Flipped Learning: Digital Humanities

 This blogg task given By Dilip Barad Sir. Part of Flipped Learning: Digital Humanities.

Exploring Digital Humanities: Reimagining Narratives with AI

As part of this task, I explored the article “What is Digital Humanities? What’s it Doing in English Departments?”, watched the lecture “Introduction to Digital Humanities” (Harvard edX / Amity University), and studied the ResearchGate paper “Reimagining Narratives with AI in Digital Humanities” by Dr. Dilip Barad et al. I also viewed short films like Ghost Machine, The iMom, and Anukul, along with the blog “Why Are We So Scared of Robots / AI?” These materials opened up deep reflections on how AI, creativity, and the humanities can work together—not to repeat dystopian fears but to imagine hopeful, ethical futures.

1. What is Digital Humanities?

Digital Humanities (often shortened to DH) is an evolving, interdisciplinary field that combines humanities scholarship with digital and computational tools. It is not a fixed discipline but a methodological practice that uses technology to ask and answer humanistic questions in new ways.

At its core, DH explores how digital technologies—such as data visualization, text mining, spatial mapping, and network analysis—can help us understand literature, history, language, and culture from fresh perspectives.

As Matthew Kirschenbaum observes, DH is less about mastering specific tools and more about developing a methodological mindset—a willingness to experiment, collaborate, and think critically about how technology shapes meaning.

In short, Digital Humanities is not technology replacing human thought—it’s technology enhancing human inquiry. It enables us to read, analyze, and interpret not just single texts but entire worlds of knowledge in interactive, innovative ways.

Why Digital Humanities Belongs in English Departments

You might wonder: Why does DH find such a natural home in English departments? There are both historical and intellectual reasons for this.

Historical Roots

1. Text and Computation:

Text has always been one of the easiest data forms for computers to handle, making it ideal for early digital experiments in linguistics and literary studies.

2. Humanities Computing Tradition: 

DH grew out of earlier practices of humanities computing—projects like electronic text archives and concordances that began decades ago in literature and linguistics departments.

3.Editorial and Critical Scholarship:

 English scholars have long studied textual variants and editions. Digital editions and text encoding (using standards like TEI) are natural extensions of that tradition.

4. Cultural and Media Studies:

English departments are already concerned with media, culture, and narrative form. DH expands this to include digital texts, hypermedia, and interactive storytelling.

5. Digital Reading and Publishing:

The rise of e-books, online archives, and digital publishing has made English studies even more relevant to discussions of how reading and authorship evolve in the digital era.

Theoretical Benefits

 Scalability:

DH allows both close reading and distant reading. Scholars can analyze massive datasets—entire literary periods or genres—using computational tools.

 Visualization: 

Digital tools make visible patterns and relationships in texts that traditional reading might overlook.

Access and Preservation:

Digital archives help preserve and share rare materials globally, democratizing scholarship.

Interdisciplinarity:

DH bridges literature, computer science, library studies, design, and linguistics, fostering collaboration.

Critical Media Awareness:

It helps scholars reflect on how digital mediums themselves influence meaning and power.

2. . Introduction to Digital Humanities | Amity University | Video Recording :

The Harvard University edX course “Introduction to Digital Humanities” is a hands-on gateway into the DH world. It runs for about seven weeks (2–4 hours weekly) and introduces learners—students, researchers, and librarians—to both the conceptual and practical dimensions of DH.

Key Modules & Insights

1. Defining DH & Data:

Understanding what “data” means in humanistic contexts—text, image, sound, metadata—and how classification affects interpretation.

2. Projects & Tools:

Surveying real-world DH projects and tools for text, image, spatial, and network analysis.

3.Data Creation & Cleaning:

Learning how to gather, format, and ethically handle data for analysis.

4. Command Line Skills:

Using simple coding commands to process large text datasets efficiently.

5. Visualization Tools (e.g., Voyant):

Discovering patterns in literature using digital text analysis tools

3. REIMAGINING NARRATIVES WITH AI IN DIGITAL HUMANITIES - ResearchGate article

Dr. Dilip Barad sir paper “Reimagining Narratives with AI in Digital Humanities” offers a fresh pedagogical experiment—asking students to rethink how AI is portrayed in literature and media.

Objective

The article encourages students to move away from the typical “AI as threat” stories toward more creative, ethical, and collaborative visions of AI. It shows how DH classrooms can be spaces of co-creation rather than just critique.

The Exercise

Students first watch short films about AI:

Ghost Machine (South Korea) – a babysitter robot’s dangerous obsession.

The iMom (Australia) – a robotic mother who challenges emotional authenticity

Anukul (India, Sujoy Ghosh, from Satyajit Ray’s story) – a domestic robot reflecting Indian social values.

After analyzing these dystopian narratives, students are asked to reimagine new ones—stories where AI and humans coexist in harmony. They use generative AI tools (like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude) as creative partners to brainstorm ideas, dialogue, and structure.

Pedagogical Value

This assignment blends creativity, critical analysis, and technological literacy. It transforms students from consumers of narratives into creators who explore how storytelling shapes our ethical imagination about technology.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      3.  Watch short films linked in above article or in the blog - 'Why are we so scared of robots / AI?'                                                                    The selected films reflect these anxieties:

In his blog “Why Are We So Scared of Robots / AIs?”, Dr. Barad sir  explores the recurring fear of machines overtaking humans—a theme embedded in popular culture and cinema.

 The selected films reflect these anxieties:

Fear of losing control (Ghost Machine)

Blurred boundaries between human and artificial (The iMom)

Questions of morality and emotion (Anukul)  

                                                                           By critically engaging with these films, students see that our fears of AI are often cultural projections, not technological truths. The DH task thus becomes not just about technology but about rethinking humanity itself—what it means to feel, care, and create.