Book review by: Andrea Kocsis, Chancellor’s Fellow in Humanities Informatics, Edinburgh College of Art
The edited volume clears the stage for the field of computational humanities (CH) from a post-COVID, non-binary, and ethical perspective. It feels like a restart, as the book does not explicitly explain the link between computational humanities (CH) and digital humanities (DH). By avoiding this debate, the authors sidestep DH's fuzzy and never-ending definition struggles. The editors also invite readers to rethink the relationship between computational social sciences and digital humanities, positioning CH as pivotal in this dialogue.
By breaking out of the circular conversation of defining DH, the strength of the volume lies in its candid exposition of non-inclusive practices, freely pointing out when the DH emperor has no clothes. The book bravely confronts ethical challenges, inclusion and labour issues, and infrastructural hurdles, lending it an implicit Foucauldian perspective. It underscores that CH does not need to force the humanities into a neo-positivist mould but should instead overcome the limitations of both extremes: the "codebro" computer science and elitist humanities cultures.