Editor’s Choice: The Dividends of Difference: Recognizing Digital Humanities’ Diverse Family Tree/s

In her excellent statement of digital humanities values, Lisa Spiro identifies “collegiality and connectedness” and “diversity” as two of the core values of digital humanities. I agree with Lisa that digital humanists value both things—I certainly do—but it can be hard to *do* both things at the same time. The first value stresses the things have in common. The second stresses the ways we are different. When we focus on the first, we sometimes neglect the second.

This is something that has been driven home to me in recent months through the efforts of #dhpoco (post colonial digital humanities). Adeline and Roopkia have shown us that sometimes our striving for and celebration of a collegial and connected (or as I have called it, a “nice”) digital humanities can, however unintentionally, serve to elide important differences for the sake of consensus and solidarity. #dhpoco has made us aware that a collegiality and connectedness that papers over differences can be problematic, especially for underrepresented groups such as women and minorities, especially in a discipline that is still dominated by white men. A “big tent” that hides difference is no big tent at all.

Read the whole thing here.

This content was selected for Digital Humanities Now by Editor-in-Chief Benjamin Schneider based on nominations by Editors-at-Large: Ester Rincon Calero, James O'Sullivan, Dana Bublitz, Beth Secrist, Erin Bush, Amy Williams, Angela Galvan, Megan Blair, Michael Simeone, Aisha Clarke, Sayema Rawof, Sarah Canfield Fuller, Andrew Hyde, Laurie Allen. Souvenise St. Louis, and Kevin McQueeney