Decoding Digital Humanities Bloomington

Last Friday, we held our third meeting of the Bloomington chapter of Decoding Digital Humanities. DDH is an informal reading group, started at UCL. We were the first DDH chapter to form in North America but we definitely hope we are not the last.

The brilliant part of the original chapter's decision to hold the group's discussions at a pub is that it makes the meetings less intimidating. (It did make choosing a location quite a bit harder for us than it was for the Londoners.) This isn't taking place in a classroom or lecture hall. It's an informal, welcoming setting. We want to encourage discussion exactly along those lines: informal and welcoming.

I want to stress that because I get the sense from talking to colleagues that one of the things that keeps brilliant, but uninitiated, people from doing brilliant work in this area is the perceived high barrier to entry. I won't argue that the barriers aren't high but I do think that, with the opportunity to feel a sense of camaraderie and commiseration, getting one's feet wet in DH might seem doable. It is doable.

If you're in the Bloomington, IN area, come join us. Meeting info is available at ddhbloomington.tumblr.com. If you're not going to be but think your community might benefit from this kind of thing, I encourage you to consider starting your own chapter. Feel free to contact me or DDH London for more info.