ABSTRACT
Digital humanities' indeterminacy is partly a function of its relative youth, partly a result of institutional turf wars, and partly a symptom of real disagreement over how a digitally adept scholar should be equipped. The difference between digital humanities and scholarship about digital media is praxis: the digital humanities scholar employs and thinks deeply about digital tools as part of his/her argument and research methods. Most histories of digital humanities emphasize its origins in textual analysis, but in fact film scholars have conducted research with computers virtually from the moment it became possible to do so. Equally troubling, digital humanities have very real problems with racial diversity and gender representation in its scholarly community. While no comprehensive data has been assembled about the race, gender, and international backgrounds of digital humanities practitioners, almost everyone agrees that this lack of diversity is a pressing problem.
