Digital Humanities and Digital Scholarship represent a rapidly growing focus of research and public engagement within IASH. Digital scholarship is not a new thing within the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, but its development is being hastened by continuing developments in processing power, software and the ubiquity of computers. The digital humanities can be thought of as being made up of two types of activity, even if these are not fully distinct in practice.

Medical Humanities and Health Humanities is a broad field, encompassing areas as diverse as the history of medicine, medical ethics and law, pedagogy in physician training, and medical anthropology. In addition, doctor-writers from John Keats to Anton Chekhov, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Nawal el Saadawi have written about the great dramas of human life and existence, while artists such as Yayoi Kusama, Louise Bourgeois and Frida Kahlo have used lived experience of physical and mental health issues to inform their art.

The Edinburgh Environmental Humanities Network is an exciting initiative in the study of environmental issues. The network presents researchers within the humanities with a forum in which to engage with each other’s work, to share insights, and develop collaborative partnerships. IASH's Environmental Humanities Fellows contribute to the Network in a variety of ways.