Digital images and online image databases

Teacher-researcher practices in the humanities and social sciences

Abstract

Work in the humanities and social sciences has changed thanks to new tools in the Digital Humanities, facilitating access to archives, works, and sources. The management of collections, the field-based data collection (as well as its preservation and distribution), the analysis of endlessly (re)constructed corpora, all give rise to questions regarding both researchers’ and university instructors’ practices. This paper focuses on digital and image practices as regards teacher–researchers’ work on images (in their courses and in their research) within the humanities and social sciences. Indeed, what use does this highly skilled and specialized group — both autonomous yet isolated in its professional
position — have of digital image databases? What is their training, their common practice? What do they convey to their students about these topics? Finally, we will look at the representation of digital images.