Picture This: How The Center Of Digital Humanities Research Preserves Our Past For Future Generations

Until recently, if someone wanted to view a rare piece of art or read a delicate ancient text, they would sometimes have to board a plane and travel thousands of miles to obscure libraries and archives. That has changed thanks to the emerging field of digital humanities.

“I call the digital humanities the ‘modern-day printing press,’ because, among other capabilities, it converts art and text into a digital format, preserving it in databases that can be accessed from anywhere in the world,” said Texas A&M University College of Liberal Arts Dean Pamela Matthews. “Not since the Gutenberg printing press has an innovation promised so much access to information. Digital humanities is literally the democratization of knowledge.”

The College of Liberal Arts is home to the Center of Digital Humanities Research (CoDHR), under the direction of Laura Mandell. The task of CoDHR is to bridge technology and the arts by employing computational methods in the study of literature, history and culture.

In other words, CoDHR helps preserve history for generations to come, accessible with the click of a button.