UF’s Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere debuts high-tech digital research lab

On Friday, Jan. 23, faculty, staff and students gathered in Keene-Flint Hall to begin exploring the untapped potential of Room 0011. Now home to the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere Digital Humanities Lab, the space serves as a high-tech workspace to support research, collaboration and innovation in the digital humanities.

With digital research growing across all disciplines, the CHPS wanted a centralized space where faculty and students could have access to a wide array of research-related programs that can help them archive, visualize and reimagine their work. The space has about 100 varieties of software available for use.

During the launch, students and staff shared lightning talks, discussing past projects and their methods. With the completion of the digital humanities lab, those same tools and resources will now be available to a wider community UF faculty, staff and students.

“A great part about having the space is that it’s just making faculty and students aware that digital humanities exist within their humanities disciplines and that they can add these tools and these skillsets to their CV,” said CHPS Digital Scholarship Specialist Clarissa Carr, Ph.D. “From what I’ve heard from different departments, they are looking for students with experience in digital humanities, specifically.”

At the opening, third-year classics major and computer science minor Ellie Riggs presented one of the three lightning talks that showed the value of the digital applications of the humanities. As a 2025 Alexander Grass Scholar she completed a project in which she explored poems from Ancient Roman poets Tibullus and Sulpicia to determine whether they were two separate people or just one person writing from two perspectives.

To do so, she looked at the style of the different poems and wrote a program to find vocabulary more unique to one poet compared to the other and one to find the poets’ most-used vocabulary.

“Even if it’s literally just me sitting in this lab, I could probably fill every one of these monitors with different tabs I need to work on,” Riggs said. “That was really hard for me because I would have an output that I needed to look at, and then I was trying to circle from the output back to the translation, and I would have Latin tabs open, and I would have translation tabs open.”

The room is anchored by a conference-style table with monitors that pull out of each of the 10 desk areas. Two high-top tables, each equipped with five seats and a computer sit on the side of the room. The front of the lab has a desk and computer and a big screen for presenting.

While the room is now officially launched, it is poised to reach its full potential as a resource for the campus community once faculty and students begin to use the space. The room and its computers support HiPerGator and other AI technology, and the room is capable of even more.

Three of the computer stations are VR-ready and will offer podcasting equipment. The Center plans to grow the space as the students and faculty further explore what they look to get from the room.

“How the room evolves is really going to be connected to what faculty and students and our community partners want and need and think would be a benefit to them to push their work forward and amplify what they're doing to maximum effect,” said CHPS Rothman Chair and Director Jaime Ahlberg, Ph.D. “What we have here is a great baseline on which scholars and students can build.”

Riggs said one of the biggest advantages of having access to the space is the ability to work with other students on group projects in a shared space. In the past, groups she has worked with have tried gathering in one of the libraries or meeting online.

The digital humanities lab, though, gives every member of the group access to their own computer, while providing the ability to collaborate around a central screen if needed.

“Most people when they want to do a group project, for convenience, they do it online, which isn’t actually that convenient for looking at each other’s work,” Riggs said. “A space like this is really great because having all these computers means that we actually can meet up in person.”

Ahlberg pointed to the lightning talks as proof to what is capable with the lab’s resources. And as Carr noted, the lab can put the CHPS and its work even more on the map. In the fall, the CHPS is also relaunching its digital humanities graduate certificate, which will help graduate students develop digital skills for humanities research, teaching and professional development.

“It’s a good way to get out what we’re doing and raise awareness about what we do but also create new project ideas,” the CHPS director said. “It’s a great hub for supporting research and networking in the humanities and pushing the boundaries of interdisciplinarity.”