Digital Humanities is an extension of traditional knowledge skills and methods, not a replacement for them.
Burdick et al. “One: From Humanities to Digital Humanities,” in Digital_Humanities (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2012), 16.
I am super insipired by the quote. Learning digital methods does not mean abandoning the things historians already do well. As a history major, I find this idea encouraging because it makes historical research feel much less limited to simply writing papers. I could still work closely with primary sources, but I could also turn that research into a map or another form of visualization. For example, instead of simply describing how historical sites have changed over time, I could map them and allow readers to see those changes spatially. This makes me think that learning digital tools does not take me away from history.
On the other hand, I have always wondered how new technologies, especially advanced computing tools, could support historians in their work. At the same time, I also feel threatened by the possibility that some new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, might eventually replace humans in certain areas of research. Training a historian requires years of education and experience, while AI systems have developed the ability to perform some research tasks at a remarkably rapid pace. This tension makes me interested in what digital technology can contribute to historical research.
In the future, I hope to explore the possibilities and the practicalities of digital humanities. As I mentioned in the first paragraph, I would like to have hands-on experience with GIS mapping tools and learn new ways to visualize humanities projects.