The field of digital humanities (DH) can provide a framework for critiquing the politics, practices, and discourses that underpin the production of new computational and data infrastructures. But DH can only realize its radical possibilities for rethinking present and future paradigms by decentering the Global North and looking to the South. For DH to emerge as a critical voice in our global digital economy, it must take seriously both the material practices and lived realities of digital practitioners in the Global South.

So what can DH learn from the South to create work that is ethical, equitable, and just? Organised by MIT Digital Humanities Lab, in this symposium, this panel provides case studies of innovative DH work in Mexico, Ghana, Hong Kong, and India amongst others to shift conceptions of the South as a place of lack within the digital humanities towards new research that recenters local context and analyses of techno-political power. Additionally, by reflexively examining our disciplinary entanglements within uneven networks of power, the panelists will explore how DH praxis from the South opens up new possibilities for thinking about the pressing issues of our data-driven world.

This interdisciplinary panel will feature the following DH scholars from around the world: Isabel Galina Russell (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México), Kwabena Opoku-Agyemang (University of Ghana), Dr TSUI Lik-hang (City University of Hong Kong), and Mayurakshi Chaudhuri (Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur). Following presentations from each panelist, there will be a discussion moderated by MIT Postdoctoral Fellow, Kanyinsola Obayan.

Date & Time
15 April 2021 (Thursday), 5pm – 6:30pm (EST)
16 April 2021 (Friday), 5am – 6:30am (HKT)

Registration
Please click here to join the stream

Presented by:
1. Mayurakshi Chaudhuri, Assistant Professor of Sociology & Digital Humanities Coordinator, Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur
2. Isabel Galina Russell, Researcher, Instituto de Investigaciones Bibliográficas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)
3. Kwabena Opoku-Agyemang, Lecturer, Department of English, University of Ghana, Legon
4. Dr TSUI Lik-hang, Assistant Professor, Department of Chinese and History, City University of Hong Kong

Moderator:
Kanyinsola Obayan, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at MIT Digital Humanities Lab