As social media becomes an increasingly ubiquitous part of our daily lives I am drawn to the work of Black women vocally engaged in activism on Twitter. They are creating hashtags to raise awareness, organizing marches, and educating people about what it means to be Black in a world that violently attacks them on a daily basis. I find their public discourse work to be some of the most important digital work happening right now. Their voices are necessary in this ever-evolving social justice moment. In the first volume of Debates in the Digital Humanities Matthew Gold lays out the division between scholarly factions in the digital humanities. He says, “Indeed, fault lines have emerged within the DH community between those who use new digital tools to aid relatively traditional scholarly projects and those who believe that DH is most powerful as a disruptive political force that has the potential to reshape the fundamental aspects of academic practice”(x). I argue that this disruptive political force that asserts Black voices in the public sphere is a crucial part of the potential for digital humanities work. The digital humanities needs to make space for Black women’s voices, particularly those engaged in world changing work outside of the confines of the academy. Digital humanities scholarship needs to bridge the divide between the academy and the public. By bringing social justice work into the classroom, critically engaging new media, and amplifying Black activist voices, the digital humanities can do relevant social justice work. This presentation will look at Black feminist digital activism and the need for the field of the digital humanities to engage in the work of transforming the academy and society.
