The Inhibition of Geographical Information in Digital Humanities Scholarship

Information about place and location is an essential part of research in the humanities. There are many ways that methods and tools for structuring, visualizing and analysing space, spatial behaviour, and spatial relationships can benefit humanities research but the use of spatial information in digital scholarship by humanists remains very limited. The developing role of the study of place and location through geographical information systems (GIS) and other digital tools is discussed briefly before examining the factors that are inhibiting the use of spatial data in our research. The influences of current research practice and the attitudes of scholarly institutions in the humanities are examined. This article will explore some of the potential research applications but, possibly more importantly; it will also examine why that potential is being developed so slowly and discuss a possible way forward for the community.