In her talk, "Uncovering the 'Hidden Histories' of Computing in the Humanities, 1949-80," Julianne Nyhan, a lecturer in digital-information studies at University College London, raised questions about how digital humanities became institutionalized.
How, for example, did DH establish itself—and secure money for centers, positions, and space in the curriculum—by using a rhetoric of revolution and underdog status, even as the field gained prominence? How has DH failed to consider the social conditions of its own production? And what works—beyond the textual—are crucial for understanding this history, with which the field still is coming to terms?
If DH'ers have been mistreated in academe as they built their careers—dismissed as indulging in a fad or building a Trojan horse for yet another attack on the humanities—how can its practitioners avoid replicating that kind of treatment toward other new fields to come?
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If I had to identify an overarching theme for this year's conference, it is that the DH community—and the larger communities to which its members belong—must struggle to find ways to become more inclusive, not because we're "nice," but because that's what scholars should do: Work together to figure out what we don't know.
