The humanities, code, and the bridge between

This week in class, we began our exploration of the “code” side of the Digital Humanities. In doing so, we joined the debate of whether or not students of the humanities should learn to code. However, the framing of the question dictates answers that take one of two extreme positions that I find farfetched. So, I will pose a new question: is there value in humanities students learning to code? To this, I answer with an empathic yes.

Students of the humanities study exactly what you’d expect, humans. So, as a growing percentage of human output (and input for that matter) is taking the form of code, it is only natural that the humanities expand to include the study of such human activity. Does this mean that every humanist needs experience working with JavaScript or Python? Of course not. Evan Donahue puts it nicely in A “Hello World” Apart (why humanities students should NOT learn to program):

[Students] should not let their inability to program prevent them from engaging with the computer sciences

Studying the computer sciences from the perspective of humanists need not require the ability to code. Similarly, not every humanist who studies early printed books needs to understand the inner workings of the Gutenberg Press, but a working knowledge of the process and limitations couldn’t hurt. At the same time, a scholar studying the boat-building practices of early Austronesian peoples doesn’t need to understand the printing press at all. The fields of humanists vary immensely and the Digital Humanities are not the end-all-be-all of human inquiry.

As a student of the Liberal Arts myself, I place a high value on a multidisciplinary education that exposes one to different modes of thinking. However, insisting that humanities students learn to code because it will “help them learn problem-solving” or “make them more employable” is insulting to the important work done within their fields and the multi-faceted problems they have managed to solve without ever writing a while loop.

All of this is to say that I have a view on the matter that can be summed up like this: ambivalent. My own experience with code is moderate: Intro to Computer Science and Data Structures. Have they helped me better engage with my humanities classes? Not more than a class in Formal Logic or Cognitive Science has. But, I do think that being tech literate has helped me immensely in navigating an increasingly digital world. Being an informed digital citizen is just as important as being an informed member of physical communities.

To put it in a format that perhaps better encapsulates my point for CS majors:

if(student.major == "STEM") {
	schedule.push("Ethics Course");
}

if(student.major == "Humanities") {
	schedule.push("Digital Literacy Course");
}