This semester (Spring, 2026) I decide to dip a little further into the digital side of history. How it works, why we do it, the benefits and drawbacks, etc. I work at the Digital Knowledge Center (DKC) at UMW, and love the work that I do there, but have also wondered how that work can apply more to the study of history. I took American Technology and Culture with Dr. McClurken last semester and really, really enjoyed it, so I figured: “why not?” I also figured it just couldn’t hurt to see a little more into a type of historical study that is so different from what I am used to.

Digital Humanities is an umbrella or “big tent” which makes up an interdisciplinary field under which separate disciplines, such as digital history, art, literature, etc. become their own categories and practices. Jobs that fall under the umbrella term are simply described as being work within the humanities that utilizes and centers on digital technology and media. While digital humanities as a field or study is the more general study of a wide array of interdisciplinary applications of technology, digital history is the focused study of tools, methods, and theories as they apply to the teaching and work of historians.