Overview of the NEH’s Digital Humanities Initiative

1. Overview of the NEH’s Digital Humanities Initiative dhi@neh.gov www.neh.gov

2. NEH Launches Digital Humanities Initiative • Digital technologies offer humanists new methods of conducting research, conceptualizing relationships, and presenting scholarship. NEH is interested in fostering the growth of digital humanities and lending support to a wide variety of projects including: • those that deploy digital technologies and methods to enhance our understanding of a topic or issue. • those that study the impact of digital technology on the humanities--exploring the ways in which it changes how we read, write, think, and learn.

3. Inspiration from ACLS Cyberinfrastructure Report: • Federal funding agencies and private foundations should establish programs that develop and support expertise in digital humanities… (Our Cultural Commonwealth, p. 6.) • Universities and university consortia should develop new and support existing humanities and social sciences computing centers. (p. 6) • NSF, NEH, IMLS, the Mellon Foundation, and other funding agencies should support the development of tools for the analysis of digital content. (p. 7) • The NEA, NEH, and IMLS should work together to promote collaboration…. (p. 7)

4. New DHI Grant Programs Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants Advancing Knowledge (w/IMLS) Digital Humanities Fellowships Digital Humanities Challenge Grants Digital Humanities Workshops

5. Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants • The name “Start-Up Grant” is evocative of the technology start-up – a company like an Apple Computer or a Google that took a brilliant idea and, with a small amount of seed money, was able to grow it into a new way of doing business. • Start-Up Grants will encourage scholars with bright new ideas and provide the funds to get their projects off the ground. • Some projects will be practical, others completely blue sky.

6. More about Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants • They are “cross-divisional.” Unlike most NEH grants, they aren’t in a particular category like Preservation, Education, or Research. We want good projects and it is perfectly OK for them to cross our traditional NEH boundaries. • They should be used to start-up new projects. Can be thought of as a planning grant. • We want to see the development of new technologies and new applications of existing technology that advance the humanities. • There are two deadlines per year.

7. Advancing Knowledge • This innovative new DHI program is a collaboration with the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). • It is aimed at fostering large-scale digital humanities collaborations among libraries, museums, archives, and universities. • The guidelines are now on the NEH website.

8. Digital Humanities Fellowships Deadline: May 1, 2007 . • Support for individuals exploring the relationship between digital technologies and the humanities, employing digital technology or producing digital products such as electronic publications, digital archives or databases, advanced digital representations of data using graphical displays or other digital media, or developing digital analytical tools that further humanistic research. • DHI Fellowships cover periods lasting from 6 to 12 months with a stipend of $4,200 per month up to a maximum of $50,400 (with the possibility of an additional research allowance to cover specific expenses related to the project.)

9. Digital Humanities Challenge Grants • Challenge grants most commonly augment or establish endowments, the income from which can be used to support faculty and staff positions; fellowships; lecture or exhibition series; visiting scholars or consultants; materials that enhance library or museum collections; ongoing maintenance of archives or databases. • Challenge funds may also be used directly for construction or renovation of facilities, acquisitions for collections, and equipment (hardware and software). • The Challenge program is encouraging Digital Humanities applicants who wish to strengthen their infrastructure for digital technology and thereby enhance their ability to deploy digital technologies in the service of the humanities. • For DHI applicants, the waiting period and 4:1 matching ratio required of recipients of prior challenge grants are suspended.

10. Digital Humanities Workshops • Workshops that offer academically rigorous professional development programs for K-12 educators seeking to use digital resources to strengthen the teaching of the humanities. • to provide training and experience in the use of new technologies to strengthen the teaching of significant themes and topics in the humanities; • to engage teachers in deepening their knowledge and understanding of the humanities through the use of online archives and other digital materials; • to give teachers opportunities to observe and share models for effective use of digital resources in the K-12 classroom; • to encourage collaboration with humanities scholars who bring appropriate expertise on the topic of the project and on the use of new technologies in humanities teaching.

11. For More Information, contact: dhi@neh.gov http://www.neh.gov/grants/digitalhumanities.html

12. An Example

13. An Example

14. An Example