humanities + technology
Amaranth is UNM’s digital humanities studio. We focus on helping scholars and students use technology to communicate the significance of their work reaaching broad audiences with collaborative websites, oral histories, podcasts, virtual and augmented reality, 3D printing, and interactive narratives built on open infrastructure they control. Design matters—not as decoration, but to help ideas reach people. You don’t need professional training to make deliberate visual choices that strengthen your message and connect with your audience. Public scholarship and digital pedagogy isn’t an add-on. It’s the point. Read how Amaranth fits into the digital humanities →
Central to our mission: humanists need to help guide AI practices. The interpretive habits built through close reading, archival research, and critical analysis—evaluating sources, questioning frames, recognizing biases—are exactly what responsible AI use requires. We guide collaborators through an iterative AI workflow, starting with technical work where feedback is immediate, building fluency that transfers into research, writing, and teaching. AI opens new ways of exploring texts, images, archives, and ideas—and we help people use it with the critical judgment the humanities demand. How we approach AI pedagogy →
We’re practitioners, not evangelists. We test tools in real classrooms and real projects, share what we learn honestly, and build on open-source infrastructure with stability at its core. This is a coaching studio, not a service desk—we work alongside you, teaching the thinking behind decisions so you can carry the work forward and keep learning. Read more about our studio ethos →
Websites, portfolios, community archives---built on open tools you actually own. No subscription fees, no platform lock-in, no software to maintain. Your colors, your typography, your layout---every site is different because the design decisions are yours.
Start building →An oral history argues through voice. A podcast argues through intimacy. A ScrollStory argues through pacing and image. The medium you choose shapes what your audience understands---we help you choose with intention.
Find your medium →We investigate how emerging technologies can deepen the questions humanists ask. 3D-printed replicas, terrain maps, open-source frameworks---each project tests what happens when you make abstract scholarship physical, holdable, comparable.
What we're investigating →We work with students building their first digital project, faculty bringing research into public view, and community partners whose stories deserve more than a PDF. Come talk to us early---before you have it figured out. That's exactly the right time.
Collaborate →Use AI to explore patterns in texts, transcribe oral histories, analyze images, and ask new questions of familiar sources---with the critical thinking that makes it meaningful. No technical background required.
Learn more →Some of the best work starts as a half-formed question, a vague idea, something you’re not sure is even possible. That’s exactly the right time to talk.
We work alongside you, teaching the thinking behind technical and design decisions so you can carry it forward. Whether it’s a class assignment, a research project, or something you haven’t quite figured out yet—action reduces anxiety.
Drop by studio hours, email us at amaranth@unm.edu, or book a consultation.
