Articles
Mapping Public Housing in LiteratureCrystal Rudds, University of Utah; Theadora Soter, University of Utah, Marriott Library
Good Women, Mediocre Men: Hierarchy in Narrative and Digital Prosopographyfirst name(s) family name,
Abstract
[en]
Creating a prosopography of people who engaged with the Georgian theatre requires
interrogating mixed media sources, including archival documents; print materials including
anecdotal magazine articles, playbills, and biographies; digital authority records
like those compiled by the Virtual International Authority File (VIAF); other databases;
and traditional scholarship about theatre history. Embedded within this ecosystem
of sources is a hierarchy of information which often privileges the cultural capital
that comes with celebrity and notoriety. In this article, we use the careers of the
actor Alexander Pope and his two wives, Elizabeth Younge and Maria Ann Campion, as
case studies to investigate how these hierarchies are inscribed and reinscribed first
in historical documents and subsequently in modern scholarship. In a period with five
prominent theatrical Popes, we argue for digital prosopography as a methodology that
can counter these hierarchies. When incorporated into a project like ‘Theatronomics:
The Business of Theatre, 1732-1809’, which links people to their earnings and their
box office power, digital prosopography enables us to illuminate the labour of individuals
that might otherwise be concealed by the mythos of celebrity, and the institution
of the theatre more generally.
This article is part of a project that has received funding from the European Research
Council (ERC) under the European Union’s 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant
agreement No. 101001052.
The (Im)possibility of Autonomous Feminist InfrastructuresDr Cécile Chevalier, University of Sussex; Dr Irene Fubara-Manuel, University of Sussex;
Dr Sharon Webb, University of Sussex
Abstract
[en]
Scaling-up, speeding-up, and powering-up of technology are all coterminous to the
hegemonic cycle of infrastructural development. These capitalist impulses shrink the
possibilities of building technology from critical perspectives. As such, this paper
explores the (im)possibility—the possibility and impossibility—of autonomous feminist
infrastructures. We focus specifically on feminist servers as a case study of these
infrastructures, critically reflecting on our experimentation to build a prototype
server. We contextualise this experiment with our work on Full Stack Feminism in Digital
Humanities (DH), drawing a line from feminist histories in computing to development
of feminist servers. Orienting our movement towards our own prototype server, we outline
our theoretical framework of queer phenomenology. We expand on queer and feminist
theorisation of infrastructure, outlining the relational role of infrastructure, in
bridging and walling out communities. From our historical context and theoretical
framing, we draw insights from experimentations. We outline the possibilities and
negotiations with existing infrastructures in building autonomous feminist servers.
Through our experimentation and reflections, we emphasise the need for a plurality
of infrastructures and an exploration of the socio-technical entanglements in which
such infrastructures exist.
What We Read while Looking Up from the Book: A Review of The Routledge Companion to Libraries, Archives, and the Digital HumanitiesDavid Pruneda Senties, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Abstract
[en]
This review of The Routledge Companion to Libraries, Archives, and the Digital Humanities, edited by Isabel Galina Russell and Glen Layne-Worthey, highlights the book’s acute
representation of the work performed by librarians, archivists, and digital humanists.
By means of the thoughtful selection and organization of more than thirty chapters,
the editors show that libraries and archives are spaces that function because of the
relations between five different systems: ethical-ideological, methodological, public,
epistemological, and social. The review summarises each one of these systems and explains
how they interact to showcase the complexities of academic practices such as digital
preservation, digitisation, and text mining.
Making Marx More Readable:
A Minimal Computing Approach to a Community-Driven Edition of Capital Vol. 1
Avery Wiscomb, Virginia Tech; Steven Gotzler, University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill
Abstract
[en]
The following article presents MARXdown, a minimal digital reading edition of Karl
Marx’s Capital Vol. 1, as a retrospective case study in applying minimal computing principles to create
accessible, community-driven digital humanities (DH) projects. Developed by graduate
students at Carnegie Mellon University in 2019–20, MARXdown demonstrates how framing
minimal computing as “practical commitments” can lower access barriers, demystify
computing labor, and facilitate knowledge sharing. The project leveraged lightweight,
open-source tools to create a collaborative reading environment that addressed specific
community needs. This approach allowed for adaptability during the COVID-19 pandemic,
transforming MARXdown into a vital support for collaboratively reading Marx under
lockdown. The article argues that practical commitments to minimal computing can promote
replicable models for building digital reading editions, useful for distributing marginalized
or banned texts in underserved communities. By unpacking some of MARXdown's development
process, this study offers insights into both the potential and limitations of minimal
computing in academic and community-driven contexts, contributing to discussions about
accessibility, sustainability, and ethics in DH.
