OSU to host 2 events on digital humanities studies

Tuesday, March 19, 2019

With technology rapidly advancing, more humanities scholars are conducting research using a variety of digital tools and databases as well as sharing their research through open access and online journals to reach a wider audience.

The Edmon Low Library and the Oklahoma State University Digital Humanities Initiative are hosting two free, community-friendly digital humanities events around a visit by Dr. Roopika Risam, an assistant professor of English and English education at Salem State University in Massachusetts. Risam’s research focuses on building and sustaining humanities knowledge infrastructures in postcolonial studies, African studies and U.S. ethnic studies. She founded and directs the graduate certificate in digital studies and the digital scholars program at SSU.

Risam is part of a team of digital humanities scholars who created an interactive website of all the U.S. detention centers housing immigrant children recently separated from their parents called Torn Apart/Separados. The group utilized public sources such as federal websites and libraries to quickly map out the process of conceptualizing and deploying rapid-response research at moments of crisis.

The Oklahoma State University Digital Humanities Initiative focuses on how to “facilitate scholars to think about the complexities of doing humanities research more broadly in a digital and media saturated world,” according to Dr. Jennifer Borland, the director of DHI and OSU associate professor of art history. The initiative brings together faculty and students who are excited to share their research work and brainstorm on new collaborative projects.

“Dr. Risam is not only very much a digital humanities scholar who is at the forefront of this field,” Borland said. “She has also been very visible as someone who is using it for very important humanitarian and ethical projects.”

OSU DHI will hold a discussion of Risam’s new book, New Digital Worlds: Postcolonial Digital Humanities in Theory, Praxis, and Pedagogy on March 25 from 12-2 p.m. in 109H Edmon Low Library.

“Part of my larger work on postcolonial digital humanities examines how we can remediate inequalities in the digital cultural record where dominant cultural values that have shaped print culture are not only reproduced but also amplified,” Risam said.

On March 27 at 3:30 p.m., Risam will speak in the library’s Helmerich Browsing Room about mobilizing digital humanities with a reception to follow.

For access to Risam’s book, visit here.

For more information on DHI events or to get involved with the Digital Humanities Initiative, contact Jennifer Borland at jennifer.borland@okstate.edu.