At a recent North-West University (NWU) Council meeting, the Faculty of Humanities secured approval to establish a Digital Humanities (DH) Centre in 2025.
Prof Mirna Nel, the deputy dean for research and innovation in the faculty, who leads the development team, expressed excitement about this approval. Notably, the only other DH Centre in Africa is at the University of Lagos in Nigeria, making this initiative significant for advancing the field on the continent.
“Over the past few decades, many higher education institutions worldwide have established DH centres focusing on research and teaching programmes to enhance digital scholarship. However, these centres often lack an African perspective. With the NWU's established digital footprint it was deemed essential to establish a DH Centre with a focus on African contributions,” she says.
In the rapidly evolving digital era, interdisciplinary exploration and critical understanding of digital technologies are crucial. The humanities provide a platform for questioning assumptions and practices related to technology. By grounding digital studies in the humanities, the NWU DH Centre aims to foster a holistic approach considering technology's impact on individuals, societies, and cultures.
Through collaboration and interdisciplinary efforts, the centre will shape graduates for the future by integrating technological and analytical competencies.
The centre's purpose is to advance DH scholarship by enhancing existing knowledge, creating new digital knowledge, tools and methodologies, and exploring the impact of digital domains on humanities-based disciplines. Collaboration with other faculties will also be crucial due to the interdisciplinary nature of digital humanities.
By grounding digital studies in the humanities, the NWU DH Centre will foster a holistic approach considering technology's impact on individuals, societies, and cultures.
To raise awareness about digital humanities, the research entities in the faculty and the TELIT-SA research niche area in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences organised a symposium on 4 April, as well as a series of public lectures and webinars from 22 to 30 April, featuring various knowledgeable speakers.
Speakers from abroad included Prof Paul Arthur (Edith Cowan University, Perth, Australia), Dr Qasim Olalere Akinreti (Voice of Nigeria) and Prof Dr Sree Ganesh Thottempudi (SRH Berlin University of Applied Sciences, Germany). Experts from the NWU discussed topics ranging from eye tracking and the multimodal Byderhand and Pioneer School project to AI in digital humanities. Click here to read more about the various speakers and the topics they discussed.
The faculty's efforts received significant attention from NWU staff as well as external institutions, emphasising the importance of the humanities voice and advancing the African perspective in digital scholarship.
Rounding off their digital humanities awareness campaign, the faculty will give a presentation featuring Prof Adam Bell from the University of Western Ontario in Canada on 9 May.
Prof Paul Arthur from the Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia (on screen) welcomed attendees to the Faculty of Humanities’ Digital Awareness Week that took place online and in person on the Vanderbijlpark Campus.
