{"id":12816,"date":"2026-08-14T10:19:49","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T08:19:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/?p=12816"},"modified":"2026-08-14T10:19:49","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T08:19:49","slug":"building-connections-through-digital-humanities-at-the-university-of-the-free-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/en\/building-connections-through-digital-humanities-at-the-university-of-the-free-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Building connections through Digital Humanities at the University of the Free State"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

14 August 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What does Digital Humanities look like in practice? At the University of the Free State (UFS), the answer spans everything from digital archives and language-learning applications to literary analysis and resources for South African Sign Language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 27 July 2026, approximately 40 researchers, postgraduate students and professional support staff gathered virtually for the Introduction to Digital Humanities showcase. The event was hosted by ESCALATOR, the flagship community-building programme of SADiLaR, in collaboration with the UFS’s Interdisciplinary Centre for Digital Futures (ICDF) and Digital Scholarship Centre (DSC). The event introduced participants to the rapidly evolving field of Digital Humanities while demonstrating that innovative digital scholarship is already thriving across the UFS community. The event also created an opportunity for researchers from different disciplines to meet, exchange ideas, and identify opportunities for future collaboration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The morning began with presentations by SADiLaR, highlighting both the international development of Digital Humanities and the growing South African landscape. Dr Benito Trollip provided an overview of the field’s history and current trends, introducing participants to important national initiatives such as the Digital Humanities Association of Southern Africa (DHASA) and the Journal of the Digital Humanities Association of Southern Africa<\/em>. Ms Marissa Griesel followed with an introduction to SADiLaR and the ESCALATOR programme, showcasing the digital tools, research infrastructure, training opportunities and support services available to researchers across South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The spotlight then shifted to UFS colleagues who shared examples of Digital Humanities research already making an impact. Presentations included The Forgotten Highway, a narrative project developed on Omeka S by Ms Jayne Batzofin; the Digital Archive of South African Jewry presented by Ms Leila Bloch; Dr Elias Malete’s exploration of African literature using Voyant Tools; Dr Alison Stander’s AiFrikaans language-learning application; Dr Chrismi Loth’s work on curating South African Sign Language data using Omeka S; and Dr Herkulaas Combrink’s overview of Digital Humanities initiatives at the ICDF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Together, these presentations demonstrated that Digital Humanities is not confined to a single discipline or methodology. Instead, it provides researchers with new ways to preserve cultural heritage, analyse texts, develop language technologies, manage research data and tell stories that reach wider audiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The showcase concluded with participants exploring ways to build communities of practice around shared interests and identifying potential areas for future training and collaborative projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By bringing together researchers with diverse expertise and shared curiosity, the event laid the groundwork for a growing Digital Humanities community at the UFS. As digital methods continue to reshape research across the humanities and social sciences, partnerships such as these will play an important role in equipping researchers with the tools, networks and support needed to tackle increasingly complex research questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Introduction to Digital Humanities showcase marked the beginning of what promises to be an exciting collaborative journey between SADiLaR and the University of the Free State, demonstrating that the future of Digital Humanities is built not only on technology, but on people working together across disciplines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Written by: Marissa Griesel<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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14 August 2026 What does Digital Humanities look like in practice? At the University of the Free State (UFS), the answer spans everything from digital archives and language-learning applications to literary analysis and resources for South African Sign Language. On 27 July 2026, approximately 40 researchers, postgraduate students and professional support staff gathered virtually for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":298,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[741,733],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogs","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/298"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12816"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12817,"href":"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12816\/revisions\/12817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}