Speculative Recommendation: Reframing AI for Interpretive Practice in the Digital
Humanities
Houda Lamqaddam, University of Amsterdam; River Rain, PLACEHOLDER
Abstract
[en]
This project investigates the potential of recommender systems as a generative tool
in humanities research using the case of aesthetic-driven recommender system focused
on animated films. Leveraging still frames from trailers and a fine- tuned convolutional
neural network (VGG16), we extracted aesthetic features to develop a recommender system
that uses visual characteristics as the sole input. The system demonstrates how recommender
systems can support the investigation of high level concepts such as influence, identifying
both expected and surprising latent connections between films on the basis of visual
similarities. This approach has broader implications within DH, showing how recommender
systems can facilitate exploratory, interpretive research, how the stochasticity of
AI models is well suited to support the interpretative aspect of humanistic scholarship,
and exploring the potential of interdisciplinary cross-pollination in DH research.
The Application of Latent Semantic Analysis to
the Voynich ManuscriptColin Layfield, University of Malta; Lisa Fagin Davis, Medieval Academy of America
Abstract
[en]
The Voynich Manuscript (VM) is a medieval manuscript likely written in the 15th
century (Yale Univ., Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library MS 408).
https://beinecke.library.yale.edu/collections/highlights/voynich-manuscript
The manuscript is written in an unknown language or code using an
unidentified set of symbols that has yet to be made legible. Additionally, the
codex contains many strange and fantastical images of plants, people, and
cosmological/zodiac illustrations, the meaning of which are also unknown. One of
the main research avenues into the VM is to examine its textual content to
understand how it behaves relative to known texts; this can provide insight as
to whether the mysterious writings contain decipherable text or not. In this
paper, we explore the coherence and flow of the manuscript using Latent Semantic
Analysis (LSA). LSA is a technique that may help ascertain whether the behavior
of the text within the VM shows evidence of a coherent flow of topical content,
by comparative analysis of text samples that are near each other, farther away
from each other, at section breaks, or even page breaks. The advantage of this
strategy is that LSA analysis can be undertaken without actually knowing the
meaning of the text. We expect portions of text that are near to each other to
have a relatively high similarity score, that is, to be potentially semantically
related. We also expect that at anticipated topic breaks (pages or sections),
the similarity score between adjacent text blocks would be smaller, as the
breaks seem to represent a change in topic. Both of these patterns are observed
in the control manuscript studied as proof-of-concept experiments. Patterns then
observed in several sections of the VM suggest that there may be an overall
coherence to the text.
A Review of Manuale di letteratura elettronicaGuiseppe Arena, University of Catania
Abstract
[en]
This review analyzes Fabrizio Venerandi’s Manuale di letteratura elettronica (2024), a work that aims to introduce a non-specialist audience to the world of born-digital
literature, with a particular focus on text adventures and narrative video games.
The volume highlights the centrality of video games as “new literature” and their
ability to redefine the traditional categories of author, reader and text, combining
a historical perspective with an eminently practical and educational approach. Through
an extensive mapping of works and tools, the manual emphasizes its value as a catalogue
raisonné and as an invitation to recognize video games as one of the main contemporary
laboratories of electronic literature, raising questions of preservation, authorship,
and critical use of digital medium that are central to the Digital Humanities as well.
Digital Storytelling, Vulnerable Migrant Communities, and Undergraduate EducationRobert McKee Irwin, University of California, Davis
Abstract
[en]
Humanizing Deportation is a participatory audiovisual project that since early 2017
has documented and disseminated the repercussions of contemporary migration and border
control laws and policies on vulnerable migrants in the United States and Mexico.
