Digital Humanities As a Tool for Social Justice

Alex Gil, a Columbia University digital humanities scholar, demonstrated how digital tools can support the work of scholar-activists in an impassioned lecture and Q&A at Alderman Library on Friday, February 8, 2019. Gil is a comparative literature scholar who seeks to deploy humanistic inquiry in service of real world impact. When news surfaced of migrant detainments by ICE and CBP officials under President Donald J. Trump’s immigration law enforcement policies in the spring of 2018, Gil spearheaded the usage of satellite imagery in collaboration with other humanists around the United States to locate detainees who had been separated from their families, organizing what he describes as “nimble tents.” Under this model, scholar-activists are able to use digital tools to disseminate information, distribute resources, and disband once the group’s objective is complete. A further example of the "nimble tent" model can be found in the Puerto Rican mapathon project which came about in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in September 2017. Working with scholars from twenty-five institutions including the University of Virginia, digital humanists provided the Red Cross with the largest map resource on the internet, supporting critical aid efforts in the wake of the most devastating natural disaster in Puerto Rican history.

Gil's opening remarks gave way to a vigorous Q&A session with members of the DH@UVA community. One conversation addressed the opportunities and challenges of scholar-activist projects within academic library systems along with the need to maintain a balance between research, university service, and personal projects. Other questions prompted Gil to meditate on the contending perspectives of journalists who he says tend to provide two competing viewpoints in any given story while academics lean toward offering multiple perspectives in their presentation of events. While Gil hinted at the structural challenges the academy poses to digital humanists seeking to advance social justice, he expressed overall enthusiasm and optimism about forging pathways for scholars to meet the professional demands of academic institutions while generating innovative solutions to problems in the broader world. Gil closed his remarks with a plea to the audience to continue harnessing digital humanities scholarship to solve problems inside and outside of the academy.