Oxford humanities goes digital

The use of technology to enhance research is an increasingly important part of the study of humanities in the 21st century, and Oxford University remains at the forefront of progress in this area. In recognition of this, its Humanities Division has recently been awarded around £600,000 in funding for projects to digitise the humanities. The grant comes from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)'s Digital Equipment and Database Enhancement for Impact (DEDEFI) scheme, a peer-reviewed award which is made every year. The funding is shared among four interdisciplinary projects across the University, benefiting the Faculties of Music, Astrophysics, Classics and Oriental Studies and the Ruskin School of Fine Art, as well as the Ashmolean Museum and the Bodleian Libraries. The projects involve uploading images of thousands of original sources, texts and manuscripts onto the internet; creating teaching resources for scholars, students and the general public; and improving techniques used to read, decipher and study these documents. Dr Andrew Fairweather-Tall, Research Co-ordinator for the Humanities Division, said: 'Humanities research very often relies on primary source material, which may be fragile, unreadable, in another country or far away from the thing you need to compare it to. 'Being able to use technologies that help you see things the human eye cannot, and to bring things together digitally in one virtual place and access them anywhere in the world, is really transforming the kind of research we can do.