Hi! My name is Martha Durrett, and I’m a junior Computer Science and English major at Carleton College. Computer science and English! What? “Well those don’t overlap at all,” you might say. In some way you’re right…I certainly won’t be counting any of my CS classes for English credits. But in many ways that’s wrong – for example, digital humanities! Could I have found a more fun and engaging way to integrate my two majors?
As I learn more about digital humanities, I’m hoping to continue to break down that distinction between “English major” and “computer science major.” I want to discover fun and engaging new ways to integrate not just English and computer science, but any subject that piques my interest. Who says subjects need to be separate? (Finland doesn’t – check this out if you haven’t heard about Finland’s radical educational reform.) Throughout the rest of the year, I’ll be thinking about how the digital world is changing expectations about how we’re supposed to learn about and interact with the humanities. If you ask me, the humanities (whatever that hefty term entails) have spent far too long hiding inside of textbooks, and it’s about time we did something new with them!
