This timely conversation will trace the early history of cyberspace in the 1990s and its relationship with the discipline that would become digital humanities, referencing Professor Claire Warwick's (SE 1986) book, Digital Humanities and the Cyberspace Decade: A World Elsewhere (2024, Bloomsbury).

In the early days of the internet, 'cyberspace' and the 'virtual', seemed to offer users an exciting and generally benign alternative to everyday life; a world elsewhere. Today those spaces are often described as being toxic – thanks to a combination of anonymity, algorithmic amplification of extreme views, and business models that incentivize engagement, even if it's negative. Were the warning signs always there for disinformation and over-commercialisation? And how much did the norms and lack of regulation in the early internet era lay the groundwork for many of today's challenges with online media?

What is digital humanities?

The digital humanities is a field of study, research, teaching, and invention concerned with the intersection of computing and the study of human culture, society, and the human experience.