Computational Contributions to the Humanities

At the University of Groningen we have emphasized a simple view of humanities computing as computing in service of the humanities. This means that we seek to answer scholarly questions in linguistics, history, and art history by using the computer, exploiting especially its ability to process large amounts of data and the transparency of its processing. We have shied away from questions of digital culture, avoided overemphasis on pedagogical applications of computers, and eschewed visions of scientific revolution— including, in particular, the revolutionary idea that humanities computing is a discipline, preferring to think of it instead as a federation of disciplines, whose practitioners find it opportune to collaborate for reasons of some common problems. We have discovered that our ability to deal with large amounts of data marks the distinctive contributions we can make to humanities scholarship. ..................................................................................................................................