CFP: Global Debates in the Digital Humanities

Where does Digital Humanities take place? DH has been described through various metaphors – “big tent”, “trading zone”, “expanded field”, etc. – lacking perhaps one further step: the idea of digital pluralism linked to new geographical and geopolitical dimension. Our aim in this project is therefore to build a different representation of DH based on cultural, political and ultimately epistemological diversity. We are convinced that an extended debate on the application of digital technology to the study of cultural artifacts is taking place in contexts, countries, cultures and languages beyond the dominant centers of DH in the West. We also believe that these debates reflect different visions of DH, including conversations in which the digital humanities are not a dominant concept in the development of technological approaches to the humanities. Quoting Claude Alvares’ Decolonizing History, “The idea that there may be alternative technologies in itself implies the idea of technological pluralism in place of the until now almost universally accepted technological monism. In this case each social system and each political ideology, indeed each culture would be free to develop its own particular line.”

Following this line, we invite proposals for contributions to a collection of essays entitled Global Debates in the Digital Humanities: a collection on the issues and challenges of practicing Digital Humanities (DH) in diverse geographical contexts, countries, and cultures – especially from, but not limited to, the Global South. The aim of the collection is to highlight the critically engaged work of scholars outside the Anglosphere who have contributed to the advancement of DH but whose work has not received due attention for linguistic, cultural, or political reasons.

Although the emphasis will be on unpublished work, the collection may include a limited number of works that previously appeared in languages other than English, including blog posts, online essays, etc. Electronic work can be proposed by its author or by another person. It will be the author’s responsibility to clear copyright where required.