Nostalgia: A Digital History

The digital humanities encompasses an array of responses to the pressing question of how the humanities can make use of computational methods. We will argue that a consequence of this question is to give method, and specifically the formalization of method, new importance. Because formalization is a prerequisite for computer programming, digital humanists now occupy the unique position of being able to decide what place traditionally humanistic questions will occupy in the new research environment of the database.

Our team – which also includes Monica Lee (Sociology) and Sam Meehan (Physics) – is working with 10% of the Google Books database (~3.6 million volumes) to adapt Michel Foucault’s archival method of conceptual history to the analysis of databases. We will present the early results of our work on the medical history of nostalgia in order to open up discussion about the obstacles posed by technical knowledge, why many DH projects seem to fail to produce “interesting” results, and what new models of intellectual exchange DH makes possible. On this last point, we will suggest that the example set by Foucault, whose work attempted to embed strong political critique in the scientific pursuit of historical truth, is more relevant than ever before.