The Possibilities and Pitfalls of Global Digital Humanities

A presentation as part of the panel Global Outlook::Digital Humanities: Promoting Digital Humanities Research Across Disciplines, Regions, and Cultures at the conference Digital Humanities 2014.Over the past two years, much has been made of the role of cultural critique in the digital humanities, particularly around silences and absences of race, gender, sexuality, and so forth in the digital humanities (Liu 2012; McPherson 2012; #transformDH Collective 2011; Lothian and Phillips 2013; Bailey 2011). Yet, these conversations have taken shape through a United States-centric frame of reference that often elides the larger picture of the digital humanities: its global frame. Taking up the global scope of the digital humanities, however, is to take up imbalances of power that operate in colonialist frames, visible in the dominance of United States and Western European voices within the digital humanities community writ large. Indeed, it requires heightened attention to cultural critique through a postcolonialist framework