The ways in which identities inform both theory and practice in digital humanities have been largely overlooked. Those already marginalized in society and the academy can also find themselves in the liminal spaces of this field.
Moya Z. Bailey, All the Digital Humanists Are White, All the Nerds Are Men, but Some of Us Are Brave
Equality, without any doubt, is a great topic of great importance to the great subject Humanities. Digital Humanities, as a more modern approach to humanistic topics, helps promote equality.
The very first time I saw the heading of this article I wondered why Professor Mason had chosen a paragraph with a somewhat “racist” title. However, as I read the full text, I understood Professor Mason’s choice as well as Moya Z. Bailey’s true intention.
One of the reasons why this quotation grabs my attention is that it explains the doubt I had before actually reading the article: the real intention of the heading is that all people, regardless of their gender, race, physical situation, etc., can equally dive into the field of Digital Humanities.
Another reason for my attention to the quote is that it resonates with my past experiences. In China, elders still have the bias that only “rich playboy,” children who are born in a rich family but have poor performance in study, will have a plan to study abroad instead of taking the College Entrance Examination. Such bias never bothers me since I think people with such bias are those who are being sarcastic without knowing my authentic situation and the outer world. As a member of marginalized group myself, I paid special attention to help other “minorities.” As a volunteer in Shanghai Jiuqian Voluntary Center, an organization providing education and extracurricular activities for migrant workers’ children, I devised and built an online database to register personal information and to record the study performance of the kids. My experiences prove that “those already marginalized in society and the academy can also find themselves in the liminal spaces of this field,” and also, the study of DH can actually help marginalized groups.
When I was thinking why this course interests me, I recalled that once my father told me that humans develop technology to better solve problems of their own, which, in my comprehension, answers why there came a subject called Digital Humanities and why I am interested in it.
