With the increasing prevalence of algorithms and artificial intelligence in information and knowledge transfer, proficiency in digital research methods became an indispensable skill for most natural and social scientists. The field of humanities is also increasingly recognizing the importance of staying up-to-date with possibilities offered by digital research and overall technological developments, as demonstrated by the emergence and growing popularity of Digital Humanities. Yet at this point arises the most crucial question: how to enhance data literacy among both humanities students and researchers? This question seems to be even more critical in the field of Multilingual Digital Humanities, which as a subfield of broader understood humanities struggles not only with insufficient institutional support and shortage of resources but also with technical challenges resulting from multiscriptuality and variety of its target languages, many of them being languages with limited digital resources or tools available for research.
But there is no need to be too pessimistic! The Multilingual DH community is actively working on strategies to address these problems, and with the emergence of DH-related courses in Area Studies at some universities, there’s hope on the horizon. A great opportunity for exchange and discussion, prerequisites of any progress, arose in the workshop “Digital Literacy in der multilingualen und -skriptualen Lehre” (Digital Literacy in the multilingual and multiscriptual teaching) organized by the Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg in cooperation with DHd AG Multilingual DH, Universitätsbibliothek and the Institute of Arabic Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin, as well as Philipps-Universität Marburg. The workshop took place on May 8, 2023, and brought together 14 participants from German, Austrian, and Swiss universities, who were tasked with creating a position paper that outlined the current status of digital training in multilingual humanities, identified factors preventing its progress, and proposed concrete solutions. The diversity of the workshop participants, including researchers, librarians, and students, allowed for a multifaceted exploration of the topic, ensuring that the needs and experiences of different academic groups were thoroughly considered.
The workshop addressed a range of issues, from formal questions related to the integration of digital competencies into curricula and teaching infrastructures to practical considerations such as teaching methods, accessibility of teaching resources, and formulation of key competencies. However, the most discussed topics were firstly the problem of limited digital expertise among humanities researchers, resulting in a dependence on a few individuals with these skills for DH training and research, and secondly the challenges specific to the field of Multilingual DH such as limited data availability for low-resource languages, or insufficient functionality of existing programs for non-European datasets, which can make it difficult, and at times even impossible, to integrate digital methods into specific fields of study, even when students are already familiar with general DH practices.
Many potential solutions were proposed. Organizing online co-teaching and cross-university teach-ins was seen as a way to encourage cooperation between universities and to push back against institute-exclusive expertise. Switching to formats more appropriate for DH requirements like block seminars and hackathons, inviting technical support assistants to classes, establishing DH-help desks, enhancing cooperation with libraries and DH centers, and offering tool training for teachers, are just a few of many ideas the group came up with. In the context of multilinguality and DH in Aria Studies a big emphasis was put on collaboration and exchange with universities and researchers from the respective countries. Generally speaking, developing a solid ML DH network within and between institutes was seen as the point of departure for any change and improvement, and the workshop was meant as an initiative to establish such a community. Besides the finalization of the position paper, the participants will continue to work together to set a platform that will serve as a knowledge hub for ML DH, providing living handbooks and opportunities for exchange and collaboration.
As mentioned before, fortunately, DH is already making its way into teaching curricula. To name some examples, the University of Hamburg with its Custer of Excellence “Understanding Written Artefacts” became an important hub for DH in multilingual and cross-historical contexts, making training more accessible for students. Since 2021, the Institute for Africa-Asia Studies is offering a DH course covering an introduction to a range of digital tools and techniques, from programming and data collection to text analysis, mapping, and social network analysis. Another center for Multilingual DH is the Institute for Arabic Studies at Freie Universität Berlin, which has a long-term project on the digital edition of Kalila wa-Dimna called “Anonym Classics”. Here, students are provided with research-based DH training that directly benefits from the knowledge and expertise gained in the course of the project. In the summer semester of 2023, the researchers of “Anonym Classics” offered a course on “Scholarly Text Editing in Arabic”, which gave students a theoretical introduction to critical and digital editions as well as practical skills like XML and TEI, all in reference to the edition of Kalila wa-Dimna.
Overall, while being a humanist, learning and teaching qualitative and technology-based research methods can be very challenging, and doing so in a multilingual context at least doubles the challenge. However, it also doubles the fun and satisfaction of getting better! When combined with collaboration and a supportive community, transparency and open communication about one´s struggles can be a powerful motivator and source of empowerment, particularly for students, who may be very often intimidated by the intricacy of quantitative and digital methods. Knowing that their teachers are also walking the path of trial and error can only encourage them to try it out themselves.