White Papers
The Black Literature Network (BLN) is a new initiative designed to advance African American literary studies through digital humanities methodologies. This is accomplished by enhancing access to Black literature by leveraging metadata, computational tools, and public-facing scholarship. By integrating digital tools with literary research, BLN fosters discovery, deepens scholarly engagement, and broadens public understanding of Black literature. BLN also includes the Data Rangers Fellowship Program, an opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students to learn more about digital humanities in the context of African American literary studies.
The Black Book Interactive Project (BBIP) is the digital component of the History of Black Writing (HBW), which aims to increase the availability of Black-authored texts for scholarly engagement and teaching. By developing (1) a comprehensive corpus of these texts and (2) a metadata schema that accounts for the complexities of race and race-related issues in the context of these works, BBIP addresses a critical need to document and analyze Black literature–a body of work that has historically been underrepresented in literary scholarship as well as within contemporary digital humanities.
HBW’s long-term objectives are to enhance scholarly research and teaching as well as increase public access within the field of African American literary studies, particularly regarding Black-authored fiction and memoir. The project’s specific aims are to develop (1) a comprehensive corpus of digitized texts and (2) a metadata schema—a blueprint for collecting descriptive information about the texts—to account for the complexities of identity and culture. HBW’s work addresses a critical need to document and analyze Black literature: a body of writing that has been underrepresented historically in literary scholarship as well as within contemporary digital humanities. While building corpora of nearly 7,000 fiction texts (encompassing publication dates 1853-2023) and 800 memoirs (encompassing publication dates 1937-2023), HBW has worked to refine its full-text digitization process over the years to create a collection that is not only preserved, but also accessible, storable, maintainable, and shareable.
HBW’s long-term objectives are to enhance scholarly research and teaching as well as increase public access within the field of African American literary studies, particularly regarding Black-authored fiction and memoir. The project’s specific aims are to develop (1) a comprehensive corpus of digitized texts and (2) a metadata schema—a blueprint for collecting descriptive information about the texts—that accounts for the complexities of identity and culture.
Webinars have been a key component of the History of Black Writing (HBW) Black Book Interactive Project (BBIP) Scholars Program since its inception in 2019. Offered synchronously for current BBIP Scholars, webinars were led by leading Digital Humanities (DH) scholars and practitioners. The sessions provided not only training and knowledge sharing, but also opportunities for BBIP Scholars to dialogue, raise questions, and foster community. Afterward, HBW staff added captions to the webinar recordings before they were made available to the public on HBW’s BBIP website and YouTube channel.
At a time when the Digital Humanities (DH) extends its reach into all areas of scholar research and production, and with discussions of race more central than ever to academic and public discourse, DH communities must account for the ways it provides access to training, professional opportunities, marginalized materials, and project support. In response to these needs, the History of Black Writing (HBW) launched the fourth iteration of its well-respected Black Book Interactive Project (BBIP): “Building Literacy and Curating [Critical Cultural] Knowledge in Black Humanities (BLACK DH).” A major objective of BLACK DH was the launch of two pilot cohorts of the BBIP Digital Publishing Scholars Program (DPSP), in collaboration with African American Studies Publishing Without Walls 2 (AFRO PWW 2) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The DPSP was designed for higher education professionals, graduate students, and scholars who have been actively working with African American and African diaspora literature and who had a DH project nearing the publication stage.
At a time when the Digital Humanities (DH) extends its reach into all areas of scholar research and production, and with discussions of race more central than ever to academic and public discourse, the DH community must account for the ways it provides inclusive access to DH training as well as materials that have been historically marginalized. In response to this need, the History of Black Writing (HBW) launched the third iteration of its well-respected Black Book Interactive Project (BBIP III) by continuing its Introduction to DH Scholars Program, which supports the development and dissemination of DH projects. BBIP III aimed to increase the involvement of those who remain outside established DH networks.
The Black Literary Suite (BLS) was the History of Black Writing’s (HBW) exhibit dedicated to:
- Introducing the community to lesser-known figures in Black literature;
- Showcasing HBW’s collection and research; and
- Presenting the history of Black writers in new and innovative ways.
Accordingly, BLS was an opportunity for members of the HBW student staff to collaborate, learn, and refine their research skills. Ten BLS exhibits were mounted from 2011-2022 during the time period when HBW’s institutional home was the University of Kansas (KU).
At a time when the Digital Humanities (DH) extends its reach into all areas of scholarly research and production, and with discussions of race more central than ever to academic and public discourse, the DH community must account for the ways in which it provides access to experiences and materials that have been marginalized. In response to this need, the History of Black Writing (HBW) launched Building Literacy and Curating [Critical Cultural] Knowledge in Digital Humanities (BLACK DH), a three-year project in community building that sought to remove economic, social, and technological barriers to DH learning.
At a time when the Digital Humanities (DH) extends its reach into all areas of scholarly research and production, and with discussions of race more central than ever to academic and public discourse, the DH community must account for the ways in which it provides access to experiences and materials that have been marginalized. In response to this need, the History of Black Writing (HBW) launched Building Literacy and Curating [Critical Cultural] Knowledge in Digital Humanities (BLACK DH), a three-year project in community building that sought to remove economic, social, and technological barriers to DH learning. The project also aimed to create space for engaging dialogue and debate as well as advancing knowledge and public-facing scholarship. Driven by building knowledge networks, content creation, and pipeline development, BLACK DH explored questions of humanity and diversity through the increased involvement of those who remain outside the current DH associations. Laying the groundwork for a DH pipeline that will benefit undergraduate and early graduate students is the focus of this white paper.