Digital Humanities Center Blog

Originally published fall 2024

At the heart of Silicon Valley, San José State University is creating a space where technology empowers the community for creativity and social good. This fall 2024, we are thrilled to announce the launch of the Digital Humanities Center-a place to inspire creativity, foster inclusivity, and transform how people connect with technology.

The faculty and staff at the College of Humanities & the Arts and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library have been working with community and campus partners for over four years to make this vision a reality. The Center will offer free access to technology, expert guidance, and a collaborative environment for students, faculty, and community members to explore digital tools and bring their ideas to life.

Whether it’s creating digital storytelling projects, crafting artworks, or visualizing data-driven research, visitors will be given the training, tools and the expert support they need. They will also find a spirit of collaboration, where people will be invited to share their skills and knowledge with one another.

Thanks to the generosity of local supporters, we are in the final phase of fundraising. This year, we have raised $30,000 towards our $50,000 goal, and with $20,000 left, we need your help. Every dollar donated will be matched 1:1 by the National Endowment for the Humanities, doubling your impact.

Make a contribution today!

Originally published December 5, 2023

Thank you to all who gave to our Digital Humanities Center crowdfunding campaign this year! With your support, we surpassed our crowdfunding goal of $20,000 and met our third-year goal of $100,000 for the National Endowment for the Humanities Challenge Grant. 

Your support for the past three years has been key to our success as we have exceeded the fundraising goal for each and every one of our crowdfunding campaigns — from the Dream Digital Humanities Center launched in 2021 to our most recent campaign last month. Thank you. 

Over the next few months, renovations on the Digital Humanities Center space will continue in the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library as we plan for an anticipated soft launch in spring 2024. 

Updates will be posted here. We are incredibly excited and look forward to inviting you to share and view our new Digital Humanities Center in 2024!

Originally published March 16, 2023

SJSU's Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library and the College of Humanities and the Arts have met our second year goal of $100,000 with a generous donation from the Adobe Foundation. The donation is a part of the Adobe Foundation's $2 million grant to SJSU to support diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, mentorship and professional development, faculty research, and social justice programming.

Adobe Foundation's grant to the DHC recognizes the space as not only a center to explore and learn about digital humanities but also as a central hub offering technology and expert consultation to support digital literacy skill building for SJSU, K-12 educational institutions, and public stakeholders, such as local non-profits. The DHC will help bridge the growing gap in critical digital literacy and in-demand 21st century workforce skills, which aligns strongly with Adobe Foundation’s commitment to Adobe for All.

We are deeply grateful for Adobe Foundation's support and partnership in our work to bring the DHC to SJSU and look forward to continuing to work together.

As year three begins this spring, we look forward to sharing developments on the space in the King Library. Programming, resources and faculty projects in digital humanities continue to grow as well.

Progress on our third-year goal, along with updates on the DHC will be shared throughout the year. As the DHC progresses, it will be added to the growing list of resources SJSU offers in digital humanities.

We thank you for taking this incredible journey with us as we leave year two behind and head into year three. With your commitment and support, we will bring a Digital Humanities Center to SJSU!

Originally posted October 16, 2023

We have exciting news to share in the third year of our National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Challenge Grant — we have broken ground on the Digital Humanities Center (DHC)! Over the next three months, the College of Humanities and the Arts (H&A) and the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library (King Library) will be upgrading and furnishing the DHC space to bring a collaborative, technology-enabled center to life. The center — located on the ground floor of the King Library — will be a dedicated space for students, faculty, and the community to understand and explore digital humanities.

Your support over the past two years has been invaluable in getting us to where we are today. We successfully met and exceeded our goals for the first and second year of our NEH Challenge Grant thanks to your generous support and commitment to the DHC.

Now, as we move into our third year, we ask for your help in meeting this year’s $100,000 goal. We have already raised $85,000 in both new and multi-year gifts and have launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise the remaining $15,000. Help us secure that $15,000 and meet our third-year goal by making a gift today.

You can also help by sharing the link to the Digital Humanities Center crowdfunding campaign website with your friends through email and on your social media channels.

Thank you for supporting the DHC and joining us on this incredible journey. With your support, we're moving closer to completing the space and welcoming students, faculty, and the community to the DHC.

Originally published November 1, 2022

Over 110 people from San José State, San Diego State, and other California institutions registered for our first Digital Humanities Research Institute (DHRI), Networked Connections: Explorations Across Digital Humanities. Fourteen digital humanities practitioners shared their work and expertise with our participants and many continue with our DHRI program as mentors to faculty, staff, and graduate students eager to get started on their own digital scholarship journey. View recordings of the event and individual talks.

For me, the DHRI has been a unique opportunity to learn more about how CSU faculty are developing innovative approaches to teaching with the digital humanities, and to build the kind of interdisciplinary connections that can really accelerate research projects.