Through on the ground collaborations with deported migrants and asylum seekers in
Tijuana and elsewhere, we have published over 500 digital stories (testimonial audiovisual
shorts) on our bilingual website. While fieldwork has been realized principally in
Tijuana and elsewhere in Mexico by faculty and graduate students, we have increasingly
developed strategies for incorporating undergraduate students at the University of
California, Davis, into our research team, by training them in our audiovisual production
techniques. This has allowed these students, many of whose families are affected directly
by such laws and policies, to become directly and meaningfully involved in helping
migrants communicate their experiences and concerns to the world. This article lays
out the methods we use in involving undergrads directly, albeit remotely, in our deeply
collaborative production processes, highlighting both the rewards and the risks in
this endeavor. For many of our students, their participation in Humanizing Deportation
constitutes one of the most meaningful experiences they obtain in college.
Fostering Transborder Thinking at the Intersection of Digital-Public Humanities and
Border Epistemologies with United FronterasSylvia Fernández Quintanilla, University of Texas at San Antonio; Carolina E. Alonso,
Fort Lewis College; Maira E. Álvarez, University of Toronto; Laura Gonzales, University
of Florida
Abstract
[en]
In this article, we delve into the intersection of digital and public humanities and
border epistemologies, offering pedagogical frameworks that leverage the analysis
and engagement of tools, practices, and ethical knowledge production to challenge
dominant narratives of the Mexico-U.S. border. The article presents and explores the
creation and impact of the online directory and memory project, United Fronteras (2020), which offers a framework for transborder thinking. The authors analyze diverse
projects and digital materials to reveal the complexities of border communities through
research, teaching, archives development, and/or lived experiences. Through this analysis,
the authors offer pedagogical models that can help continue expanding transborder
digital humanities work. This collaborative approach amplifies underrepresented voices,
thus challenging common misconceptions and advocating for a more inclusive understanding
of the Mexico-U.S. border. The article demonstrates the application of border epistemology
and United Fronteras within border communities and academic settings across multiple universities and
disciplines to foster the theory, praxis and pedagogy of transborder digital and public
humanities across different borderlands.
Social Media as a Digital Humanities Platform? A conversation between Rendering Revolution
co-founders, Jonathan Michael Square and Siobhan MeïSiobhan Meï, University of Massachusetts Amherst; Jonathan Michael Square, Parsons
School of Design
Abstract
[en]
This article offers an overview of the digital humanities methods and theories that
inform the project Rendering Revolution: Sartorial Approaches to Haitian History.
In this article, project co-founders Jonathan Square and Siobhan Meï engage in a conversation
about their collaborative model for doing public-facing scholarship at the intersections
of black and Caribbean digital humanities. Specifically, Meï and Square critically
consider the role of social media in building and sustaining their project, which
uses the lens of fashion and material culture to trace the aesthetic, social, and
political reverberations of the Haitian Revolution. Through the collaborative effort
of a team whose expertise lies in translation, visual culture, and cultural theory,
Rendering Revolution uses Instagram to connect the past and present in ways that are
visually compelling and exemplify the power of social media as a tool for scholarly
communication.
Voces y Caras: Community Building through the Collection of StoriesConstanza López Baquero, University of North Florida
Abstract
[en]
This article discusses the trajectory and impact of the digital oral history project
Voces y Caras: Latinx Communities of North Florida, which has played an important role in building community and advocating for the
Latinx populations at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, Florida. My
paper argues that the project represents a model that can be adapted by others who
work with Heritage speakers and U.S. Hispanic/Latinx communities. To do so, it reviews
the history of the project, connects it to a larger movement related to Latinx oral
history in the U.S., and considers the ways the digital and non-digital components
complement each other and enable the project to have a vibrant life not only online
but also in physical spaces. Most importantly, it reflects on the power of projects
focusing on digital oral history and building connections between people, as tools
to create learning experiences that motivate students and help them to engage with
their communities.
Baobabs, Networks and Digital Sovereignty: Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous Community
Digital Territories as Communitarian DHEduard Arriaga-Arango, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Language, Literature
and Culture, Clark University
Abstract
[en]
Baobáxia is an initiative developed by the Afro-Brazilian network Rede Mocambos that
serves as a model of community digital organizing so they can propose data justice,
digital sovereignty and autonomy. Baobáxia is a technology that interconnects diverse
communities in Brazil (i.e, Quilombos, Indigenous communities and Favelas, among others),
and also creates a structure to store, curate and disseminate local knowledge, traditions,
histories and representations. This infrastructure demonstrates how non-expert communities
can use digital strategies to defend their territory, preserve their cultural production,
and affirm their human condition. Throughout this article I discuss how Baobáxia and
Rede Mocambos work, as well as a collaborative project to connect with other quilombos,
Black and Indigenous communities in the Americas. The collaborations described herein
are part of community digital humanities initiatives that go beyond the boundaries
of the university and the academia expanding their scope and contributing to a humanization
of technology.
