Inaugurated in 2015, the Digital Humanities Initiative promotes new ways to engage in and learn about the use of technology in humanities scholarship. The DHI's goal is to connect scholars, teachers, librarians, technologists, and practitioners from around campus. The initiative is supported by the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute, with additional assistance from Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, Duke Libraries, and other groups on campus. The DHI is directed by Victoria Szabo, Associate Research Professor of Art, Art History & Visual Studies and Director of Information Science + Studies.
The PhD Lab in Digital Knowledge is a crucial component of the DHI. Originally launched in 2012 under the leadership of Cathy N. Davidson (founding FHI Co-Director and currently Distinguished Professor at the Graduate Center, City University of New York) and David F. Bell (Professor of Romance Studies), the PhD Lab provides an arena in which PhD students in humanities and interpretive social sciences can learn about new digital scholarship, engage with its challenges, and see its promise for their own research and professional lives within or outside the university. In 2016-17, Profs. Bell and Szabo are joined by Philip J. Stern (Sally Dalton Robinson Associate Professor of History) as Lab Co-Directors.