The open, inclusive philosophy that infuses Digital Humanities work can sometimes belie the significant and often rarified resources necessary to sustain it, not least of which are technical infrastructure. The development of open source tools has put more of this work within the reach of humanities scholars and students at smaller or less resourced institutions. Yet building a viable Digital Humanities program requires more than just access to tools. Such programs gain traction and grow through cross-divisional partnerships, expert assistance and training opportunities, a tolerance for failure in the process of determining what works for the institution, and a clear sense of the benefits and rewards of this work.

Following her year at Duke as a Humanities Writ Large Visiting Faculty Fellow, Meredith Goldsmith returned to Ursinus College to begin building a Digital Humanities program there. In this talk with Digital Scholarship Services department head Liz Milewicz, she details the insights she gained through this work, as well as the lessons she learned from other digitally inflected humanities programs, including several in the Research Triangle community and beyond.