Building on the Margins: Salt & AloesLauren Baccus, Founder, Salt & Aloes
Abstract
[en]
This paper examines Salt & Aloes, a digital humanities project founded in 2020 to explore and circulate Caribbean
material culture through alternative digital spaces. Originating from a creative inquiry
into a single colonial object, the planter’s chair, the project challenges the silences
and distortions embedded within colonial archives. Salt & Aloes operates as a form of fugitivity, working beyond traditional academic institutions,
relying on limited resources, and sustained by vibrant networks of artists, scholars,
and community members. This work illustrates the potential of digital humanities tools
to reframe Caribbean histories in plural and emergent ways, while also confronting
systemic barriers such as colonial legacies, funding limitations, and institutional
gatekeeping. After a period of rapid growth, the project now pauses to reflect and
recalibrate, focusing on deepening meaningful connections and its own limited capacity.
Embracing the inherent messiness of creative work at the margins,Salt & Aloes models a practice of digital marronage that negotiates space alongside institutions
without losing its autonomy. Ultimately, this project highlights the human and scholarly
possibilities of caring, daring, and decolonial approaches to knowledge production
in Caribbean digital scholarship.
Fanm Rebèl: Digital and Public Heritage Assemblages of Women in the Haitian RevolutionDr. Nicole Willson, University of Greenwich
Abstract
[en]
This article critically reflects on the creation, scope and scholarly implications
of Fanm Rebèl, an engaged research and digital and public heritage project that reassembles the
occluded histories of women in the Haitian Revolution and the period of early Haitian
state-making. Centred on the recovery and reimagining of the manifold articulations
of women-led resistance, Fanm Rebèl explores how fragments of women’s lives dispersed across archives, embedded in oral
histories and reimagined through creative and expressive practice can be mobilised
to generate alternative genealogies of revolutionary memory. Drawing on Haitian ideas
of rasanblaj (re/-assembly), the project integrates a range of digital and material
“imprints” – from an open-access and bilingual online gallery and archive to commemorative
heritage plaques and a YouTube documentary – each constituting an exercise in communal
caretakership and decolonial praxis.
Through an examination of its collaborative, engaged and inter- and antidisciplinary
methodologies, the article interrogates how digital assemblages can resist archival
silences and model forms of radical stewardship. While it ponders the ethical and
emotional labour demanded by such work and the problems of ephemerality in creating
digital outputs in particular, it advocates for a “constellation” of assemblages that
have multiple afterlives across digital, material and community spaces. In tracing
the multiple trajectories of Fanm Rebèl, this article proposes an insurgent and resilient
framework for digital and public humanities practice undergirded by ethics of collaboration
and care.
Documenting the Movement for Mexican American Studies (MAS) in Texas Through Critical
Latinx Public Digital Humanities (DH) and Chicanx FeminismsSylvia Mendoza Aviña, Assistant Professor of Mexican American Studies, University
of Texas, San Antonio
Abstract
[en]
This essay introduces the MAS Muxeres Oral History Project, a digital storytelling
project that uses ArcGIS StoryMaps to share the oral histories and intimate archival
materials of the muxeres who build and sustain Mexican American Studies (MAS) programs
in Yanawana/San Antonio, Texas. The focus of this essay is twofold: 1) to introduce
the project, and 2) to explore the transformational possibilities of incorporating
critical Latinx public digital humanities (DH) approaches into MAS research. In this
current moment of anti-DEI, anti-critical race theory, and anti-LGBTQ+ legislation,
particularly within the state of Texas where this project is based, critical Latinx
public DH approaches provide the opportunity to engage in community-based and feminist
research within MAS that 1) centers women, their activism, and contributions; 2) visually
documents the larger movement for MAS and ethnic studies in Texas through the experiences
of muxeres; 3) fosters partnerships with the community to produce public research
that is accessible beyond the confines of academia; and 4) offers hands-on digital
training through the development of digital public research. In this essay, I explore
how incorporating critical Latinx public DH within MAS research helps to not only
address the intentional gaps in both U.S. and traditional Chicano history that erase
the contributions of women and queer/communities of color but also helps to address
contemporary issues in MAS and ethnic studies.
