Hey All,

Alycia here–I am a member of the library faculty at Brooklyn College, and a student in the MALS program specializing in American Studies. My research interests include the history of alternative materials and print ephemera (and how they relate–or don’t–to libraries), digital rights and restrictions (lately DRM and ebooks) and Open Access/free culture.

I usually find myself drawn into areas that refuse simple definitions, or struggle over them. Therefore, I appreciated Rafael C. Alvarado’s way of framing the parameters of DH: that there is a genealogy of DH, but no one true or concise definition–that those seeking the definition are creating the thing itself in the process. This seemed close with what Tom Scheinfeldt wrote about methodology being at the core of DH.

I really liked the way that many of these pieces spoke to the work of the digital humanist as aligned with other work in the humanities, but in a more collaborative and less compartmentalized (departmentalized?) way. I found myself identifying with Alvarado’s statement: “To a humanist, any computational technology is potentially tool, text and metaphor (53).”

I’m looking forward to reading more, and collaborating this semester!