Digital Humanities program receives $2 million grant

December 4, 2014

The “Digital Humanities at Berkeley” initiative, which has been supported by the work of Research IT staff since its inception, has been bolstered by a $2 million grant from the Mellon Foundation, as reported by the UC Berkeley News Center piece “Mellon grant advances Berkeley’s Digital Humanities”. Arts and Humanities Dean Anthony Cascardi is the project’s Principal Investigator. Excerpting from the News Center:

“This grant will enable us to offer intensive summer training workshops for faculty and students, to introduce them to a range of tools and methods, while providing the critical frameworks for reflection on their impact,” said Cascardi.

As part of the grant, a new fellowship program will also provide opportunities for faculty, graduate students and postdoctoral scholars to develop proficiency in the use of digital materials and tools, and to apply those skills to their research.

Additional support for the initiative for digital humanities from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research will fund faculty research, and expand the technology consulting for faculty and students in the humanities provided by UC Berkeley’s Research Information Technology (Research IT) and Office of the Chief Information Officer.

“For scholars undertaking a digital humanities project for the first time, it’s often difficult to know what questions to ask, or where to turn for resources,” said David Greenbaum, director of Research IT.

“We’re excited to have the opportunity to work with scholars at all stages of project development, to help them work through challenges such as tool selection, recruiting research assistants, technical development, and research data management,” said Greenbaum.