The Digital Humanities Lab

New Digital Humanities Collaboration between Exeter and the University of British Columbia

The University of Exeter’s Digital Humanities Laboratory has committed to developing a Digital Humanities Exchange with the University of British Columbia.

The project will support a two-way exchange of staff and student interns between the Digital Humanities lab environments at Exeter’s Streatham Campus and the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan Campus (UBC O). Exeter and UBC O both provide outstanding facilities for the study of Digital Humanities, but offer very different specialisms and areas of expertise. The exchange will enable the sharing of knowledge in several key areas, including 3D printing, 2D digital photography, text encoding, and the digitisation of audio materials. Staff and students will enjoy the opportunity to learn a great deal from practitioners at their partner campus.

In addition, a student internship at each institution will help facilitate the design and delivery of a collaborative training module for use at both institutions. UBC have recently introduced an online, self-paced package of training modules for students. On completion, students are awarded a ‘digital badge’ which wins them open access to the lab equipment in areas where they have gained proficiency. As a result of this collaboration, Exeter and UBC Okanagan will work together to develop a range of enhanced online training materials that will eventually be available to students from both campuses. The result will be that undergraduate and postgraduate students at both institutions will have access to an enhanced range of training materials, which will help students develop digital humanities skills and use them in their academic work.

Exeter’s Associate Dean for Research, Professor James Clark, commented: ‘I believe that this project will lay the groundwork for a long-term collaboration between Exeter and UBC Okanagan in the field of Digital Humanities. The facilities and expertise at Okanagan complement what we do here at Exeter very well – our students and staff will benefit a great deal from the opportunity to learn with such a strong partner, while we very much look forwards to building new connections when we host Canadian colleagues here at Exeter.’

This collaboration is one of several initiatives that are currently underway between academics in the College of Humanities and UBC’s Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies. In May 2018, both universities signed a new Statement of Cooperation to encourage closer working in the arts and humanities. Faculty are currently working together on a number of initiatives related to Digital Humanities, Heritage, and Wellbeing.

Date: 18 September 2018