Articles
Test Article: Code SamplesJulia Flanders, Northeastern University
Abstract
[en]
A test article for code syntax highlighting
Article title!first name(s) family name,
DHQ Test Article: BeastiaryJulia Flanders, Northeastern University; John A. Walsh, Indiana University
Test Article Demonstrating RevisionNote: RevisedDHQ, None
Abstract
[en]
This test article is based on Belinda Barnet, “Machine Enhanced (Re)minding: the Development
of Storyspace”. This article traces the history of Storyspace, the world’s first program
for creating, editing and reading hypertext fiction. Storyspace is crucial to the
history of hypertext as well as the history of interactive fiction. It argues that
Storyspace was built around a topographic metaphor and that it attempts to model human
associative memory. The article is based on interviews with key hypertext pioneers
as well as documents created at the time.
[fr] Article Expérimentale: En Français[en] Test Article: French-Language Article with Stub Translation[es] Artículo de prueba: artículo en francés con traducción de esbozoDHQ, None
Abstract
[fr][en][es]
This test article is based on Jean-Guy Meunier, «Le texte numérique : enjeux herméneutiques».
La numérisation des textes est omniprésente dans les humanités numériques. Elle
semble se présenter uniquement comme une modification du support matériel : du
texte sur papier au texte numérique. Mais elle fait plus que cela. La
numérisation touche aussi le texte en tant qu’objet sémiotique. Or, les
multiples opérations de cette technologie mettent en œuvre des décisions
interprétatives qui ne sont pas sans affecter le texte sémiotique, c’est-à-dire
celui qui se donne à lire et à analyser. En ce sens, la numérisation des textes
n’est pas neutre. Elle est un moment important d’une herméneutique matérielle.
This test article is based on Jean-Guy Meunier, “Le texte numérique : enjeux herméneutiques”.
The digitization of texts is omnipresent in the digital humanities. It seems to
present itself only as a modification of the material medium: from text on
paper to digital text. But it does more than that. Digitization also affects
the text as a semiotic object. The multiple operations of this technology
implement interpretative decisions that are not without their effects on the
semiotic text; that is to say, the text that offers itself for reading and
analysis. In this sense, the digitization of texts is not neutral. It is an
important moment of material hermeneutics.
Este artículo de prueba se basa en Jean-Guy Meunier, “Le texte numérique : enjeux
herméneutiques”. La digitalización de textos es omnipresente en las humanidades digitales.
Parece presentarse solo como una modificación del soporte material: del texto en papel
al texto digital. Pero va más allá. La digitalización también afecta al texto como
objeto semiótico. Las múltiples operaciones de esta tecnología implementan decisiones
interpretativas que no dejan de tener efectos en el texto semiótico; es decir, el
texto que se ofrece para la lectura y el análisis. En este sentido, la digitalización
de textos no es neutral. Es un momento importante de la hermenéutica material.
[en] Test Article: Foreign Language with Full Translation[fr] Bienvenue à Digital Humanities QuarterlyJulia Flanders, Brown University; Wendell Piez, Mulberry Technologies, Inc.; Melissa
Terras, University College London
Abstract
[en][fr]
A welcome to DHQ from the editors, with a brief summary of the journal's
development and goals.
Un accueil à DHQ des éditeurs, avec un bref résumé de la revue
Le développement et les objectifs.
Media Encoding SamplesJulia Flanders, Northeastern University
Abstract
[en]
Sample media encoding
Math Encoding SampleJulia Flanders, Foo
Abstract
[en]
Sample MathJax encoding
Sample Field ReportJulia Flanders, Foo
Abstract
[en]
Sample MathJax encoding
[en] An Article Title[it] Il Titolo dell'ArticoloBenjamin Grey, Digital Humanities Quarterly; Josiah Carberry, Psychoceramics Department,
Brown University; Jean-Baptiste Botul, Association of the Friends of Jean-Baptiste
Botul
Abstract
[en]
Welcome to the DHQ sample article. In this document, you should be able to find
properly formatted examples of
nearly every potential article element allowed for DHQ articles. For documentation
on when or how to use these
elements, consult the Encoding Documentation Wiki, available at: https://github.com/Digital-Humanities-Quarterly/dhq-journal/wiki/DHQ-Encoding-Documentation
To see what
most of these elements look like when passed through DHQ CSS, import the DHQ_Proof
transformation scenario and open
it in a web browser.
