Thanks to a group of wonderful instructors and an energetic, passionate cohort of students from around the world, the first iteration of our intensive digital humanities training institute was a great success when it was held in January 2013. We were inspired by the model pioneered at the Digital Humanities Summer Institute (DHSI) and we were responding to an unmet need we perceived for additional training opportunities—in new locations, with different but complementary courses and emphasis. Our first year was a true experiment.

Given the positive response from the community, we’re pleased to announce the continuation of our training event for a second year. We’re making a few changes as we develop but the core of what made the first institute great will remain: a slate of engaging courses taught by some of the best scholars and teachers in the digital humanities, plentiful opportunities to meet and network with colleagues, and access to all the cultural resources of the Washington, D.C., area.

One of the most obvious changes will be our name. The Digital Humanities Winter Institute is now Humanities Intensive Learning and Teaching (HILT).

This change in name accompanies a change in the timing of the event. The next iteration of HILT will be held at August 4-8, 2014, on the campus of the University of Maryland in College Park. We decided to change the dates based on feedback for our community of instructors and students. Summer will allow us to offer accommodation in campus housing and thus to lower the total cost of attendance. This was particularly important because we are committed to making excellent digital humanities instruction available to graduate students, alternative academics, cultural heritage professionals and anyone with limited travel or professional development funding. Helping bolster diversity in the digital humanities is an important goal of HILT. Look for more announcements about steps we are taking to address diversity.

The other element of our new identity as HILT is a sharpening of focus on providing excellent learning opportunities. We’re committed to keeping the size of courses to 20 students maximum and we’ll plan to offer only about 10 courses each year. The quality of our instructors and courses is something we’re keeping constant. We have another great roster and more courses are still being added. Full course descriptions will be made available later this summer. Confirmed instructors are:

  • Adrianne Wadewitz, Wikipedia for Humanists and Cultural Heritage Professionals
  • Anastasia Salter, Teaching Through Games
  • Elijah Meeks, Network Analysis and Visualization
  • Jeremy Boggs and Jeri Wieringa, Introduction to Web Development, Design, and Principles: HTML5, CSS, and Javascript for beginners
  • Kam Woods and Porter Olsen, Born-Digital Forensics
  • Matt Jockers, Large Scale Text Analysis with R
  • Simon Appleford and Jennifer Guiliano, Project Development
  • Wayne Graham and Brandon Walsh, Humanities Programming with Ruby on Rails

We’re very excited about continuing this training event. The community is truly what made the first institute a success so please mark your calendars and plan to join us:

HILT
Humanities Intensive Learning + Teaching
August 4-8, 2014
http://mith.umd.edu/training
@HILT_MITH

Applications will open on October 1, 2013.
We look forward to seeing you there,

Jennifer Guiliano and Trevor Muñoz
Co-Directors, HILT