About

Research in the field of Digital Humanities makes use of innovative tools and methods for investigating both traditional and new forms of data and media, in addition to pursuing opportunities to interrogate and reflect on the knowledge and insight that 'the digital' affords. By its nature, Digital Humanities is collaborative, encouraging mutually creative interaction between those in the humanities disciplines and specialists in computing or digital technologies. Over the past twenty years, DH has acquired an increasingly central role in higher education and beyond because of its potential to transform people, practices and understanding.

Cambridge Digital Humanities is committed to unlocking and augmenting the transformative powers of DH research. Established in 2017, CDH is the latest phase in a strategic process at the University of Cambridge that began with the foundation of the Digital Humanities Network in 2011. CDH has four main divisions: Research, Lab, Learning, and Network.

• CDH Research is the foundation and focal point of Cambridge Digital Humanities. It supports, promotes, enables and spearheads a wide range of projects, programmes and other activities across the University, in addition to forging links with the external DH research community, funding bodies, and business and industry.
• The CDH Lab offers high-level project incubation advice and a tailored research support service, drawing upon the expertise of CDH Affiliates in the University Library and University Information Services, and a wealth of computational expertise distributed throughout a large number of Cambridge institutions.
• CDH Learning delivers training in research methods and transferable skills to enable new and established researchers at all levels in order to create and exploit new practices of digital scholarship.
• The CDH Network provides a sense of community and identity among those working in Digital Humanities and cognate fields at Cambridge, in part sponsoring events for internal and external audiences including a Distinguished Lecture Series and 'Searching Questions' symposia.

CDH's administrative office is located within the University Library, which is one of its main partners. There are also partnerships with Cambridge University Press, the University's museums sector and institutions and individuals beyond Cambridge. The CDH directorate is guided by steering groups and advisory boards drawn from these various constituencies.

The DH research community at Cambridge itself extends across four of the University's six Schools, along with the UL, Fitzwilliam Museum, and Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. In addition to DH researchers in the humanities and social sciences departments, colleagues in STEM subjects have taken an active part in DH projects. Some STEM researchers working in DH at Cambridge are undertaking research in computational linguistics and related topics, while others are interested in Big Data methods for social science, social media and policy, visual representation, aesthetic image processing, end-user development and interdisciplinary design. Yet others have applied imaging techniques in conservation work related to arts, or undertaken network analysis in the humanities. Examples of this groundbreaking research can be found within our Research Themes section.

Cambridge Digital Humanities as a whole aims to offer both a dynamic framework to support the most advanced research in the field and a creative space for exploring and exchanging new ideas. It thrives on the input and engagement of the diverse community that defines it, with the potential to create and shape knowledge and to influence the ways in which we view the world around us.

Visit the Cambridge Digital Humanities website and have a look at our list of events.