Critical Digital Humanities Praxis with Lauren Klein and Roopika Risam

Join two leading scholars in digital humanities and critical data for a discussion of their groundbreaking projects Data by Design and history of data, as well as their decades-long contributions towards feminist and postcolonial digital humanities—including data visualization. Through a dialogue format, they will share their experiences and perspectives on pressing issues in digital humanities such as research, pedagogy, AI and humanities, and the dismantling of institutions. With an emphasis on praxis, this event centers a feminist, community-based approach to digital humanities as worldbuilding. 

Bios:
Lauren Klein is Professor of Data & Decision Sciences and English at Emory University, where she also directs the Digital Humanities Lab and the Atlanta Interdisciplinary AI Network. Her research brings together computational and critical methods to explore questions of gender, race and justice, both in early America and today. Klein is the author (with Catherine D’Ignazio) of the award-winning Data Feminism (MIT Press, 2020), and the editor (with Matthew K. Gold) of Debates in the Digital Humanities (Univ. of Minnesota Press), among other books and papers. Her next book, Data by Design: A Partial History of Visualization and Power, is forthcoming from MIT Press in Fall 2026.

Roopika Risam is Associate Professor of Digital Humanities and Social Engagement at Dartmouth. Her research focuses on data histories, ethics and practices at intersections of postcolonial and African diaspora studies, digital humanities and critical university studies. Risam is the author of New Digital Worlds: Postcolonial Digital Humanities in Theory, Praxis, and Pedagogy; and co-editor of multiple volumes, most recently Anti-Racist Community Engagement (2023) and The Digital Black Atlantic (2021). She is the director of the Digital Ethnic Futures Consortium, founding co-editor of Reviews in Digital Humanities, co-PI of Landback Universities and co-president of the Association for Computers and the Humanities. Risam is finishing her second book, Insurgent Academics: A Radical Account of Public Humanities (Johns Hopkins University Press), and she is working on a trade book on data and empire. She recently received the 2023 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award from the International Association for Research in Service Learning and Community Engagement. To learn more, please visit http://roopikarisam.com.