A StFX faculty member has taken on a leadership role and has been a driving force behind a national initiative that offers a certificate in digital humanities for people who participate in non-curricular digital humanities workshops.
Dr. Laura Estill, a StFX English professor and Canada Research Chair in Digital Humanities, is the project lead of the Canadian Certificate in Digital Humanities, a joint effort of 21 partner organizations from across the country. Project manager Melissa Howse is also based at StFX’s Digital Humanities Centre, which offers annual week-long workshops on digital humanities topics, such as the upcoming DHSI-East (Digital Humanities Summer Institute East) workshops.
“Canada has been a leader in digital humanities training for decades. This certificate showcases the labour happening in the workshops and showcases the value of the work,” says Dr. Estill.
The certificate is funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Partnership Development Grant and recognizes people who have taken 100 hours of eligible digital humanities workshops over a five-year period.
Dr. Estill says digital humanities is an area of study where many people have expertise in a primary area of research and may need to gain digital skills for various research or presentation purposes. To do so, they attend workshops to learn about specific topics and to learn about digital tools to humanities teaching and research questions.
The certificate program values the engagement and time that workshop leaders, organizers, and participants put into these learning opportunities.
“It recognizes the sustained engagement and the additional learning of those who are working to be better at their field, the lifelong learning beyond traditional courses,” she says.
“And it encourages people to continue to seek out learning opportunities.”
Participants often include faculty members, graduate and undergraduate students, librarians, academic staff and academic project managers.
Helping contribute to the vibrant digital humanities community in Canada, the certificate’s website also features a centralized calendar of upcoming events across Canada.
Already, the certificate program is helping build community and collaborations.
The online calendar of events gives a sense of the landscape across the country, and it helps identify strengths and gaps. It also acts as a resource for people to identify potential speakers and topics that have resonated.
Partner organizations indicate on the events calendar which of the workshops are eligible toward the certificate. Additionally, those who have previously taken eligible workshops within a five-year window of the certificate’s launch can use these credits towards the 100 hours criteria.
