NEH funding has ensured the program is a collaborative effort, bringing faculty from the sciences and the humanities together. It has provided support for travel and consultation, enabling faculty members to work with and learn from Stanford University’s Center for Biomedical Ethics, Yale University Library Digital Humanities Laboratory, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Digital Innovation Lab, and the University of Nebraska, Lincoln’s Center for Digital Research in the Humanities. A one-week planning seminar, hosted in August 2018, provided time for scholars from different fields to be in dialogue with one another, introduced humanities scholars to data science, and gave Xavier faculty the chance to speak with other, prominent practitioners through Skype. Featured speakers included Ronald Marlow, Vice President for Workforce Development at the National Urban League, who spoke on cities and the digital revolution and Jason Cohen of Berea College, who spoke on presenting and preserving history through digital approaches. Faculty from Brigham Young University and Creighton University spoke on running a digital humanities undergraduate minor.
Students, the ultimate beneficiaries of this program, have been involved in the project from the very beginning. NEH funding has supported four student participants in the project, offering them the opportunity to participate in the seminar and work on semester-long digital humanities projects. Ultimately, this student-led planning committee will be responsible for creating an outreach strategy to foster awareness of the program throughout the student body.