ADHO Digital Humanities Conference
August 5-9, 2024
Alexandria, Virginia
Presentation as part of the panel, “Perspectives and Challenges for Digital Humanities Centers and Laboratories”, alongside Michael Sinatra (Université de Montréal), Nirmala Menon (Indian Institute of Technology Indore), Martin Grandjean (Université de Lausanne), Melanie Conroy (University of Memphis), and Lena Krause and Emmanuel Château-Dutier (Université de Montréal).
Presentation Proposal
Digital humanities work at Michigan State University (MSU) encompasses labs, scholarly communication infrastructure, and individual projects situated across several colleges and major units of campus. Digital Humanities at MSU (DH@MSU), while formally a center, works within this landscape to connect and foster DH work and people, rather than undertaking research projects itself. For many years, DH@MSU focused its activities on community building (e.g. brownbags, workshops, Slack, THATCamps, etc). Time and the pandemic have pushed us to reinvent what we do, however. Faculty and staff across our institution are over-extended, and with our unit entirely voluntary, we have seen engagement decline. Our position as a center that brings together people and projects allows us to focus on amplifying the work of scholars at our institution, identify opportunities for partnership, and advocate for improved resources and infrastructure. We see our most effective role moving forward as oriented around those activities rather than community building through activities/programming. The purpose of the DH Center varies by institution and must adapt to changing circumstances. By sharing the developing vision for DH@MSU, we want to make visible the labor behind efforts at community building. We also want to engage in open discussion about where to best place our energies to support colleagues engaged in projects and to foster onramps for others to join in.