A Perspective from Science and Technology Studies Sally Wyatt* Humanities group, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences PO Box 94264, 1090 GG Amsterdam, The Netherlands Received 01.01.2016, received in revised form 10.02.2016, accepted 20.02.2016 This article examines the implications of the use of computer-based tools and techniques within the humanities, a phenomenon which has exhibited considerable growth and popularity over recent years. <...> The fi rst section provides some historical context for understanding these developments, and the second section assesses the meaning of these developments for the research practices of humanities scholars. <...> The fi nal section raises further questions and challenges facing those wishing to deploy and promote ‘digital humanities’. <...> The article is informed by insights and perspectives from another interdisciplinary fi eld, namely ‘science and technology studies’ (STS). <...> STS is concerned with, among other things, the material basis of knowledge production, and thus has much to offer to understanding the use of digital technologies within the humanities. <...> Introduction Over the past decades, digital technologies in all their forms have affected the ways in which scientists, scholars and researchers go about their work. <...> For example, the application of computational tools and methods has led to the emergence of new fi elds, such as bio-informatics, and radically affected physics and other disciplines, leading to new insights and generating new research questions. <...> Considerable attention has been paid to what such changes mean for the STEM (science, technology, engineering, medicine) disciplines, but relatively less to what they mean for the humanities and social sciences. <...> Nonetheless, such technologies are also being taken up in the humanities, and digital humanities is beginning to demonstrate many of the features of a discipline, with its own conferences, journals and professional associations, such as the annual Sally Wyatt. <...> A Perspective from Science and Technology Studies conference organised by the Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations (ADHO), and the journal Digital Scholarship in the Humanities. (SeeWhitley(2000) for an analysis of how disciplines emerge.) In this article, I examine what these changes could mean for the humanities, drawing on insights from science and technology studies (STS) and the history and philosophy of scienceabout the nature of knowing and of knowledge. <...> First, I provide some historical context for situating these changes before proceeding to examine some of the defi nitions <...>