We need new hybrid practitioners: artist-theorists, programming humanists, activist-scholars; theoretical archivists, critical race coders.
Emily Johnson and Anastasia Salter, “Introduction: Provocations for Making,” in Critical Making in the Age of AI (Amherst College Press, 2025), 6. https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.14510509.
This quote captures the kind of person I want to become—someone who doesn’t have to choose between the humanities and technology, but can move fluidly between them to build new connections and perspectives.
Before coming to Carleton, I went to a high school in Korea where the curriculum emphasized the humanities. I spent years studying literature, philosophy, and language. Learning to think critically about society and reflect on how people engage with the world—past, present, and future. At the time, I imagined my future self who is grounded in humanistic understanding and expresses ideas from various angles. Later, when I discovered a passion for computer science in college, it felt like entering an entirely different world. The world that is centered around logic, coding, and constant innovation. I began to question how my background in the humanities could coexist with my new technical interests. Were these two areas destined to stay separate?
The tension came into sharper focus during my summer internship as a software engineer. Much of my job involved implementing features based on pre-defined requirements from product managers and designers. While I enjoyed the work, I sometimes felt detached from the broader picture. Especially with AI tools and automation accelerated parts of the process, I found myself wondering: What’s my role beyond programming? What value can I bring as someone who cares about the ‘why’ behind the code, not just the ‘how’? How do we decide what to build? How do cultural or linguistic differences affect how people experience our product?
Those questions reminded me that my humanistic background wasn’t irrelevant. Rather, it was essential. It gave me the tools to question design decisions, consider user experiences more holistically, and reflect on the ethical and social dimensions of the technology the company creates. Digital Humanities offers a space where these ways of thinking come together. It’s where critical inquiry experience can help shape digital tools, not just use them. It invites me to see technology as intentionally layered with assumptions, values, and humanistic meaning.
This term, I want to explore how humanistic thinking can inform digital creation. I’m particularly interested in how ideas like identity and social norms intersect with technological development. To grow into a ‘programming humanist’ means learning to treat digital work as both a technical and humanistic practice, one that demands critical reflection as much as innovation.
