Whenever I tell anyone I am a Digital Humanities minor, they always ask me what that is and what can I do with it. Since it is a small and new minor, a lot of people have never even heard of it before. I am usually able to give them my own brief interpretation of the still vague concept of digital humanities, but sometimes struggle with how it will help me later on in life. The article, “The Promise of Digital Humanities” by Adam Smith gave a great example of how using data mining, a tool that falls under the category of digital humanities, can be beneficial and enhance our understanding of historical data. In the article, Smith states “Proponents of data mining herald the approach for its alleged potential to close the gap between the ‘two cultures’ of the humanities and the hard sciences by allowing us to subject historical texts to quantitative analysis”. Data mining is a practical, tangible thing that can be used in the future to make better use of the information we have. It can take our current understanding to a whole new level by offering a further analysis of data.
Smith’s statement reminded me of phrases I’ve read regarding my major, Human Biology and Society, here at UCLA. For example, the about page for Human Biology and Society says, “[it] bridges the cultural divide between life sciences and human sciences effectively as it uses interdisciplinary teams of scientists to address essential research questions”. I had never really made such a connection between my major and minor before, but now it is apparent that there is a lot of overlap between the two and they are both based around the idea of bringing in different areas of study and technology to enhance our understanding of data and research. I really am drawn to the idea of intersections in education because I think it is important to be intellectually well rounded. The “society” part of my major can help me apply the science facts that I learn to real life and the “digital” portion of my education will help me further convey this information and make it accessible and easy to understand. I am also very indecisive and am unsure of what I want to do with myself so having broad, intersectional majors appeals to me. My major and minor do not clearly fit under the traditional categories of north campus or south campus, life sciences or humanities or social sciences. I think in the future, there will be more degree programs like these that serve as a bridge between various areas of study because the world is also becoming less and less traditional.