Digital Humanities Mission

The Center values:

Access in several ways/modes. First, the Center seeks to ensure equity of access to digital  humanities tools and opportunities for all students, faculty, and staff regardless of  race/ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, gender identity, ability, level of expertise, or  professional status. Second, the Center seeks to expand access to information, knowledge, and  archival collections through open access, when possible and appropriate, for all members of the  university and the public.  

Social Justice. The Center seeks to promote justice and advance Drew’s mission to add to the  world’s good through its projects and partnerships. 

Interdisciplinarity. While centered in the Humanities, the work of the Center is  interdisciplinary. Faculty, staff, and students from all fields are welcome to participate in its  work. The Center values projects that integrate the insights, approaches, and content of  multiple disciplines to create new knowledge, models, and methods. 

Co-inquiry. In the Digital Humanities, faculty, staff, and students are co-inquirers, jointly  experimenting and producing knowledge through digital projects and approaches to research  and teaching 

Sustainability. The Center seeks to ensure the long-term sustainability and maintenance of its  projects and research by emphasizing the importance of documentation, data, production, and  labor. It also draws awareness to the impact of digital technologies on the environment, on  resources, and thus on the world’s most vulnerable communities. 

Reciprocity/Reflexivity. The work of the Center not only asks how the digital can open new  approaches and insights on the humanities but also how humanistic thinking can inform  reflections on the digital. 

Experimentation/Play. In its work, the Center embraces, as central to the research and learning  process, the productive fail and the process of experimenting, asking questions,  troubleshooting, iterating, playing, and reflecting. 

Goals of the Center:

Training/Support: To provide ongoing support and training in various digital tools and methods  – both peer-to-peer and expert-led – to all members of the university community. 

Pedagogy. To support the use of digital tools and approaches in the classroom by providing  regular faculty development opportunities as well as student technology fellows to assist  students engaged in digital projects. 

Research. To provide faculty, staff and students with opportunities to engage in collaborative  research especially through the Digital Humanities Summer Institute. 

Space. To provide both physical and digital spaces for collaboration throughout the year. 

Tools and Equipment. To provide appropriate tools and equipment, software and hardware,  for faculty staff, and students and to manage available resources to best support teaching and  learning.