Area of Excellence

Digital Humanities and Global Diversity A Proposal for an Area of Excellence at San Diego State University, April 2015

The advent of digital technologies rivals the invention of the printing press in its impact on all aspects of human experience, and study of the digital compels innovation in research methods and perspectives as well as the forging of new partnerships to conduct this work. This application proposes a research Area of Excellence that will build upon the strengths of SDSU’s faculty, regional location, and role as a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) to generate humanistic critical research about the digital shift with a specific focus on diversity. We view this as an opportunity to apply the networked model of digital technologies to build the existing network of faculty on campus whose research practices converge at the intersection of studies of the digital and human diversity and in adding key new network members to consolidate a uniquely powerful campus research group that will transform the national conversation on the impacts of the digital. We propose to create the first research-oriented digital humanities program in the nation focused on human and global diversity, as well as the first research-oriented digital humanities program at an HSI. While the economic power of the digital and data economies makes it certain that many universities will continue to launch initiatives that engage with the digital and data, our campus has an opportunity to truly demonstrate leadership by being the first to dedicate our critical engagement with the digital to guiding questions that reflect an authentic intellectual and institutional commitment to diversity. That is the goal of this proposal.

Digital technologies create new ways of seeing, knowing, and communicating, new modes of distributing resources, ideas, and information, and new interfaces for interaction among diverse human communities. This proposal for an area of excellence in Digital Humanities and Global Diversity builds on the recognition that technological innovation levies profound human consequences that must be understood through the methodologies of humanities research, including historiographical study of the past, critical theorization of the present, and creative vision for the future. Our proposed exploration into digital technologies recognizes that new digital tools for creation, distribution, and consumption are not diffused evenly across human societies. Additionally, quantitative research from consumer-research companies indicate significant differences in the way certain ethnic populations use these technologies. Admittedly, much of this prior research has been done within the framework of traditional marketing and advertising, with users perceived as potential consumers. Our research seeks to produce a higher grade of knowledge about the the social and cultural implications of diversity within the increasingly complex digital landscape and to generate new thinking about how technology can be used to address human challenges across diverse populations.

Over the past 18 months, SDSU has articulated and implemented an innovative new model for digital humanities scholarship by departing from traditional modes of digital humanities program building and instead fostering collaboration and momentum across a range of faculty. Our innovative approach has won the campus national attention and a start-up grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities’s Office of Digital Humanities (NEH award rates: ~7%). We now seek an opportunity to further distinguish SDSU on the national landscape by recruiting additional faculty who will enable us to undertake a uniquely focused approach to the interrelated cultural, intellectual, and epistemological dimensions of the digital. The questions that compel this collaborative and networked research, and thus propel this application, include:

  1. How are the impacts of the digital shift on knowledge, culture, media, and communication experienced across diverse human communities?

  2. How are global movements of people, resources, and ideas within the digital shaped by histories of empires, nations, and racial and ethnic groups?

  3. How do digital technologies mediate and inform the movement of ideas, words, and bodies across cultural, racial, linguistic, and national boundaries?

  4. How are the costs and benefits of the digital shift distributed, and how do these patterns of distribution align with historic dynamics of colonial expansion, economic development, neoliberal economic globalization, and decolonization?

  5. How can humanities scholars work with engineers and programmers to create new applications of technology that improve human outcomes in diverse communities, including at SDSU?

SDSU’s legacy as an institution serving a diverse student body and its location on an international border both oblige and empower us to ask and answer essential questions about how technological change intersects with global diversity, questions which no other digital humanities program in the country has taken on in a substantial way. As we do, we will distinguish our campus as a national leader in researching diversity in the digital age, and we will fill a significant gap in the emerging field of digital studies and digital humanities.

Core Faculty

Jessica Pressman (Assistant Professor, English and Comparative Literature)
Pamela Jackson (Information Literacy Librarian, Library)
William Nericcio (Professor, English and Comparative Literature and MALAS)
Noah Arceneaux (Associate Professor, Journalism and Media Studies),
Mahasweta Sarkar (Associate Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering)

New Hires: We welcome our first 2 hires in this Area of Excellence!

Pamella Lach (Digital Humanities Librarian)
Pamella Lach is the Digital Humanities Librarian at San Diego State University. Pam’s work explores how new and emerging technologies transform humanistic scholarship and pedagogy. Her areas of interest include data visualization, information retrieval, user experience design, and digital pedagogy. She is currently studying how folksonomy, or user-generated social tagging, can enhance and disrupt traditional authority-driven classification schemas

Nathian Shae Rodriguez (Journalism and Media Studies)
specializes in critical-cultural and digital media studies. His research focuses on minority representation in media, specifically LGBTQ and Latinx portrayals and identity negotiation, as well as pop culture, identity, radio broadcasting, and issues of masculinity. Currently, Dr. Rodriguez is investigating the role of communication (mediated and interpersonal), in the identity negotiation of LGBTI refugees/asylees in the U.S. He has 10 years professional radio experience as on-air talent, sales, promotions, and social media marketing.

2 more, coming soon…. !