Welcome to the Digital Humanities research group (DH_OU)

Digital Humanities is the critical study of how digital technologies and methods intersect with humanities scholarship and scholarly communication.  It investigates the use of digital tools and software for the interpretation and analysis of humanities research questions and how digital methodologies can be used to enhance disciplines such as Art History, Classical Studies, History, Literature, Music and many others. 

Digital Humanities allows scholars to approach old problems with new means, or to ask new questions that could not have been asked with the traditional means of humanistic enquiry. Whatever the approach chosen, Digital Humanities remains grounded in humanities research and interests.

Whether you view Digital Humanities as disruptive and challenging, or believe that it is becoming part of the normal practice of all humanities scholars, we hope you will take the time to discover our projects, attend one of our events or contact one of our members.

Latest Updates

• DH_OU Study Day: The Future of Reading
  by Francesca Benatti
  28 March 2025
  Technology and Experience When: 1 April 2025 from 10:00 to 17:00 Where: KMi Podium, Knowledge Media Institute, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK and Microsoft Teams This study day – focused on “technology and experience” – is the first of a series of events on the future of reading. The study day proposes three open … DH_OU Study Day: The Future of Reading
• The challenges of born-digital fiction
  by Francesca Benatti
  24 March 2025
  Dene Grigar (Washington State University) and Mariusz Pisarski (University of Rzeszów) 1 April 2025, KMi Podium and online, 11:30-13:00 How can early interactive novels, hypertext fictions and narratives be maintained and kept accessible? These forms of born-digital literature were produced before or shortly after the mainstreaming of the World Wide Web with proprietary software and … The challenges of born-digital fiction
• Special Issue On the Margins 22
  by Alessio Antonini
  7 February 2025
  Taylor and Francis Journal New Reviews of Hypermedia and Multimedia just published our two-volume Special Issue, “On the Margins: Hypertext, Electronic Media, Digital Humanities”. The special issue includes a selection of extended papers presented at the On the Margins 2022 Conference, co-organised between the OU and the School of Advanced Studies, University of London. The eight … Special Issue On the Margins 22
• Which views are represented in the news? Using AI to capture political discourse
  by Francesca Benatti
  17 January 2025
  Enrico Motta (Knowledge Media Institute, The Open University) KMi Podium, 28 January 2025, 11:30-12:30 Abstract Check https://kmi.open.ac.uk/seminars/3949 for link to live webcast on the day of the seminar. In recent years, the debate about the democratic health of the UK’s media landscape has intensified, with several commentators and scholars highlighting a rather distorted system, characterised … Which views are represented in the news? Using AI to capture political discourse
• DH_OU workshop
  by Francesca Benatti
  20 November 2024
  20 November 2024, KMi Media Lab 14:00-14:30 Alessio Antonini 14:30 – 15:15 ongoing projects 15:15-15:50 bid planning 11:00-11:10 Phil Perkins: Arrival and Welcome   11:10-11:30 Elton Barker and Sarah Middle: Annotating object itineraries in Recogito  11:30-11:50 Dawn Kanter: From DH_OU to DH at Reading  11:50-12:10 Rachele De Felice: DH and email corpora  12:10-12:30 Alba Morales: People … DH_OU workshop