Keynote Address

"Academic Insurgency: Public Humanities as Resistance"

At a moment in the U.S. where universities are targets of right-wing agendas, histories of communities of color are being erased, and the infrastructures that support humanities knowledge production are being dismantled, what role does public humanities have as a mode of resistance? Risam will look back to a long history of public humanities, over more than two centuries, to situate academic insurgency as a response to erasures and oppressions. In this history, she will propose, we can find inspiration to meet the challenges of the present. Risam will also share examples of her own work in public humanities that exemplify the kinds of interventions that we’re prepared to undertake as scholars of the humanities. 

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Professor Roopika Risam is Associate Professor of Digital Humanities and Social Engagement at Dartmouth College. She is the author of New Digital Worlds: Postcolonial Digital Humanities in Theory, Praxis, and Pedagogy (2019) and has recently co-edited Anti-Racist Community Engagement (2021) and The Digital Black Atlantic (2021), along with multiple others. Her scholarship is noted for exploring data ethics and histories, postcolonial and African diaspora studies, digital humanities, and critical university studies. Her work has significantly shaped contemporary historiographical discussions on the use of integrating digital methodologies with critical race theory and postcolonial perspectives highlighting underrepresented scholarly voices and histories. Professor Risam’s work has helped enhance the dialogue on data ethics, empire and the historical impacts of digital infrastructures.

We are delighted to have Professor Risam as the GHA keynote speaker!

Please see Professor Risam’s Dartmouth profile and her personal website for more about her and her work.