Office of IDEAS
Digital Humanities/Digital Scholarship Ad Hoc Committee
We are...
...an interdisciplinary University level committee dedicated to expanding the presence of DH/DS at Fresno State.
Mission Statement
The Digital Humanities/Digital Scholarship (DH/DS) Ad Hoc Committee is dedicated to promoting and supporting the ground-breaking field of DH/DS at Fresno State. DH/DS is a burgeoning interdisciplinary field that brings together the arts, humanities and sciences within the scope of utilizing and developing digital tools to support the academic and scholarly process, including research and argumentation methodologies. It offers a framework, not bound to any specific technology, but a set of practices and theories that engage technologies in research and teaching. Here we pull from precedents in the field, which describes DH as “Interdisciplinary humanities research, teaching, learning, and publishing, that can be: presented in digital form(s), enabled by digital methods & tools, about digital technology & culture, creating and experimenting with digital technology, and critical of its own digital-ness” and DS as “discipline-based scholarship produced with digital tools and presented in digital form.” The committee's mission is to actively explore these definitions and their permutations, define the scope of what DH/DS could look like at Fresno State, and how we might want to open opportunities on our campus to engage this accelerating academic field. We seek to connect students, faculty, and staff in the pursuit of creating, developing, and sustaining a culture of intentional technological integration of digital scholarship and pedagogy on campus, all while remaining cognizant and reflective of the risks and challenges undertaken in any uncharted technosocial endeavor.
Fresno State’s mission statement is “To boldly educate and empower students for success.” Our committee's work aims to address the values and priorities of the University through leading the campus in DH/DS-related research, teaching, and service activities. We will accomplish this through: 1) identifying resources and recommending initiatives to develop the infrastructure of DH/DS at Fresno State 2) advocating and fostering DH/DS-related teaching, research, and service and 3) creating opportunities for collaboration.
Recommendations and Initiatives: The committee will write reports that assess the ways in which DH/DS can be brought to Fresno State at an institutional level, make recommendations for the creation of a DH/DS initiatives (which could take the form of a center, program, certificate, or a number of other possibilities), apply for grants to make those initiatives happen, and seek funding from administration, internal, and external financial bodies. At the core of our work will be technoethical and intersectional values; we ask, how can Fresno State forward a technoethical conversation that keeps our core values of “Discovery, Diversity, and Distinction” in mind? We seek to create initiatives that will allow faculty to bring digital pedagogy into their classrooms with training and support, that will allow students and faculty to engage in the innovative and rigorous research and argumentation practices that DH/DS offers.
Promote and support DH/DS-related teaching: DH/DS-related teaching lies at the heart of digital pedagogy. The committee will promote and support DH/DS-related teaching via a number of activities. We aim to: provide training opportunities on DH/DS-related teaching opportunities; host campus workshops; work in collaboration with campus partners to integrate a wide range of digital pedagogy tools in the classroom; support the outreach of DH/DS-related teaching success stories that are carried out at the university.
Promote and support DH/DS-related research: The committee will promote and support DH/DS-related research via a number of activities. We plan to: create an infrastructure that offers resources for the development of DH/DS faculty and student research projects; create opportunities for collegial collaboration; advise interested parties on best DH/DR-related research practices and tools; support grant writing; connect and support the DH/DS-related research carried out at the university across the colleges.
Promote and support DH/DS-related service: DH/DS-related service is critical because DH/DS is a public-facing field that extends far beyond the university. The committee will promote and support DH/DS-related service via a number of activities that will: raise awareness and promote discussion on ethics and DH/DS; support community partnerships; advocate and promote projects that work in collaboration with external institutions, stakeholders, and community members and organizations.
Promote and support opportunities for collaboration: We are committed to educating ourselves as a committee on the ongoing discourses of DH/DS and staying current on best practices. We likewise aim to promote, support, further, and connect the resources that we already have on campus. Within this purview we consider questions of content creation, institutional hosting services, and preservation. We also strive to stay knowledgeable about the resources and projects already being developed at Fresno State and offer strategies for students, faculty, and staff to connect with each other and the resources already available and ongoing.