As digital map-making tools are getting increasingly ubiquitous, their use and critical assessment in policy making, research and pedagogy is more important than ever, especially in the ways they tend to reproduce established patterns of urban inequalities, dispossession, and environmental racism. In this workshop we will use open urban and spatio-temporal datasets that capture different contemporary and historical aspects of urban environments to explore different tools and scales of creating and using spatial stories in a class environment. We will focus on browser-based tools such as Story Maps, StoryMap JS, Timeline JS and Timemapper. At the end of the workshop we will review some projects and cases of “radical cartography” that challenge established map-making notions and practices and that can help students engage critically with dominant narratives and representations of urban and historic environments.
Outline:
We will review and discuss digital and public humanities tools, projects and platforms that address gaps and inequalities, empower marginalized groups, and support action for social justice. We will structure our discussion in three parts:
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remixing the archive
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mobilizing humanities
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tools for minimum resources
Reflection
Spend 5-10 minutes reviewing this list of digital archives and projects “that explicitly acknowledge and discuss archival silences in their content”:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YKndOKpUECMR_P1ObBq3f8v_-YlfuGxC9qjlBD8C-dY/edit
Choose one or two that seem interesting to you and that you would like to talk about.
Additional resources
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Debates in the Digital Humanities. “‘4. Making a Case for the Black Digital Humanities | Kim Gallon’ in ‘Debates in the Digital Humanities 2016’ on Manifold.” Accessed August 17, 2020. https://dhdebates.gc.cuny.edu/read/untitled/section/fa10e2e1-0c3d-4519-a958-d823aac989eb.
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Google Docs: “Acknowledging Archival Silences, Gaps, Omissions.” Accessed August 17, 2020. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YKndOKpUECMR_P1ObBq3f8v_-YlfuGxC9qjlBD8C-dY/edit?usp=embed_facebook.
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Google Docs: “Black Digital Humanities Projects & Resources.” Accessed August 17, 2020. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rZwucjyAAR7QiEZl238_hhRPXo5-UKXt2_KCrwPZkiQ/edit?usp=embed_facebook&usp=embed_facebook.
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RESET.to. “Digital and Online Activism | Responsibility.” Accessed July 31, 2020. https://en.reset.org/knowledge/digital-and-online-activism.
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“Digital Library of the Caribbean.” Accessed August 17, 2020. https://dloc.com/.
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Endangered Archives Programme. “Endangered Archives Programme.” Accessed August 17, 2020. https://eap.bl.uk/.
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Thomas Padilla, “Engaging Absence.” Accessed August 17, 2020. http://www.thomaspadilla.org/2018/02/26/engaging-absence/.
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Klein, Lauren F. “The Image of Absence: Archival Silence, Data Visualization, and James Hemings.” American Literature 85, no. 4 (December 1, 2013): 661–88. https://doi.org/10.1215/00029831-2367310.
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“Teaching as an Act of Social Justice and Equity.” Teaching in Higher Ed, July 26, 2018. https://teachinginhighered.com/podcast/teaching-as-an-act-of-social-justice-and-equity/.
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“Syllabus – Digital Public Humanities.” Accessed July 31, 2020. http://digitalpublichumanities.jimmcgrath.us/syllabus/.
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Teaching With Europeana. “Teaching With Europeana.” Accessed August 17, 2020. https://teachwitheuropeana.eun.org/.
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Warren, Jeffrey. “Grassroots Mapping : Tools for Participatory and Activist Cartography,” August 18, 2011.
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“When Digital Humanities Meets Activism.” Accessed July 30, 2020. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/07/09/when-digital-humanities-meets-activism.
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