Intersection of DH & Public History: Potential for Marginalized Communities
By Paige Mason
This summer I had the amazing opportunity to work as the Digital Humanities (DH) Graduate Assistant for the National Science Foundation – Research Experience for Undergraduates (NSF-REU) Mapping Freedom program at the University of Southern Mississippi, while also completing a public history internship. The internship, overseen by USM's Center for Digital Humanities (CDH) director, Dr. Susannah Ural, and CDH manager, Ms. Maeve Losen, was separate from my assistantship, but designed to help me think more deeply about the intersection of digital humanities and public history with a special emphasis on how both fields can better steward the history of marginalized communities. By reading works by notable DH scholars like Ravynn K. Stringfield and Safiya Umoja Noble, having informative and constructive discussions with Ural and Losen, and seeing the Mapping Freedom undergraduates use DH tools to present their research, I’ve come to recognize the value, faults, and complexities within the field of digital humanities.[1]
The humanities have often ignored, exploited, or revised the history of marginalized communities. Digital humanists have observed over the last decade or two that they have the opportunity to correct the unjust or erroneous historical narratives that have been promoted within traditional historical scholarship. Digital humanities projects/programs, like Mapping Freedom, provide scholars the opportunity to recognize distorted or untold history and present this information in partnership with these groups and in an accessible medium.
Digital humanities can often be seen as intimidating or overwhelming for those new to or unfamiliar with the field, but it has the potential to be an inclusive space for those looking to challenge traditional historical narratives. Many marginalized communities are distrustful or hesitant of historians due to a history of revisionism, exploitation, and dishonesty. Digital humanities can provide communities with the opportunity to collect or tell their own history working in partnership with scholars, or with institutions or programs that offer support but not taking any leadership roles. The South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA), founded by Michelle Caswell and Samip Mallick, is an example of how scholars can work alongside those in marginalized communities to ensure the necessary representation needed to properly document the history of often underrepresented groups in history. Additionally, other DH scholars are proving that while many traditional public history spaces (museums and archives, for example) may be economically, geographically, or physically restricting, there are more opportunities to create accessible content within digital humanities.
There are many open-access DH projects online that allow the public to make contributions and learn more about the history of marginalized communities. Villanova University’s "Last Seen: Finding Family After Slavery" project is a collection of over 3,500 digitized newspaper ads placed after emancipation in hopes of finding family members from whom they had been separated. Directed by Dr. Judith Giesberg, "Last Seen" allows users to create a free account on the site and transcribe ads. Along with being a great resource for scholars, the project has been helpful in allowing 21st-century African Americans to learn more about their family’s ancestry.
ArcGIS StoryMaps is another digital humanities tool that allows users to present scholarly information in an accessible manner. Dr. Christy Hyman’s “The Oak of Jerusalem: Flight, Refuge, and Reconnaissance in the Great Dismal Swamp Region” presents the history of the swamp region and how it was central to many enslaved people’s path to freedom. While being educational, Dr. Hyman’s project is a great example of how digital humanities tools present historians with a platform to engage the public with their research. StoryMaps allows users to present a range of information including maps, timelines, and graphs. One of the downsides to using StoryMaps is that it can be economically restrictive, but published StoryMaps can still be viewed by those who do not have paid access to the program.
While digital humanities must address the same issues within traditional scholarship, many DH projects/programs, like the “Civil War & Reconstruction Governors of Mississippi” project (CWRGM) directed by Drs. Susannah J. Ural and Lindsey R. Peterson, have made a conscious effort to recognize and rectify many of the mistakes of traditional humanities. By digitizing letters written to the governors of Mississippi during and after the Civil War, CWRGM allows often unheard voices in history to be heard. This is a direct effort to avoid what historian Andrew Gomez describes as “the old politics of who deserved to be historicized has become the new politics of who deserves to be digitized.”[2]
The Mapping Freedom participants have used documents from CWRGM for their own digital humanities research projects centered on emancipation in Mississippi during and after the Civil War. Their projects focus on a range of topics including the forced labor of enslaved people by the Confederate Army, the United States Colored Troops, and patients at the Mississippi Lunatic Asylum. While the participants have been forced to confront silences within archival sources, access to CWRGM provided them with the opportunity to view numerous letters that previously would have been difficult to find. The REU participants also utilized digital humanities tools, like geographic information systems and StoryMaps, in presenting their research. These tools have allowed them to explore their research in new ways, and they also have come away from the program with a new skill set to use DH tools in their future undergraduate and, hopefully, graduate scholarship.
Digital humanities has provided scholars with new opportunities to present research that was previously unavailable. Digital humanities programs, like Mapping Freedom, are important in showing students the possibilities available within digital humanities and how they can apply DH methodologies. While there are limitations and concerns within digital humanities, the future of DH is one focused on inclusion, is community-driven, and provides public historians with new and accessible ways to reach new audiences.
[1] Safiya Umoja Noble, “Toward a Critical Black Digital Humanities,” in Debates in the Digital Humanities, ed. Matthew K. Gold and Lauren F. Klein (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2019), 27-35; Ravynn K. Stringfield, “Breaking and (Re)Making,” in Alternative Historiographies of the Digital Humanities, ed. Dorothy Kim and Adeline Koh (Santa Barbara: Punctum Books, 2021), 475-477. Other great works on the intersection of DH and public history include Caswell, Michelle. “Seeing Yourself in History: Community Archives and the Fight Against Symbolic Annihilation.” The Public Historian 36, no. 4 (November 2014): 26-37; Hyman, Christy, “Black Scholars and Disciplinary Gatekeeping,” in Alternative Historiographies of the Digital Humanities, ed. Dorothy Kim and Adeline Koh (Santa Barbara: Punctum Books, 2021), 479-482.
[2] Andrew Gomez, “The Making of the Digital Working Class: Social History, Digital Humanities, and Its Sources,” in Debates in the Digital Humanities, ed. Matthew K. Gold and Lauren F. Klein (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2019), 400.
Paige Mason
Paige is pursuing her M.A. in history, and a Graduate Certificate in Public History, at Southern Miss. She received her B.A. in History from Judson College in the spring of 2021. Paige’s current research looks at the women's jury movement in Mississippi during the 1950s and 1960s. Her research interests include public history, women's history, and political history. She is also USM’s Center for the Study of the Gulf South’s 2023-2024 Baird Fellow.
