Comments on: The Future of Interdisciplinary Digital Cultural Heritage Curriculum (oh yeah, and games as well)

By: Anastasia Salter

Anastasia Salter — Sat, 22 May 2010 03:15:18 +0000

You definitely caught my attention at “games”: your Egypt project looks fascinating. I’m particularly interested in how you plan to overcome the problem of contextual knowledge–that is, a lot of studies on using Civilization for teaching history note that even as students retain the information they don’t necessarily translate it over to their ancient history courses or to a larger understanding of civilizations. The same problem perhaps arises in the literature context, as while I first encountered game studies in an English department I don’t think that is yet the norm despite the potential of games for exploring the nature of text itself.

By: ethan.watrall

ethan.watrall — Sat, 22 May 2010 01:40:33 +0000

Brian – a good example of a more literary inspired game, I would suggest looking at Arden (mypage.iu.edu/~castro/arden.html)

By: briancroxall

briancroxall — Sat, 22 May 2010 00:00:35 +0000

I’m all for exploring the uses of games in learning opportunities. At the risk of outing myself as someone who doesn’t know the field or scholarship of serious games very well, I’d be inclined to say that more of the work in this field seems directly applicable to history than it does to literary study. I’d like to think through how games can be used more effectively in literature departments. (Ivanhoe notwithstanding.)

By: ethan.watrall

ethan.watrall — Thu, 20 May 2010 01:54:19 +0000

couple of quick thoughts. First, a word about terminology. I’ve used the term “digital cultural heritage” – which I actually don’t like that much (but use it out of convenience). I actually prefer the term “cultural heritage informatics.” Digital cultural heritage suggests the material and the medium…while Cultural heritage informatics (taking the definition commonly used by the IU School of Informatics) suggests (to me at least) the creative application of ICT to cultural heritage.

Having said that, I’m not sure if cultural heritage instantiates its own epistemology. I’m not saying I think it doesn’t…I’m honestly saying I don’t know. That having been said, there is no doubt at all that institutional infrastructures (both tangible and intangible) will impact this discussion greatly.

As for your second thought – I do not see this idea as a department. The only way a true interdisciplinary curriculum will work (in my opinion) is that if this is a program that exists outside of the realm of a single department…and perhaps even out of the realm of a larger unit (school or college).

By: Zach Whalen

Zach Whalen — Wed, 19 May 2010 14:43:16 +0000

So if discipline-specific epistemology constrains digital cultural heritage in a way that is better served by an interdisciplinary (or post-disciplinary) curriculum, are you implying that digital cultural heritage instantiates its own epistemology?

If that’s your, I agree, and I think that perspective is probably a useful adjunct to Rob Nelson’s mention of arguing digitally. It might have to do with institutional infrastructure.

Relatedly, does this mean we need a department of “digital humanities”? I know you teach out of a couple of different departments, right? I teach “new media” in an English department, but am sometimes asked why I’m not in Computer Science or even History because of what and how I teach.