Increasing diversification of the field around the world + issues of visibility and acknowledgement of emerging communities of DH practitioners.

Affiliated Networks (2014)

Self-determined & self-organized

a) to establish stronger relationships with DH communities around the world;

b) to increase the diversity in the group at large (but also in the Executive Committee);

c) to develop initiatives that more consistently move towards inclusion;

d) to better fulfill our mission learning from knowledge and experiences from all over the world.

Affiliated Networks

Self reflection about distinctive features (if any) from other DH communities (even similar ones)

Also in the face of uninformed criticism like Digital Humanities: Whose Changes Do You Want to Save?

And our response: RedHD and Latin American Contexts: Self-representation and Geopolitics in DH

One size fits all DH

One size fits all DH

What "on-the-ground" conditions have shaped the formation and development of RedHD?

First attempt to gather five years worth of RedHD work

• Grass roots history of the network
• Community building & membership at large
• Diversification of interests and locations
• Outlooks

Local Academic Context

UNAM

(National Autonomous University of Mexico)

• Internet and computational pioneer in Latin America;
• Emphasis on Sciences and Engineering Research;
• Teaching tools;
• Digital repositories of content produced by the University.

Local Academic Context

Where is Humanities Research?

• Autonomy;
• Researchers' initiatives and responsibility;
• Non-dependent on a given unit;
• Non-integrated to institutional mandates (or support).

Local Academic Context

Young scholars

• Often studied abroad;
• Part of international networks;
• Capable of obtaining funding for research;
• Often lacking other forms or support.

International Academic Context

Around 2010

• What is DH?
• Day of DH (2009)
• "The next big thing"

Isabel Galina's project “Creation, Dissemination and Usage of Primary Digital Resources in the Humanities”

Workshops September 2010-June2011

Collective envisioning of how DH could be adopted, promoted, and instated within the specific academic context

Lack of top down academic structures and/or funds to create programs, degrees, labs, or centers

June 2011

Formation of the network ≠ association or society

Informal organization on the margins of institutions

Focus on building a DH "literacy" of sorts:

• list-serv
• website
• directory of researchers and projects
• one-off workshops
• special Issue of Revista Digital Universitaria

Longer term initiatives

• collective RedHD blog
• crowd-sourced checklist for DH projects

. . . relevance outside of our specific contexts

with readerships from Mexico, Colombia, Spain,

Argentina, the US, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Chile.

 Strong but non-exclusive readership in Spanish-speaking countries

Further internationalization of our work RedHD in Translation (Day of DH 2014)

• English
• French
• Italian

Community exercise of translation

(Antonio Rojas Castro, Glen Worthey, Tim Thompson, Sonia Tascón, Josh Honn, Domenico Fiormonte and RedHD members)

IRL Community

Was the diversity seen online also happening in real life?

IRL Community

Was the diversity seen online also happening in real life?

YES!

1er Encuentro - 2ndo Encuentro

2012                                                     2014

1er Encuentro - 2ndo Encuentro

2012                                                     2014

1er Encuentro - 2ndo Encuentro

2012                                                     2014

1er Encuentro - 2ndo Encuentro

2012                                                     2014

We use

Porous National &

Linguistic Boundaries

From mapahd.org

Data Collected during DíaHD2013

Porous National &

Linguistic Boundaries

Likely to be reconfiguring continuously

Needs further investigation

DíaHD 2014 archive was lost

From Network to Association

• Formalization was now necessary (and possible)
• We are a much bigger network than we are an association
• Expectation of changing landscape which will demand rethinking priorities

From Network to Association

• Formalization was now necessary (and possible)
• We are a much bigger network than we are an association
• As we change the landscape we rethink priorities

Join us!

bit.ly/joinRedHD

So what?

• Rethinking the global in the local

• Ubiquitous local conditions

• All DH is local DH

Thank you!

Questions?

Élika Ortega (@elikaortega)

Ernesto Priani (@epriani)

Isabel Galina (@igalina)

Miriam Peña (@MiriamPP)

and the RedHD (#RedHD) members at large