Fall 2023: Maura Ives

As I begin my term as Interim Director of CoDHR, I can’t help but reflect on some history. The digital humanities have been part of Texas A&M’s scholarly profile long before CoDHR (the Center of Digital Humanities Research) was established in 2018. Prior to achieving Center status, CoDHR existed as the IDHMC (Initiative for Digital Humanities, Media, and Culture), which was founded in 2009 as part of a University-wide competition to identify Texas A&M’s landmark research areas (you can read about that here: IDHMC Whitepaper – Center of Digital Humanities Research). But before that, Texas A&M faculty and graduate students were already active in digital humanities research and pedagogy, creating one of the country’s first DH certificates in 2008, and sponsoring events such as the Digital Textual Studies: Past, Present, and Future symposium in 2006 [DHQ: Digital Humanities Quarterly: 2009].

A lot has happened since those early days. CoDHR has continued to sponsor faculty and graduate student research at Texas A&M and to collaborate with scholars around the world on projects such as LINCS and the New Variorum Shakespeare. Because of that strong record of achievement and innovation, CoDHR is poised to reinvigorate DH research among our own faculty and students. This fall, a newly formed Glasscock Working Group will provide opportunities for scholarly exchange and collaboration and help us plan events, training, and programs tailored to the research goals of our DH community. CoDHR is also planning a speaker series for 23-24.

CoDHR’s mission is simple: to advance DH scholarship at Texas A&M. If you have worked with CoDHR in the past and/or are already actively involved in DH research, I hope you’ll continue to support the Center, and that you’ll share any suggestions you have for making CoDHR an even stronger advocate for faculty and graduate student research. If you are new to DH and curious about how DH might be relevant to your research plans, you are very welcome to contact us, even – especially! – if you aren’t a “coder”: most DH scholars don’t start with coding, and you might find that you can start your first project with “no code” tools like these: 7 Great No-Code Digital Humanities Tools - DH It Yourself.

Let us know what you want to achieve, and we’ll help you get there.

– Maura