For Coding, Against Intellectual Imperialism

I think the premise of the debate is unclear. I also think both articles we were given to reference end up supporting that everyone learns how to code, which then makes the debate unfair, and makes me not want to quote either of them. Of course, it’s great to learn how to code, but I don’t think academia, businesses, or tech companies need more proof of that. Computer sciences and the field of coding are operating at a very privileged location in society, where jobs are in plenty, pay is brilliant, and everyone thinks they are important. This needs to be kept in mind when urging humanities to learn how to code because humanistic fields of inquiry are already being undervalued under the dominant hierarchy of knowledge practices that are being spearheaded by science and technology. Coding then becomes an additional, not easily accessible or understood burden humanists need to bear to stay relevant, outside of their already established, rigorous methods of inquiry. This is a disservice to the livelihoods, values, and interests of a very big section of the population.  

I don’t think this debate is about a person in the humanities deciding to learn how to code or not. It is not a question of personal agency, but a question of an unrealistic expectation being placed on many fields of study that make up the humanities. I am against that expectation being implied or placed on fields that are already undervalued in our capitalist society. 

My whole major (cognitive science) is about exploring across disciplines, and even taking CS courses (Intro and Data Structures) to fulfill that requirement. I am a huge supporter of interdisciplinary collaboration and coding being incorporated into the humanities through integral vessels like DH. But people exist to make that happen. When knowledge from one field overlaps with knowledge from another, people engaging with that knowledge also overlap. A computer scientist can learn just as much about the world from a historian, as a historian can from a computer scientist because their points of access and inquiry are diverse and important. Don’t make the historians learn how to code just so that they can work with computer scientists, or so that they leave their methods behind to opt for the ones that pay the computer scientists well. Sorry to make this political, but it is. This suggestion to learn how to code, no matter how well-intentioned, doesn’t exist in a vacuum. 

Once again, I am not against the idea of learning how to code or being blind to its benefits and intellectual rigor. All I’m saying is that if a programmer needs someone else to learn programming to be able to engage with them, and the programmer is in a societally more powerful position so the other person is forced to comply or risk being unemployable, it is getting dangerously close to intellectual imperialism.

The following quote is the one I found most agreeable, although it raises a red flag right at the beginning. 

While programming will indeed usefully equip one better to understand computer scientific discourses, it should NOT be taken as the necessary precondition to engaging with the computer sciences and all who consider themselves scholars of the humanities should realize that the discourse of programming is only the technical jargon with which computer scientists address many of the very same questions that one encounters every day in the humanities.

Donahue, ‘A “Hello World” Apart (Why Humanities Students Should NOT Learn to Program) | HASTAC’.

I support learning from each other. I support learning to think in the ways each other think and co-exist and create a diverse environment for plurality to thrive. I support the open invite to co-create in meaning and knowledge-making, I support learning how programmers work and think. However, as a non-programmer by choice after having tried my hand at it, I think that you can keep the technical jargon (coding languages) to your area of expertise and not coerce me to understand it. I would love it if computer science could find more accessible ways of engaging with other academicians and not be black-boxed by tech bros and CEOs of big companies.

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	<h1>To Conclude:</h1>
	<p> This debate is skewed in favor of the privileged party.</p>
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		<li>Coding is important</li>
		<li>Not stretching the humanities thin is important</li>
		
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	<p><em>Thank you</em> for making it this far.<br>
	<strong>Thank you for reading</strong></p>

	<h2>Where to find the blog I quoted:</h2>
	<p><a>href=“https://web.archive.org/web/20220516075231/https://www.hastac.org/blogs/evan-donahue/2010/05/28/hello-world-apart-why-humanities-students-should-not-learn-program“>Evan Donahue Blog</a></p>
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