Nick Szydlowski, Digital Scholarship Librarian, SJSU King Library

The 14 mentor/mentee pairs will meet over the 2022-2023 academic year as the mentees establish their digital humanities work. SJSU and SDSU Libraries will also offer workshops providing technical training and grant writing support for the cohort throughout the year. In April of 2023 SJSU Library will host a celebratory event highlighting accomplishments and collaborations. Check this space for more information!

Originally published March 3, 2022

SJSU's Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library is excited to host the very first Digital Humanities Research Institute (DHRI) in June 2022. In collaboration with San Diego State University’s Digital Humanities Center and SJSU’s College of Humanities and Arts, the DHRI is an immersive Digital Humanities (DH) program that focuses on building communities of practice (CoP) around digital humanities to support the growing research, teaching, and scholarship in this field at the different California State University (CSU) campuses and in the communities they serve. The DH program includes a two-day virtual symposium followed by a series of methods-based workshops and one-on-one consultations open to faculty and students from SJSU and across the CSU system.

Leading the DHRI is Christina Mune, Associate Dean of SJSU King Library, and Pamela Lach, Director of SDSU’s Digital Humanities Center. Shares Christina, ”SJSU King Library looks forward to working with SDSU to build a thriving digital humanities community between our two campuses and eventually throughout the California State University system.” Dr. Katherine Harris, Director of Public Programming the College of H&A, serves as an important planning partner and faculty liaison to the DHRI.

The DHRI offers SJSU King Library a special opportunity to strengthen DH at SJSU as we work to build the Digital Humanities Center (DHC) in the library over the next four years with the support of the NEH Challenge Grant. We look forward to the collaborations and partnerships the DHRI will bring among our SJSU campus partners as well as our colleagues at SDSU and the other CSU campuses.

For more information about the Summer 2022 Digital Humanities Research Institute, please contact Christina Mune, Associate Dean, at christina.mune@sjsu.edu.

Originally published January 31, 2022

Digital Humanities at SJSU is gaining momentum with forward-thinking initiatives like the Digital Humanities Center, Deep Humanities and Arts, Humanities & Arts in San José, and countless faculty research projects. As a part of our work to bring continuity to these different initiatives across campus, the SJSU King Library Marketing Team and the College of Humanities & Arts (H&A) Marketing and Communications worked together to create a digital humanities logo.

We are excited to present the DH logo, a versatile and dynamic logo that articulates what digital humanities means to SJSU and beyond and communicates future work in this area.

Collaboration

The SJSU King Library and H&A Marketing Teams worked closely with visual communications and design team members of SJSU Strategic Communications and Marketing (SCM), who provided valuable contributions and consultation for the creation of the DH logo.

Ideation

The SJSU King Library and H&A Marketing Teams led the ideation process with three important questions:

1. What does digital humanities mean?
2. How will it grow and evolve at SJSU?
3. How can we visually represent a broad and evolving discipline, while keeping the San José State University brand at its core?

To address these questions, each team developed designs and discussed the best ways to meet the goals presented. Visual representations of artificial intelligence, coding, robotics, circuit boards, algorithms, and human traits were all illustrated and proposed.

“It was a true collaboration and great to see both teams, especially the student assistants, involved in bouncing ideas back and forth to create a logo we all can be proud of,” observed Lesley Seacrist, project and communication manager of the SJSU King Library.

Creation

The teams continued the discussion and design process while inviting the SJSU SCM visual communications and design team to propose their own designs. Ultimately, through many rounds of collaboration and modifications, the team created a pitch deck of three potential designs to show the leadership teams.

However, one design stood out from the rest early in the creation process. A simple interconnection of the letters “D” and “H” symbolizing the connection between the digital and human. The beveled squares are reminiscent of pixels on a screen, and a clean, modern font complements the three-layered grid. Its versatile design can transform into many iterations both in color and program.

“It’s our hope that this design can serve as a solid foundation and point of inspiration for our faculty, staff, students, and community to build upon as we explore the world of Digital Humanities.” shared Derick Truong, Student Intern Coordinator, College of Humanities and the Arts.

We are thrilled to present the DH logo and look forward to seeing it represent all the different work in digital humanities at SJSU.

Originally published May 1, 2021

SJSU King Library and the College of Humanities and Arts are excited to bring the Digital Humanities Center to SJSU. With a Digital Humanities Center, faculty and students will have:

• Use of open source software, hands-on technology, and the expertise of librarians to help support the lifecycle of a project from the initial brainstorm of an idea to its implementation and expansion
• Opportunities to collaborate with colleagues across campus on interdisciplinary projects
• A space to explore and expand upon digital pedagogy in the classroom and beyond

We look forward to presenting updates on the center as it progresses. Updates will be shared here. Stay tuned!