Markup and Digital Humanities

This is the first post in a series about the role of html and css in the dig­i­tal human­i­ties.

As I was fin­ish­ing up a les­son on html and css for class today, I was, again, struck by the thought that html and css are pri­mar­ily geared, it seems to me, around cre­at­ing a dig­i­tal edi­tion. This is, of course, a nec­es­sary thing, but is it really dig­i­tal human­i­ties? Does teach­ing html/​css come at the expense of other lan­guages and skill-​sets that are bet­ter suited and impor­tant in the dig­i­tal human­i­ties. I am and am not sure.

Ulti­mately, html’s place in the pan­theon of dig­i­tal human­i­ties skill-​sets/​languages is assured, but are the stu­dents miss­ing out on other more impor­tant aspects of dig­i­tal human­i­ties? Or, as I am now begin­ning to think, are html and css the gate­way drugs to the wider world of dig­i­tal human­i­ties skill-​sets and lan­guages that might make one a “dig­i­tal human­ists”? Could there be oth­ers as sig­nif­i­cant, if not more sig­nif­i­cant, in mak­ing one a dig­i­tal human­ists (if there really is such a thing)? Any thoughts, sug­ges­tions? For or against?