People, Practice, Power

Digital Humanities outside the Center

2021

Anne B. McGrail, Angel David Nieves, and Siobhan Senier, Editors

An illuminating volume of critical essays charting the diverse territory of digital humanities scholarship

Focusing on the complex infrastructure that undergirds the field of digital humanities, People, Practice, Power examines the economic, social, and political factors that shape such academic endeavors. The multitude of perspectives comprising this collection offers both a much-needed critique of the existing structures for digital scholarship and the means to generate broader representation within the field.

The digital humanities have traditionally been considered the domain of only a small number of prominent and well-funded institutions. However, through a diverse range of critical essays, this volume serves to challenge and enlarge existing notions of how digital humanities research is being undertaken while also serving as a kind of alternative guide for how it can thrive within a wide variety of institutional spaces.

Focusing on the complex infrastructure that undergirds the field of digital humanities, People, Practice, Power examines the economic, social, and political factors that shape such academic endeavors. The multitude of perspectives comprising this collection offers both a much-needed critique of the existing structures for digital scholarship and the means to generate broader representation within the field.

This collection provides a vital contribution to the realm of digital scholarly research and pedagogy in acknowledging the role that small liberal arts colleges, community colleges, historically black colleges and universities, and other underresourced institutions play in its advancement. Gathering together a range of voices both established and emergent, People, Practice, Power offers practitioners a self-reflexive examination of the current conditions under which the digital humanities are evolving, while helping to open up new sustainable pathways for its future.

Contributors: Matthew Applegate, Molloy College; Taylor Arnold, U of Richmond; Eduard Arriaga, U of Indianapolis; Lydia Bello, Seattle U; Kathi Inman Berens, Portland State U; Christina Boyles, Michigan State U; Laura R. Braunstein, Dartmouth College; Abby R. Broughton; Maria Sachiko Cecire, Bard College; Brennan Collins, Georgia State U; Kelsey Corlett-Rivera, U of Maryland; Brittany de Gail, U of Maryland; Madelynn Dickerson, UC Irvine Libraries; Nathan H. Dize, Vanderbilt U; Quinn Dombrowski, Stanford U; Ashley Sanders Garcia, UCLA; Laura Gerlitz; Erin Rose Glass; Kaitlyn Grant; Margaret Hogarth, Claremont Colleges; Maryse Ndilu Kiese, U of Alberta; Pamella R. Lach, San Diego State U; James Malazita, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Susan Merriam, Bard College; Chelsea Miya, U of Alberta; Jamila Moore Pewu, California State U, Fullerton; Urszula Pawlicka-Deger, Aalto U, Finland; Jessica Pressman, San Diego State U; Jana Remy, Chapman U; Roopika Risam, Salem State U; Elizabeth Rodrigues, Grinnell College; Dylan Ruediger, American Historical Association; Rachel Schnepper, Wesleyan U; Anelise Hanson Shrout, Bates College; Margaret Simon, North Carolina State U; Mengchi Sun, U of Alberta; Lauren Tilton, U of Richmond; Michelle R. Warren, Dartmouth College.

Anne B. McGrail is a faculty member in the English department at Lane Community College in Eugene, Oregon.



Angel David Nieves is professor of Africana studies, history, digital humanities, and English at Northeastern University.



Siobhan Senier is professor of English at the University of New Hampshire.

Contents


Introduction


Anne McGrail, Angel David Nieves, and Siobhan Senier


Part I. Beyond the Digital Humanities Center: Historical Perspectives and New Models


1. Epistemic Infrastructure, the Instrumental Turn, and the Digital Humanities


James Malazita


2. Reprogramming the Invisible Discipline: An Emancipatory Approach to Digital Technology through Higher Education


Erin Rose Glass


3. What’s in a Name?


Lauren Tilton and Taylor Arnold


4. Laboratory: A New Space in Digital Humanities


Urszula Pawlicka-Deger


5. Zombies in the Library Stacks


Laura R. Braunstein and Michelle R. Warren


6. The Directory Paradox


Quinn Dombrowski


7. Custom-Built DH and Institutional Culture: The Case of Experimental Humanities


Maria Sachiko Cecire and Susan Merriam


8. Intersectionality and Infrastructure: Toward a Critical Digital Humanities


Christina Boyles


Part II. Human Infrastructures: Labor Considerations and Communities of Practice


9. In Service of Pedagogy: A Colony in Crisis and the Digital Humanities Center


Kelsey Corlett-Rivera, Nathan H. Dize, Abby R. Broughton, and Brittany de Gail


10. A “No Tent” / No Center Model for Digital Work in the Humanities


Brennan Collins and Dylan Ruediger


11. After Autonomy: Digital Humanities Practices in Small Liberal Arts Colleges and Higher Education as Collaboration


Elizabeth Rodrigues and Rachel Schnepper


12. Epistemological Inclusion in the Digital Humanities: Expanded Infrastructure in Service-Oriented Universities and Community Organizations


Eduard Arriaga


13. Digital Infrastructures: People, Place, and Passion—Case Study of San Diego State University


Pamella R. Lach and Jessica Pressman


14. Building a DIY Community of Practice


Ashley Sanders Garcia, Lydia Bello, Madelynn Dickerson, Margaret Hogarth


15. More Than Respecting Medium Specificity: An Argument for Web-Based Portfolios for Promotion and Tenure


Jana Remy


16. Is Digital Humanities Adjuncting Infrastructurally Significant?


Kathi Inman Berens


Part III. Pedagogy: Vulnerability, Collaboration, and Resilience


17. Access, Touch, and Human Infrastructures in Digital Pedagogy


Margaret Simon


18. Manifesto for Student-Driven Research and Learning


Chelsea Miya, Laura Gerlitz, Kaitlyn Grant, Maryse Ndilu Kiese, Mengchi Sun, and Christina Boyles


19. Centering First-Generation Students in the Digital Humanities


Jamila Moore Pewu and Anelise Hanson Shrout


20. Stewarding Place: Digital Humanities at the Regional Comprehensive University


Roopika Risam


21. Digital Humanities as Critical University Studies: Three Provocations


Matthew Applegate


Contributors