The Geohumanities

Geohumanities is an interdisciplinary field that explores the relationship between human beings and the natural and built environment, as well as the cultural, social, and historical aspects of place. It involves the integration of humanities disciplines such as history, literature, philosophy, and art with geography, environmental studies, and other social sciences.

The term “geohumanities” was first coined in the early 2000s, as a way of bringing together scholars from different disciplines to examine how people create, experience, and understand places. Geohumanities seeks to explore the ways in which the cultural, historical, and social dimensions of place are intertwined with the physical and ecological characteristics of landscapes, and how this knowledge can be used to address environmental and social challenges.

Some examples of research in geohumanities include:

  • Analyzing literary and artistic representations of landscape to understand how people have imagined and interacted with their environment over time.
  • Studying the social and political dimensions of urban space, including issues of segregation, gentrification, and access to public resources.
  • Examining the role of place in shaping identity, memory, and cultural practices, particularly in relation to indigenous communities and other marginalized groups.

Overall, geohumanities seeks to bridge the gap between the natural sciences and the humanities and to promote a more holistic understanding of the complex relationships between people, places, and environments.

The GeoHumanities Special Interest Group (SIG) of the Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations focuses on the geospatial and spatial-temporal perspectives in the digital humanities. We host a mailing list (subscribe easily here) and tweet and re-tweet items we think will interest to our members, as @GeoHum_SIG.