal to computer science students with an interest in the humanities, as there is a growing need for scholars who are adept with technology and humanities practices. Other members of the campus community are also encouraged to join, even if they are not graduate students.