The Humanities Digital Workshop (HDW) is part of the infrastructure at Washington University for digital scholarship in the humanities — what's often termed the digital humanities or humanities computing. The HDW promotes the university's activities in both of its basic vectors: in research, by facilitating projects that require or benefit from data collection and analysis, or electronic publication; and in teaching, by bringing students into the research process in concrete ways that can be rare in the humanities. Intensely collaborative, the workshop brings together scholars and students in the various humanities fields, Digital Library Services, the Center for Empirical Research in the Law, and the American Culture Studies program, among others.

The HDW provides opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to participate in research projects led by WashU faculty. The ideal student fellow has an interest in the application of technology to the humanities. While the needs of each project are different, typical activities include research and the preparation and preliminary analysis of textual and visual materials. Specialized technical skills are not required, though students with some familiarity with or interest in XSLT, CSS, or web programming may find ways to make use of that knowledge. Past projects have included working on a violence against women database, exploring material culture and the 19th-century German novel, and delving into papers from the early days of the federal government.