“Because of my internship, I am….more sure of myself as a historian!”
This process has aided my ability to understand that digital history is not just a new addition to history, but what will be an integral part of the field moving forward. DH is not solely an accessibility part, but also a method to further question, research, and analyze using digital tools to further our work as historians. There will always be a time and place for traditional way (I mean we are historians after all), but rejecting all digital developments is fruitless for oneself and the field.
A historians relationship with their work is very personal
This internship gave me the time and space to work out my personal relationship with traditional versus digital history. Sometimes, both for myself and the field, it can feel very much like one or the other. By this I mean that it feels like I need to choose only digital or traditional history as my primary method for a whole project or career.
As I started to mention in my last post, DH is still evolving based on what historians feel comfortable with. In my career so far, I started with digitization then moved to HTML and backend work. After that, I began working in data analysis and it was a bit jarring for me to go from hands-on to deeply technical work. Working on this project helped me to see those as valid parts of the process. Sometimes more technical digital work can be part of the same hands-on project.
Overall, I feel more comfortable with seeing myself as a historian after having the time to sit with the inevitable imposter syndrome that follows the application of these skills. I have concentrated on the ability to think like a historian in both traditional and technical spaces.