1 Introduction

1.1 Why we need the initiative on digital humanities

Recent developments in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and interactive applications are creating new social tools and conditions for people to connect and interact; therefore changing the ways we communicate, socialize and collaborate. These new forms of digital enhanced communication and collaboration have been rapidly adopted and integrated into people’s everyday lives. Understanding the nature and consequences of these new interactions and social transformations is crucial if we want to design and shape a better future where digital technologies become an integral component for enriching our life. One major challenge we have identified is the exploration of the two-way interactions between society and ICT with a focus on the Humanities. This particular orientation has the potential to become a key success factor for the values and competitiveness of the entire Linnaeus region having in mind recent EU and Swedish political discussions in the field of Digital Humanities.

1.2 What we mean by digital humanities

Digital humanities has been attempted to be defined by numerous authors and in many contexts. Here we take the broad viewpoint of it as “a diverse and still emerging field that encompasses the practice of humanities research in and through information technology, and the exploration of how the humanities may evolve through their engagement with technology, media, and computational methods” (Digital Humanities Quarterly Journal). It lies at the intersection of ICT and humanities, which is being continually formulated by scholars and practitioners; it can include but is not limited to topics like big data, data mining, text categorization, metadata, interoperability standards, interactive visualization, GIS (Geographical Information Systems), multimedia games, digital story telling, social network analysis, bibliometrics.

Furthermore, there is a need for collaborative efforts to understand the challenges and possibilities in digital humanities, which we are trying to address with this cross-discipline and cross-sector application. As “the current landscape is multifaceted and characterized by a range of epistemic traditions and modes of engagement, and while there is a great deal of overlap and common interests, there is also a need of increased shared awareness. It could be argued that a better understanding of the landscape of the digital humanities, epistemic traditions and collaborative possibilities are vital to the further development of the field. A respectful dialogue of visions, agendas, competencies and research interests across much of this landscape can help us meet a range of exciting upcoming challenges” (Svensson 2010). As seen from participants’ various input related to the short- and long-term values for them and activities which they conduct, they all belong to digital humanities; however, the challenge we would like to address with this project is to find the overlap which is the core of the field, what is the whole picture, and how to combine the “lego” pieces for addressing societal and research challenges in a more comprehensive and systematic approach.

1.3 How we would build digital humanities along cross-sector axes

The core idea of our proposal at this first phase (12-15 months) is to establish the foundations for the creation of a Digital Humanities initiative at the Linnaeus region, by combining some already existing expertise and resources at LNU and the wider community through input from related public and private sectors, resulting in the establishment of new top-notch research and highly skilled professionals tackling societal challenges, making LNU indeed ”the university where everything is possible”. In a second phase (24-48 months) this Digital Humanities initiative could grow into an even broader area based on data, information, knowledge and their relationship with technology, involving more departments, working on projects relevant to society, and creating more attractive professional courses and inter(national) programmes at master level with various specialisations. Our long-term vision is to create a leading education, development and research regional centre that combines in novel ways already existing expertise from different LNU departments and faculties working in close collaboration and co-creation with people and different organizations (both public and private sector) from the surrounding society. Addressing future societal challenges would be possible by highly skilled professionals whose education has been markedly enhanced by practice-informed education and joint, cross-sector innovation.

Strategic values to be developed during these efforts refer to uniting and consolidating the expertise we already have to create new constellations for collaboration leading to new knowledge and products (expertise, education, research, public and commercial services relevant for the region, such as a cultural tourism industry perspective), resulting in a return in investment. Our hope is that, based on the planned achievements, an important value for the general public could be a (re)-affirmation of the value of humanities in particular, and academic practices in general. Our long-term strategy is to develop a creative knowledge environment in the spirit of Linnaeus that carries out prominent development and research activities within the field of Digital Humanities both at regional and international scale, serving as a catalyst for driving a societal change with a focus on innovations and sustainable growth. All these lines of action are much aligned with LNU´s strategy as described in the document "A journey into the future: Vision and strategy 2015–2020".

The full project proposal is available at the link below.