University launches new Program in Digital Humanities and AI

The College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences launched an academic program which bridges artificial intelligence and the humanities, elevating what was previously known as the Digital Humanities Initiative into a formal program with a dedicated faculty director. Matthew Kirschenbaum, Commonwealth professor of AI and English, will serve as the program's inaugural faculty director.

In an email sent to Arts & Sciences faculty this month, sustained student interest in the University’s Digital Humanities Graduate Certificate, growing undergraduate engagement and increasing faculty involvement with AI were cited as reasons for the change.

The Digital Humanities Initiative previously functioned without a standing faculty director and served as an umbrella for existing digital humanities work across the College, including support for students seeking to obtain the Digital Humanities Graduate Certificate. The newly formed Program in Digital Humanities and AI keeps that certificate in place but adds formal structure.

New York University defines “digital humanities” as the interdisciplinary study of humans as it intersects with emergent technologies. Digital humanities involves producing humanities-focused work with tools like data analysis, mapping and AI.

According to the University’s website, the program is intended to function as a coordinating hub for the College's digital, computational and AI-based approaches to humanistic inquiry.

“The Program in Digital Humanities and AI … represents an elevation and renewed commitment to what had previously been known as the Digital Humanities Initiative,” Kirschenbaum said in a statement to The Cavalier Daily. “With the appointment of a faculty director — myself — the program will serve to organize [the College’s] curricular efforts in these areas as well as build a community for scholarship, research and creative practices.”

Kirschenbaum is a scholar of “texts and textual technologies in all their social and material forms,” according to his University website. His academic work explores literary intersections of printing and bookmaking, archival science, media archaeology, digital humanities and AI. Kirschenbaum said his priority in leading the program is gathering input from across the College concerning the program’s development.

“My first priority is to listen, to get a sense of what students and faculty throughout [Arts & Sciences] need to better support their work,” Kirschenbaum said. “I’m particularly interested in hearing from undergraduates to explore what forms a [Digital Humanities] minor or other program corresponding to the Graduate Certificate.”

The Cavalier Daily contacted six professors across disciplines including religious studies, data science, American studies and history, but all the professors said they were unable to comment on the program.

In a written statement to The Cavalier Daily, University Spokesperson Bethanie Glover framed the program as one initiative belonging to a much larger digital humanities landscape at the University — one that predates this latest change and extends beyond the College itself.

“Emerging Digital Humanities and AI activity in the College of Arts & Sciences joins an active community of longstanding digital humanities work at U.Va., including the University Library's Digital Humanities Center,” Glover said. “The Digital Humanities ecosystem is a rich environment for events, workshops and speaker visits, including a graduate certificate program supported by the College, the School of Data Science and U.Va. Libraries."

The Digital Humanities Graduate Certificate program remains central to the initiative, and Kirshchenbaum confirmed its popularity over the past several years. The certificate now enrolls more than 50 graduate students, and he said it will continue to be directed by Rennie Mapp, director of the Digital Humanities Initiative. Kirschenbaum credited much of the initiative’s growth to Mapp.

“I think the desire has existed for some time to solidify and organize the College's various efforts in this area, including especially the DH Graduate Certificate," Kirschenbaum said. “I think there was a sense that the pieces might be in place to move strategically in this area.”

Beyond internal forces, Kirschenbaum also mentioned the traction of generative AI in higher education as a motivating factor for the program’s launch.

“The very rapid developments in and around generative AI, which are causing both excitement and considerable upset and anxiety, made it clear not only that [Arts & Sciences] needed a way to react,” Kirschenbaum said. “There [is] an opportunity to build on and extend the long tradition of DH here on Grounds — taking advantage of methods and tools the DH community has built and critical perspectives it has cultivated to better understand and reckon with what this disruptive new technology means.”

Glover and Kirschenbaum confirmed that the program is directly funded by the College. Glover pointed to the standard budgeting process the College uses for its programs and initiatives. The quantity of funding for the program is unknown — Glover did not specify particular funding sources or quantities.

“Funding for programs and initiatives in the College is considered as part of a robust annual and long-term budgeting process that includes faculty and staff. Where relevant, input from the College’s academic leadership team helps to inform and support these decisions,” Glover said.

Kirschenbaum also did not mention a specific budget figure to fund the program. Instead, he described the program's main support as the College's leadership, which he said has expressed continued interest in expanding work in the digital humanities. He drew that source of support directly to the office of Christa Acampora, dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences.

“The chief resource, though, is the interest and goodwill of the College’s leadership, who are clearly looking to invest further in this area. The Program will be an important way to help guide and test those strategies,” Kirschenbaum said. “It also means that [Arts & Sciences], under the leadership of Dean Acampora, is actively engaged in building and supporting both research and curriculum in these areas, and that now is the opportunity to help shape that vision.”

Kirschenbaum invited the broader University community to become involved with the new initiative. He said he hopes the program's biggest impact will be giving shape and visibility to work that has been underway, and that will continue, in the College.

“Hopefully it means a better sense of coherence in terms of what the College is doing in these areas, a ‘front door’ to knock on, so to speak,” Kirschenbaum said. “We are interested in hearing from anyone on Grounds who is interested in and wants to be a part of what we’re doing.”