The Center for Africana Digital Humanities

Africana Digital Humanities in its various forms, as it is currently being practiced at HBCUs, can have an enriching impact on the digital humanities. It can bring a new perspective on the recovery and honoring of local history through community collaboration and storytelling using available digital tools and resources. HBCUs are often located in predominantly Black neighborhoods, offering the opportunity for graduate students and research faculty to conduct meaningful work that could potentially impact these neighborhoods in positive ways. An early exemplar of Africana DH is found in the late nineteenth century in the work of W. E. B. Du Bois, who spent 23 years at Atlanta University from 1897-1910, serving on the faculty of the history and economics departments, and later, from 1934-1944 as chair of the sociology department. Atlanta University, founded in 1865, was the first HBCU to award graduate degrees. In 1900, at Atlanta University, Du Bois created a series of data portraits--“a collection of graphs, charts, maps, and tables” --with a team of students, faculty, and scientists that “reflect a moment just before the disciplines had hardened into the academic specializations and structures of knowledge that we are familiar with today” (Battle-Baptiste and Rupert 13). This interdisciplinary collaborative approach to research has become a hallmark of digital humanities in the 21st century, as DH projects often require a team of experts ranging from city planners and computer scientists to historians and visual artists, depending on the desired outcome. Du Bois’s comprehensive study of the Black experience through imagery ranged from local Georgia population diagrams to graphs charting Black businessmen in the United States to bar charts examining African American religious affiliations. This work, completed over one hundred years ago, is not only foundational to current practices in Africana DH where data visualization is critical in making research findings accessible to a broader audience, but also to the field of Africana Studies whose development was also closely tied to the community.

Clark Atlanta University is adding to this legacy with the Center for Africana Digital Humanities, which started as a thinklab in 2020, and relaunched in 2021 with several scheduled activities to support students and faculty understanding and engagement in the digital humanities. In the 2021-2022 academic year, the Center hopes to host a variety of workshops, training, and seminars for students and faculty in our community. 

Digital Humanities at CAU hopes to change the way HBCUs view their humanities courses and programs. As the field of Humanities becomes more crowded, it is evident that the skills gained pursuing doctoral degrees need to be transferable to other careers. Training in digital humanities can have a huge impact on the career prospects of CAU Ph.D. students. Our interdisciplinary collaborative approach to digital humanities research and projects and our cultivation of partnerships and collaboration are setting our students up to have greater access to opportunities that will lead to careers in a wider variety of fields