Other Worlds, Other DHs

Roopika Risam

Salem State University

@roopikarisam

“Let us be excellent dancers to one another. The

world is a messy place, covered under the big tent

of a capitalism flirting with authoritarianism,

plagued by AK-47s and countless lunacies; but also

agency and promise, the dance halls of

communities.”

–Alex Gil, “The (Digital) Library of Babel

“Around DH in 80 Days is a multi-institutional,

interdisciplinary Digital Humanities collaboration

that seeks to introduce new and veteran audiences

to the global field of DH scholarly practice by

bringing together current DH projects from around

the world.” – Around DH in 80 Days

“Behind this problem of defining Digital

Humanities (what we are and what we do) there

is an additional now ineludible problem ‘who is

we?’”

-Isabel Galina, “Is There Anybody Out There?

Building a Global Digital Humanities

Community”

“But perhaps the most urgent issue is to stop

regarding the methodological and the socio-

cultural questions as separate. In other words,

to stop thinking…that the digital humanities

were born in a vacuum.”

–Domenico Fiormonte, “Towards a Cultural

Critique of Digital Humanities”

“[English] has managed to stay, not only in

formal and official functions; it has indigenized

and grown local roots. It has begun to thrive and

to produce innovative, regionally distinctive

forms and uses of its own in contact with

indigenous languages and cultures.”

-Edgar Schneider, Postcolonial English

“Errors [in English] may be thought of as a kind

of foreign accent, only in writing instead of

speech.”

-Illona Leki, Understanding ESL Writers: A Guide

for Teachers

“Difference is not our deficit; it’s our operating

system.”

-Fiona Barnett, HASTAC Mission Statement

What is your digital humanities accent?

References

• Allama Iqbal Urdu Cyber Library

• Arab Image Foundation

• Around DH in 80 Days

• Barnett, Fiona. “HASTAC Mission Statement.”

• Bichitra: Online Tagore Variorium

• Digitizing Chinese Englishmen

• Fiormonte, Domenico. “Towards a Cultural Critique of Digital Humanities.”

• Galina, Isabel. “Is There Anybody Out There? Building a Global Digital Humanities Community.”

• Gil, Alex. “The (Digital) Library of Babel”

• Leki, Ilona. Understanding ESL Writers.

• Schneider, Edgar. Postcolonial English.

• Tombouctou Manuscripts Project