{"id":635,"date":"2026-11-04T14:57:49","date_gmt":"2026-11-04T20:57:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/libraries.uh.edu\/reimagined\/?page_id=635"},"modified":"2026-11-13T11:43:55","modified_gmt":"2026-11-13T17:43:55","slug":"humanities-for-all","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/libraries.uh.edu\/reimagined\/fall-2026\/humanities-for-all\/","title":{"rendered":"Humanities For All"},"content":{"rendered":"

How UH\u2019s digital humanists transform research into something interactive and discoverable, therefore more accessible for everyone.<\/h2>\r\n\r\n
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\r\n\tValeria Gonz\u00e1lez (left) and Dr. Linda Garc\u00eda Merchant collaborate on digitizing physical items the DH Core can then develop further.\r\n\t <\/figcaption>\r\n\t<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n
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\r\n\u201c[Digital humanities] takes something that was locked up and opens it to researchers across the country or students or someone who just stumbled across it out of curiosity.\u201d<\/p>\r\n \u2014 Vivian Nguyen<\/strong>
\r\nSenior Digital Media Major &
\r\nPresident of UXCoogs<\/span><\/small>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n

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Digital humanists<\/strong> are on a mission to make research accessible and interactive, especially when the original materials were created long before the Internet age. Thus, a substantial component of the digital humanities process is transforming the physical into the electronic so it can exist virtually.<\/p>\r\n

Consider these examples from the University of Houston Digital Humanities Core.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cSharing Stories From 1977\u201d chronicles the lives of more than 150,000 participants of the 1977 National Women\u2019s Conference. Studying Urban Relationships and Identity Over Ancient Syria, known as \u201cSYRIOS,\u201d highlights ancient Syrian history for modern audiences through the study of coins, some of which date as far back as Before the Common Era. Both \u201cSharing Stories\u201d and \u201cSYRIOS\u201d are websites that host digitized materials and their associated findings, allowing anyone with an internet connection to locate and learn from them.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

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\r\n\t\u201cSharing Stories From 1977\u201d was supported by the University of Houston Digital Humanities Core to chronicle the lives of the more than 150,000 participants of the 1977 National Women\u2019s Conference.\r\n\t <\/figcaption>\r\n\t<\/figure>\r\n\r\n

Many digital humanities projects begin when someone, likely a researcher, has collected physical content, studied it, and amassed important takeaways about it but doesn\u2019t know the best way to convey the work\u2019s significance online.<\/p>\r\n

That\u2019s when digital humanists become involved, with the goal to help those researchers \u201cenvision and produce articulations of their work to interested audiences,\u201d says Dr. Linda Garc\u00eda Merchant, director of the UH Digital Humanities Core.<\/p>\r\n

Valeria Gonz\u00e1lez, doctoral student in U.S. history and graduate research assistant to Dr. Garc\u00eda Merchant, notes it is often the researcher and their assistant who initially digitize physical items into virtual versions. Then the DH Core can generate an online space and supporting tools.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cLet\u2019s say you\u2019re a professor, and you have done all this research. You have taken scans of all these papers, and you\u2019ve already looked at them closely and come to your own conclusions about what they mean,\u201d Gonz\u00e1lez says. \u201cThen you would meet with Dr. Garc\u00eda Merchant, take her micro-credentialing class on introduction to the digital humanities, then meet with people who know how to turn something into a website.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

The DH Core currently has a new undertaking: the Black magazines archive, which is a collaboration between Dr. Lisa Volpe, head of department, curator of photography for the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and Dr. Rex Koontz, Moores Professor of Art History in UH\u2019s Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cDr. Volpe and her team found a lot of Black magazines from the 20th century and digitized them and did metadata for them,\u201d says Gonz\u00e1lez, who serves as project facilitator.<\/p>\r\n

In addition to Gonz\u00e1lez and Drs. Volpe and Koontz, a DH Core employee specializing in data visualizations and UH students with relevant skillsets are part of the Black magazines archive working group.<\/p>\r\n

In her role as facilitator, Gonz\u00e1lez meets with the team every couple of weeks or so to check on everyone\u2019s progress. One of those team members is Vivian Nguyen, senior digital media major and president of UXCoogs, a club based at UH Sugar Land. Nguyen interns as a UX\/UI designer for the DH Core through the 2026 Design and Development Internship Program.<\/p> \r\n

Her main focus: designing the full user experience and visual identity for the Black magazines archive platform. \u201cThink of me as an architect,\u201d says Nguyen. \u201cI\u2019m building out the blueprint, the map for it, and then I give it to the developer team to construct it.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

To Nguyen, the aim of digital humanities is to close the gap between information and those who may not know how to access it. For the Black magazines archive, this entails making the publications publicly discoverable for the first time through a searchable and easily browsable medium.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cThese magazines existed. They documented real communities and real culture, everyday life across the 20th century. But because they weren\u2019t widely circulated at that time, most people today have never really seen them and probably never would,\u201d Nguyen says. <\/p>\r\n

\u201cThey\u2019re probably sitting in archives, physically preserved but invisible to the public. Digital humanities changes that. It takes something that was locked up and opens it to researchers across the country or students or someone who just stumbled across it out of curiosity.\u201d<\/p> \r\n

The Black magazines archive is an ongoing endeavor; design and code are still taking shape. When finished, the final product will be a well of resources for professional and casual learners alike.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cThe Black magazines archive would be for people who like art or Black history or Black fashion,\u201d Gonz\u00e1lez says. \u201cIt could be for researchers who are studying Black history from the 20th century and maybe Civil Rights, because we made sure to choose articles and issues that touch on that.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

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\r\n\tCovers from a selection of magazines that were once static and will now be a part of the interactive Black magazines digital archive.\r\n\t <\/figcaption>\r\n\t<\/figure>\r\n

As seen via existing and evolving DH Core projects, digital humanities broadens the availability of knowledge by putting stationary content online and formatting it to be engaging for all visitors. Through dynamic designs, thoughtful frameworks, and comprehensive codes, digital humanists enable research to go further than ever before.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/article>\r\n\r\n

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Digital Humanities Project Life Cycle<\/h2>\r\n
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\r\n\"step\r\n

STEP 1<\/h3>\r\n

A researcher is interested in putting studied materials and related findings online to make them accessible to a broader audience.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n

\r\n\"step\r\n

STEP 2<\/h3>\r\n

The researcher shares materials and findings with digital humanists, who evaluate the content to select the best online platform and virtual tools to catalog and convey the information.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n

\r\n\"step\r\n

STEP 3<\/h3>\r\n

Digital humanists assemble an interdisciplinary team to take the vision from draft to finished work, the size and functionality of which suit the materials.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n

\r\n\"step\r\n

STEP 4<\/h3>\r\n

Members of the interdisciplinary team tackle assigned tasks: designers craft layout, developers write code, UX advisors evaluate operability, and researchers ensure materials and findings are represented accurately.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n

\r\n\"step\r\n

STEP 5<\/h3>\r\n

Materials and findings are uploaded, complete with relevant tools, and published for public use. Once-static materials are now accessible and interactive, allowing anyone interested to find and engage with the work online.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n