HASTAC 2015: The Art and Science of Digital Humanities

The FemTechNet Ethnic Studies Committee proposes a panel to survey how instructors, students and members across the collective network are designing and organizing DOCC (Distributed Open Collaborative Course) activities that address how issues of racialization, ethnic and cultural formation, intersect with feminism and technology. Bringing together graduate students, non-tenure track alt-ac staff, and junior scholars, the speakers will lead a workshop featuring lightning talks and demonstrations. All active members in the network, speakers will share prototypes that both document examples of, and propose strategies for, broaching issues of race and ethnicity in feminist networks. Examples include teaching and research modules exploring place, profiles of syllabi, interactive class assignments, service learning projects engaged in participatory research methods, and strategies for meaningful collaborations across networks. How are scholars and educators working through these questions in the classroom and in the networked collaborations that compose the FemTechNet collective? 

The FemTechNet DOCC is a feminist intervention on the controversial MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) activated by a network of scholars, artists, and students working on, with, and at the borders of technology, science, and feminism across a range of fields and disciplines. The 2014-2015 iteration of the DOCC, called “Collaborations in Feminism and Technology,” aims to model collaboration as a feminist technology. While FemTechNet is building collaborations across and with different networks, the Ethnic Studies Committee and the teacher/ scholars participating in this workshop are working to collectively centralize questions about the structures of power, difference, race and ethnicity.

Genevieve Carpio (Yale) will discuss an open-air digital exhibit that was designed to address FemTechNet conversations concerning how ethnic studies and feminist technologies can intersect, as well as the potential place of the built environment and mapping in interdisciplinary modules. 

Anne Cong-Huyen (Whittier College) will discuss efforts within the ethnic studies committee to consolidate the various modules, resources, materials, and tools used to teach ethnic studies within FemTechNet. Initially begun in a Zotero library, the work is being used to create a larger shareable digital workbook, which will be shared at the panel. 

Jenny Ungbha Korn (UIC) will lead an interactive exercise that highlights the intersections of power, language, race, gender, and identity through computer-mediated communication. This activity has been used in classrooms, is easy to use, quick to demonstrate, and is effective in initiating conversations about critical thinking of ethnicity and feminism.

More than just providing connected, relevant content to the themes of feminism, technology, race and ethnicity, this panel will explore opportunities for inviting scholars and teachers from outside the network. This panel will be an opportunity for dialogue, planning, and sharing amongst teachers within the network and those interested in potentially participating.