Welcome back to my Digital Methods blog! This week our class is taking a look at global Digital Humanities (DH) in an effort to think more constructively about DH across the world and potential challenges to a more global DH. This week we read Gil and Ortega’s (2016) “Global Outlooks in Digital Humanities: Multilingual Practices and Minimal Computing,” Risam’s (2018) “Decolonizing the Digital Humanities in Theory and Practice,” and People’s Stories Project’s (Accessed 2021) blog titled “DIGITAL HISTORY, GRIT AND PASSION …” The former two pieces were more theoretically focused more on how the field can move forward towards a more global DH, while the blog served as a piece to recognize how Chao Tayiana Maina, commonly known as the Headstrong Historian, has worked to visualize Kenyian history through a series of projects: 1) African Digital Heritage; 2) Museum of British Colonialism; 3) Open Restitution Africa; and 4) Save the Railway (all accessible here). The focus on global DH is extremely crucial, as many DH efforts are meant to disseminate knowledge to other researchers and the public – this effort is short lived if the audience is limited by access or structure of the project (e.g., language, software, hardware, etc.).
As a new scholar in general and one who is very new to the world of DH, I need to be constantly thinking about how I can frame my work moving forward to achieve a more global DH framework. While it is not possible to be 100% perfect, an open mind will help me stay on the right track. For this class, I am proposing a NEH grant that will compile together research on the history of skeletal collections and the individuals within them. This is aimed primarily towards others who use skeletal collections in their research, or perhaps towards others who would like to better understand the creation of skeletal collection in general. I find this project important because in biological anthropology we say that there are differences in socioeconomic status, health, etc., between individuals within these collections, but never dive deeper into how those biases might be affecting the skeletal collection as a data source for modern identification methods – or what it might tell us about the growth and maintenance of anatomy and anthropology in general.
So when I think of this project in terms of global DH, I need to think more about accessibility – how do the platforms I am choosing work with automatic text readers or text translators so that this exhibit is not only available to those who speak English or can easily read webpages. Additionally, this research will touch on ethical issues in the historical past of the United States, as many of the first cadavers were sourced from prisoners or those who could not afford funeral costs (the latter is still very frequently today). I need to make sure I am not retraumatizing those who were affected by the creation of these skeletal collections and I need to be wary of what information is included. While I would like to include the ranges of birth years, ages, and place of birth (likely in association with a map), I need to make sure no information is traceable – it is not my place to put personal, identifiable information on a public, open access platform. I am not the keeper of these individuals or part of their family. I am just someone who wants to better understand skeletal collections and the research based on them.
And I must approach this project using a decolonizing mindset, as Risam (2018) argues for. Anthropology has a dark past with colonization and while we have made efforts to come to terms with some of the more historical literature, there is still much to discuss in terms of current work and research. I need to make sure that I am not assuming knowledge or just using the “add and stir” approach (Risam, 2018). I need to think about what voices are not heard in the literature – and why that might be. I need to think about the systems of power that enforced the creation of skeletal collections and the act of body “donation.” I need to think about my work can be used and need to make sure I am not implying anything. I want to create an exhibit that is a starting point, rather than a place for conclusions, as I think this is only a first step in better understanding skeletal collections. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t points of views to consider or theoretical frameworks to utilize.
Global DH can guide a plethora of ideas and projects – not just those that are on global topics. My project concerns skeletal collections in the United States, but that does not mean that global DH is useless or not necessary. And, while my work might be sourced from the United States, my audience could be global! As is the nature of technology. So, hopefully I am able to keep thinking about these ideas as I move forward, but I am excited to see what more I can in the process learn as well.
