About

The Centre for Digital Humanities is a collaboration between the University of Amsterdam, the VU University and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, joining forces with the Netherlands eScience Center as well.

Steve JobsIn 2011, the partners assigned the area of Digital Humanities as a focal point in research, in order to contribute to the valorisation and development of this field of study. Within the field of Digital Humanities, researchers and students focus on digital or digitized sources and methods of research. Digital data concerning language, art, music, literature and media allow researchers to discover new patterns, concepts and motives, eventually raising new research questions.

The Centre for Digital Humanities facilitates so-called embedded research projects, in which research questions from the humanities are approached by using techniques and concepts out of the fields of Digital Humanities. In these short and intensive projects, which last between 6 and 12 months, researchers collaborate with private partners and deliver proof-of-concepts. The centre preferably initiates embedded research projects in the context of larger projects in which expertise from the humanities and industry is brought together.

The projects are selected based on the following conditions:

  • Humanities-intensive: each project is driven by a concrete humanities question that contributes to relevant debates
  • Private/Public Component: there is at least one external (private or public) partner that is willing to provide a financial or in-kind investment to the project. The exact division between private and public partner depends on the nature of the project.
  • Innovative: each project explores new strategies of research and new ways of applying existing methods and techniques, contributing to the development of new concepts and knowledge.
  • Collaboration: ties between VU-UvA-KNAW should be maintained or strengthened.
  • Feasible: the project is to be completed within a year.
  • Subservient: the project is part of a larger, existing humanities program.
  • Sustainable: after completion of the project, the result should be continued (open access) and valorized. Moreover, the project should result in a proposal for future research.

Parties involved in the Centre for Digital Humanities Amsterdam are represented by:

  • Rens Bod, Marijn Koolen and Maarten de Rijke (UvA)
  • Lora Aroyo, Inger Leemans and Piek Vossen (VU)
  • Theo Mulder and Demetrius Waarsenburg (KNAW)