Spring 2017 Reading Group

The Spring 2017 Reading Group series provided a space for critical dialogue and exploration for African Americanists engaged in thinking about their work in terms of the digital. Complementing AADHum’s Digital Humanities Incubator, the reading group equipped scholars with a conceptual toolkit to fortify their scholarly, pedagogical, and social justice commitments.

For the Race, Space, and Place series, we drew on a robust syllabus that centers black experience and probes the ethical, empirical, and epistemological considerations of working at the crossroads of digital studies and African American history and culture.

Though the Spring 2017 reading group series has concluded, you can still explore our syllabus, which was organized into six reading group sessions:

All Spring 2017 reading group materials have been archived. To access them, please visit our course website.

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Holding Space

Wednesday, February 1

Holding Space provides participants with a critical foundation for understanding the language, concepts, and frameworks that guide some of the most pressing questions and dilemmas in black digital scholarship.

FEB 1 EVENT
READINGS

Where and When We Enter

Wednesday, February 8

Where and When We Enter examines the empirical and ethical considerations that inform the strengths, pitfalls and potential of varied theoretical approaches for exploring the African American experience.

FEB 8 EVENT
READINGS
VIDEO

Geographies and Genealogies of Knowledge

Wednesday, March 1

Geographies and Genealogies of Knowledge surveys the historical and contemporary landscape of black digital research, tracing its development and evolution.

MAR 1 EVENT
READINGS
VIDEO

Theorizing “The Archive”

Wednesday, March 29

Theorizing “The Archive” explores one of the fundamental tools of black digital scholarship—the archive. We examine how the authority, reliability and completeness of the archive can be challenged when scholars engage with sources in traditional, unorthodox and unanticipated ways.

MAR 29 EVENT
READINGS

Intersectionality and Critical Race Theory

Wednesday, April 26

Intersectionality and Critical Race Theory situates black digital scholarship within two of the most prominent frameworks for understanding African American history and culture, in conversation with pioneers in these fields, Dean Bonnie Thornton Dill and Dr. Patricia Hill Collins. Part of The Critical Race Initiative’s Parren Mitchell Symposium.

APR 26 EVENT
READINGS
VIDEO

A Room of Our Own: Trials and Triumphs of Generating Theory

Wednesday, May 3

Trials and Triumphs of Generating Theory reflects on how scholars can use their newly acquired conceptual and empirical approaches to cultivate and refine their theoretical sensibilities and empirical orientation to digital blackness.

MAY 3 EVENT