Organizers + Presenters

Lead instructor and tech team lead: Pam Lach (she/her) is the Digital Humanities Librarian at San Diego State University. She is Director of the University Library’s Digital Humanities Center, a values-oriented space designed to blur and disrupt disciplinary boundaries; connect faculty, staff, students and community members; and foster digital experimentation and critique.  She is Co-Director of SDSU’s Digital Humanities Initiative, an interdisciplinary and cross-campus hub of innovation. Dr. Lach’s work is grounded in an ethics of care and community building, critical and ethical applications of technology in research and teaching, and process-oriented experimentation. She is the co-Vice President/President Elect of the Association for Computers and the Humanities (ACH), the major professional society for the digital humanities in the United States and the US-based member of the international Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations (ADHO). She has a PhD in U.S. Cultural History with an emphasis on gender and film history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a MS in Information Science from UNC’s School of Information and Library Science.

Recording/sound engineer & tech support: Patrick Flanigan (he/him) is the Digital Humanities Center Programs and Operations Specialist at the San Diego State University Library.  Patrick oversees daily operations of the DH Center and provides instructional and programmatic support for the wide range of activities, trainings, and tutorials the DHC and broader DH Initiative offer. Patrick is an alumnus of SDSU and has spent the last 30 years  combining his passion for music with his enjoyment of working in libraries. As a student working at the SDSU Library he was in many bands and frequently recorded his musical efforts both in professional and home studios.  After graduating from SDSU he worked as a cataloger at National University by day and pursued his music career by night, eventually leaving the library world to work in the booming internet industry. Years later with the emergence of digital resources and technology, he received a Masters Degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Missouri with a focus on digital resources.  He continues to record music today for his project Punk Rock Drum Machine, using an 8 track digital recorder with analog controls and mastering the WAV files using Audacity. He supports Arsenal Football Club.

Cohort tech team support: Cassie Tanks (she/her) is a World History PhD student in the Northeastern University History Department and a HASTAC scholar. She specializes in leading archiving, oral history, and digital history workshops with the aim to empower community and undergraduate students. At Northeastern, she is currently a research assistant for a historic mapping project exploring the environmental effects of U.S. military bases abroad. She is also collaborating with local museums and community colleges to develop an inter-generational oral history project. Cassie served as a Dean's Appointed Historian, Archivist, and Project Manager for the Reckonings Project: A local history platform for community-archivists. She is also continuing her role in managing Dr. Angel David Nieves' digital humanities project Apartheid Heritage(s) to realize his vision and continue his work. She is also developing a collaborative public digital history project, After the War. She also holds an MSLS from the University of North Caroline at Chapel Hill. During her time at UNC, she was a Carolina Academic Library Association fellow, where she led the UNC Story Archive -- a program that collects and preserves audio recordings of UNC students and alumni from historically underrepresented and silenced communities. Her work culminated in the launch of Queerolina, part of The Story of Us, an initiative to document and preserve the history of UNC members who identify as LGBTQiA+. Cassie previously worked in the Digital Humanities Center at San Diego State University and frequently draws upon that positive experience. Her interests focus on participatory metadata, borderlands, intersectionality in the archives, transnational Civil Rights and Black Power movements of the 20th century, and critical digital humanities. Cassie strives to continue to put into practice the ethos Dr. Angel David Nieves, her mentor and friend, instilled in herself and all who knew him-- to value process over product, to speak up about injustice, and to never take oneself too seriously.

Cohort tech team support: Alejandro David Tamez, PhD ("David") (he/him) is an Assistant Research Professor/ Research Program Director for the Institute for Information Sciences at the University of Kansas. His research focuses on the effects emerging technologies have on legal norms, especially those that pertain to judicial decision-making. David is also interested in Public Digital Humanities and public philosophy, with the aim of exploring ways philosophy permeates through everyday political decision-making, especially at the local level. To this end, David has developed a podcast in Lawrence Talks that mixes philosophical and theoretical interviews with KU researchers, as well as a discussion of values in local politics with Lawrence leaders. In addition to LT, David has also helped produce a limited series for the Institute for Digital Research in the Humanities (IDRH, Digitalks), and a podcast for the Center for Latin and Caribbean Studies (CLACS, Charla de Merienda) – both at KU. For his work, David has received a Berry Grant for Public Philosophy from the APA and a CSL Award for Excellence in Service Learning + Community Engagement from the University of Kansas.