Hello! My name is Logan Kurtz, and this is the initial post of my Digital History 428 website! In this blog, I will address both why I am taking this class, as well as what Digital History and Digital Humanities even are, and what makes them different.
I am taking this class, first and foremost, to fulfill my History Seminar and Honors class requirements. However, why I chose to take this specific class was my immediate interest in reading the class description. I love the idea of taking things beyond conversations and getting to create a product that I can be proud of. (My friends can confirm that I am a workaholic, so I like a project to be able to devote myself and my time to.) Besides that, the skills of collaboration as well as usage of digital tools are both areas in which I would love more experience in, and hope to gain from this course!
So now let’s address the definition of Digital History and Digital Humanities. Digital Humanities is a large umbrella term that blanket a large amount of different disciplines. As Stephen Robertson wrote in a chapter of Debates in the Digital Humanities, “A conversation instead about digital history, for example, allows explorations of the specific technologies and approaches that offer the most possibilities for the sources, questions, and teaching of historians.” This quote demonstrates how the field of Digital History is a specific field within Digital Humanities. This specific discipline explores the growing technological capabilities in the field of history, including historical databases, research tools, and more flexibility when presenting historical exhibits and research.
