TEST About the Digital Humanities Center

Established in 2023, the Library’s DH Center is a hub for critical and creative exploration with digital technology in humanities research, supporting students, staff, and faculty in the integration of digital and critical making methods into research, teaching, and public engagement. The DHC connects communities of practice across and beyond UVA to stimulate interdisciplinary collaborations, experimental practices, and uplift socially-engaged uses of digital technology. The DHC is open for mentoring, consultations, collaboration, events, workshops, fellowships, and more.       

The DHC brings decades of expertise supporting interdisciplinary humanities research through UVA’s eminent practitioners in digital humanities, the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities (IATH) and the Scholars’ Lab. Complementing the specialist librarians and other research wings of the Library, the DHC’s full-time experts support members of the University and community, regardless of status, field, or subject area, to pursue their digital and experimental research and pedagogical projects. 

Our Common Room is a space for community events and gathering, and when not in use, it is open for quiet study. Staff are on hand during the semester for office hours from 10-2pm, Tuesday through Thursday. We recommend scheduling a consultation prior to your visit.

Location: Shannon Library 3rd floor, rooms 300, 308, 308i

Contact: dhcenter@virginia.edu

DH Center is located on the third floor of Shannon Library on the East Wing side
Photo collage: A woman gives a presentation, students gather around 3D scanning equipment, and students examine visual media together

Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities (IATH)

Since 1992, IATH has collaborated with humanities researchers on a remarkable range of transformative, original research projects during selective fellowships, and continues to support internal and external initiatives in digital scholarship in many disciplines. A Resident and Associate Fellowship program offers fellowships to UVA faculty doing humanities research, providing consulting, technical support, applications development, project development, and grant planning. IATH cultivates partnerships and technological experimentation with libraries, publishers, information technology companies, scholarly organizations, independent scholars, and community organizations for transformative applications of computing to studies of diverse cultural heritage.

Learn more about IATH

Scholars' Lab

Since 2006, the Scholars' Labhas served as the Library’s interdisciplinary research lab for exploring the intersections of technology and culture, offering mentoring, consultation, and collaboration in four areas: digital humanities project design and pedagogy; geospatial data collection and analysis; critical making; and approaches to capturing, preserving, animating, and visualizing 3D cultural heritage data and other research information. Scholars' Lab particularly focuses on creating and empowering scholars (students, faculty, or otherwise) as digital method practitioners in their own right, and prioritizes support for pushing scholarly boundaries and advancing social justice through creative, computational research. Scholars' Lab administers research fellowships including the renowned, longstanding graduate DH Praxis Program, and connects UVA faculty and students to external opportunities through staff leadership in international scholarly organizations. Scholars' Lab hosts public events, interactive exhibits, and community spaces, including the Makerspace, VR development workspace, and high-end software and equipment for digital, textual, and spatial scholarship.

Learn more about Scholars' Lab

History of the digital humanities at UVA

The University of Virginia has a long and distinguished history in digital humanities: it has long linked the humanities to the public good and UVA’s pioneering work in digital humanities extended that tradition to the innovations and ideas of the 21st century.

The UVA Library has housed digital humanities groups since the 1990s, including the Electronic Text Center, Japanese Text Initiative, and Virginia Center for Digital History, and has supported and partnered with digital humanities practitioners inside and outside UVA.

Meet our staff

Arin Bradley Bennett Information Visualization Specialist Ask me about...
  • AR and VR tools and technologies
  • Text-based MUDs & MOOs
  • 3D visualization for Humanities projects
Lisa Blackmore Professor of Spanish, Italian, & Portuguese, Wage Assignment for Salaried Faculty Ask me about...
  • Partnerships and collaborations with the DHC
  • Public humanities
  • Community water care work in Latin America
Jeremy Boggs Head of Research & Development Ask me about...
  • Digital archives, collections, and exhibitions
  • Critical digital editions
  • User experience; UI design; Web publishing
  • Front-end technologies: HTML, CSS, JavaScript
Shayne Brandon System Administrator Ask me about...
  • Preserving old perl-, php-, and java-based web sites in a modern environment.
  • The under-utilization of photography and story-telling in Digital Humanities
  • The meaning of life
Cindy M Girard Information Technology Specialist Ii Ask me about...
  • XML uses and tagging
  • TEI versus custom DTDs
  • Oxygen XML Software
  • Consistency in coding
  • Roller derby
Chris GIST Geographic Information Systems Specialist Ask me about...
  • Geographic Information Systems
  • GIS data access
  • ArcGIS / StoryMaps
Ronda Grizzle Project Management and Training Specialist Ask me about...
  • Project design and scoping
  • Project management
  • Personal coaching
  • Tabletop games
Shane Lin Senior Developer Ask me about...
  • Python
  • Parsing and cleaning data
  • Social media data, web scraping
  • OCR/HTR
  • Digital archives
  • 3D printing, letterpress
  • Food in Charlottesville
Drew MacQueen Geospatial Consultant Ask me about...
  • Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
  • Spatial Analysis
  • ArcGIS Pro
  • ArcGIS Online / StoryMaps
  • ArcPy / ArcGIS API for Python
Lauren Mari Massari Multimedia Designer Ask me about...
  • 3D modeling, rendering, and animation
  • Architectural history, especially the Academical Village
  • Adobe software: Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, InDesign
Laura M. Miller Assistant Director of Scholars' Lab Public Services Ask me about...
  • Speaker events and co-sponsorships
  • DH training needs and future event suggestions
  • Use of the Scholars’ Lab public space
  • Data organization and management
will rourk 3D Technologies Specialist Ask me about...
  • 3D Data
  • Architectural History Digital Preservation
  • 3D Cultural Heritage Informatics
  • 3D scanning technologies
Ammon Edwin Shepherd Makerspace Manager Ask me about...
  • 3D printing, consumer and hacker electronics like Arduino and Raspberry Pi
  • Using technology to do humanities research
  • Physical humanities, where physical technology is applied to humanities research
  • Making as a teaching tool
  • Empowerment through learning technology
Amanda Wyatt Visconti Director of the Scholars' Lab Ask me about...
  • Partnerships with the Scholars' Lab
  • Connections to external digital humanities networks & organizations
  • Letterpress printing
Brandon M Walsh Head of Scholars' Lab Student Programs Ask me about...
  • Digital pedagogy
  • Public writing
  • Digital publishing and editing
  • Text analysis
  • Music
Sarah P Wells Director of IATH Ask me about...
  • Faculty-led digital scholarship
  • Grants and project development
  • Collaborations across disciplines and with external partners