Digital Scholarship in the Disciplinary of History (template test page)

#1: Response 1by Erik Seeman
Email: seeman@buffalo.edu
Institutional Affiliation (if applicable): University at Buffalo SUNY
Title or Position: Chair, Department of History

A few years ago the History Department added the paragraph below to its tenure and promotion standards. It’s a very modest step toward recognizing the increasing importance of digital scholarship in the discipline of History. I hope that in the future we can add stronger language about counting digital work as part of a faculty member’s scholarly output.

“In light of the increasing visibility of digital history, the department agrees with the American Historical Association’s recommendation that “scholars who take a strong interest in digital media … should be evaluated in terms of their overall ability to use sustained, expressive, substantive, and institutional innovation to advance scholarship” (Guidelines for the Professional Evaluation of Digital Scholarship by Historians, June 2015). In particular, the department supports the AHA’s recommendations that 1) digital scholarship be evaluated in its native medium and not printed out for promotion dossiers, and 2) for candidates with a significant digital history profile, at least one of the external evaluators should be a specialist in digital history.”