Shownotes

This audio essay explores the relationship between Digital Humanities and Public Humanities. We travel to Italy to meet researchers from the Venice Centre for Digital and Public Humanities (VeDPH). The VeDPH is part of the Department of Humanities at Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia. The VeDPH aims to facilitate the exchange, development, and dissemination of research and teaching in Digital and Public Humanities (DH and PH), and it is a member of several national and international initiatives and projects. Its main areas of research are digital textual scholarship, digital and public history, digital and public art history, digital cultural heritage and digital and public archaeology. In addition to a master’s programme and contributions to PhD projects, the VeDPH also publishes the interdisciplinary open-access journal magazén | International Journal for Digital and Public Humanities¹, regularly hosts events, and welcomes visiting scholars to stay at the centre’s facilities at Palazzo Malcanton Marcorà in the heart of Venice.

The first part of the audio essay introduces the context of current research activities at the VeDPH, linking them to the history of DH. Not only did Roberto Busa host his research team in Venice for some time during the 1970s, but Professor Franz Fischer also recounts the history of DH being made by Professor Manfred Thaller during his time as a student and researcher at Cologne University.² Following this brief introduction, Franz Fischer discusses the relationship between DH and PH, as well as the founding mission of the VeDPH.³

The second part of the audio essay focuses on Digital Humanities. This section begins with Professor Stefania De Vincentis providing a brief overview of Digital Museum Studies (or Digital Museography), the pioneering work of Werner Schweibenz⁴ on virtual museums, and her own VR360 project at the Villa Borghese Museum. Next is Dr Federico Boschetti, who gives an outline of the role and services of infrastructural initiatives such as CLARIN-EU for DH researchers⁵, and his speciality, Domain Specific Languages (DSL)⁶. Next, Professor Amanda Madden, a visiting scholar at VeDPH from George Mason University, describes how she discovered GIS for DH research and how she uses it for Digital Humanities Pedagogy⁷. She also provides a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the ADHO 2024 conference in Washington, D.C.

The third part of this audio essay focusses on Public Humanities. First, Professor Stefano Dall’Aglio introduces the VeDPH’s master’s programme in Digital and Public Humanities, discussing global-local aspects of Public History. Next, we take a closer look at Professor Gilda Zazzara’s use of, and vision for, podcasting in the context of public history research and dissemination.⁸ Finally, Dr Elisa Corro discusses the dissemination of cultural heritage and neurohumanities. The episode concludes with brief reflections from some of the guests on the intricate relationship between the global and the local, including the roles of collaboration, languages, and DH as a meta-discipline.

Acknowledgements: I conducted the interviews for this project as a guest researcher at the VeDPH during the winter term 2024–2025 at Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, for which I would like to express my gratitude to the Department of Humanities and the VeDPH team.

Bibliography

1. Boschetti, Federico, Luca Rigobianco, and Valeria Quochi. „Domain-Specific Languages for Epigraphy: the Case of ItAnt.“ In Selected papers from the CLARIN Annual Conference 2023. Linköping: Linköping Electronic Conference Proceedings, 2023), 191–202. https://doi.org/10.3384/ecp210007.
2. Casellato, Alessandro and Gilda Zazzara. „Giralomo Li Causi. Il fantasma di una voce.“ Girolamo Li Causi socialista a Venezia (1913-1922). 28 March 2024, accessed 30 June 2025. Podcast. https://phaidra.cab.unipd.it/o:539642.
3. DiPText-KC – The CLARIN Knowledge Centre for Digital and Public Textual Scholarship. „Homepage.“ Accessed 30 June 2025. https://diptext-kc.clarin-it.it/.
4. EADH – European Association for Digital Humanities. „Father Roberto Busa.“ Accessed 30 June 2025, https://eadh.org/father-roberto-busa-1.
5. Favaro, Francesca and Federica Ferrarin. „Inaugurato DPH@Ca’ Foscari, il nuovo centro su Digital & Public Humanities.“ cafoscariNEWS, Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia. 5 June 2019, accessed 30 June 2025. https://www.unive.it/pag/14024/?tx_news_pi1%5Bnews%5D=7134.
6. Fischer, Franz, and Diego Mantoan, ed. magazén | International Journal for Digital and Public Humanities. http://doi.org/10.30687/mag/.
7. Hirsch, Brett D., ed. Digital Humanities Pedagogy: Practices, Principles and Politics. Digital Humanities Series. Cambridge: Open Book Publishers, 2012. https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0024.
8. Nyhan, Julianne. Hidden and Devalued Feminized Labour in the Digital Humanities: On the Index Thomisticus Project 1965-67. Digital Research in the Arts and Humanities. New York: Routledge, 2023.
9. Schweibenz, Werner. „The Development of Virtual Museums.“ ICOM News 3 (2004): 3. https://icom.museum/en/ressource/the-development-of-virtual-museums/.

Special Links

1. Berti, Paolo, Stefania De Vincentis, and Gabriele de Seta. „Into the Megadungeon: An Introduction.“ magazén | International Journal for Digital and Public Humanities 4, No. 2 (December 2023): 183–89. https://edizionicafoscari.unive.it/en/edizioni4/riviste/magazen/2023/2/into-the-megadungeon-an-introduction/.
2. Bulaitis, Zoe Hope and Jeffrey R. Wilson, ed. Public Humanities. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/public-humanities.
3. Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. „Home.“ Accessed 30 June 2025. https://www.unive.it/web/en/497/home.
4. Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. „Master’s Degree Programme in Digital and Public Humanities.“ Accessed 30 June 2025. https://www.unive.it/web/en/13520/home. https://apply.unive.it/courses/course/626-ma-digital-and-public-humanities.
5. CLARIN. „CLARIN Mobility Grants.“ Accessed 30 June 2025. https://www.clarin.eu/content/clarin-mobility-grants.
6. Fischer, Franz, Diego Mantoan, and Barbara Tramelli. „A New Chapter in a Journal’s Life and the Broadening Field of Digital and Public Humanities.“ magazén | International Journal for Digital and Public Humanities 5, No. 1 (June 2024): 5–7. http://edizionicafoscari.it/it/edizioni4/riviste/magazen/2024/1/a-new-chapter-in-a-journals-life-and-the-broadenin/.
7. Fondazione Archivia Vittorio Cini. „Marco Polo. Visioni Condivise.“ 14 February 2025, accessed 30 June 2025. https://www.vittoriocini.it/2025.html#marcopolo25.
8. H2IOSC – Humanities and Cultural Heritage Italian Open Science Cloud. „Home.“ Accessed 30 June 2025. https://www.h2iosc.cnr.it/.
9. IDE – Institut für Dokumentologie und Editorik. „Home.“ Accessed 30 June 2025. https://www.i-d-e.de/.
10. Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia. „Hidden Venice: the App to discover the City through the Lens of History.“ cafoscariNEWS. 25 July 2024, accessed 30 June 2025. https://www.unive.it/pag/16584/?tx_news_pi1%5Bnews%5D=15731&cHash=cdf65855b3df74fb618a77f3bc54c4bf.
11. VeDPH – Venice Centre for Digital and Public Humanities. „Home.“ Accessed 30 June 2025. https://www.unive.it/pag/39287.
12. VeDPH – Venice Centre for Digital and Public Humanities. „NeuroHumanities – Actions for Neurohumanities.“ Accessed 30 June 2025. https://www.unive.it/pag/49103/.
13. Zazzara, Gilda. „Strade di Porto Marghera.“ March 2020, accessed 30 June 2025. Podcast. https://www.raiplaysound.it/playlist/strade​diportomarghera.