For more experienced Campers, this topic is well-worn, I know. It’s a discussion I’ve had at every THATCamp I’ve attended. But it’s one that never fails to get me to think. I think it’s evergreen.
Basically, a free-wheeling discussion about advocacy, communication, community, and labor within the digital humanities. Topics would include (but in no way be limited to):
- How do we describe the digital humanities? What “counts” as DH? What maybe doesn’t? Why?
- Are people in adjacent roles, like digital archivists, and digital librarians, “doing DH”? How much does the distinction matter?
- Who are the gatekeepers for all of the above?
- Is critical code theory part of DH’s “big tent?”
- Is DH’s “big tent” really that big?
- Content vs. Making/Programming: The Hack/Yack dichotomy.
- How to make DH-skeptical colleagues (and, oh, say, tenure committees) see the value of DH.
- How to curb or counteract tech-crazed administrators who may not understand that DH is not a panacea.
- How do we do DH outreach and inreach?
- Issues of labor, collaboration, & crediting in DH projects.
- DH and the neoliberal university.
Really, I’m just wanting to establish a space for wide-ranging higher-level conversation. I think it’d be a break from all the tool-learning and skill-building, and a good opportunity to engage critically with the fundamental concept of “digital humanities,” as it undergirds this whole (un)conference.
