The Obstacles & Opportunities of Doing DH at Small Liberal Arts Colleges

As part of a roundtable at the 2019 Association for Computing in the Humanities annual conference, we proposed the following discussion:

Interest in digital humanities at small, liberal arts colleges has, over the past five-seven years, exploded, with increasing resources dedicated to it. Staff positions are frequently created—either with hard or soft funding—with the aim of capturing and expanding upon this increased interest. We in these staff positions are expected to be both visionary leaders and management virtuosos. However, more often than not, our jobs are framed as service oriented roles that magnify the perception that we are here to organize the other players rather than be active contributors and collaborators on projects. Moreover, at institutions where the undergraduate educational experience is paramount, as staff we are rarely in positions to directly contribute to the intellectual journey of students. What are the affective and moral consequences of the institutional precarity that digital humanists in staff positions face with regards to lack of agency, autonomy, and sustained monetary support? How can they create meaningful critical digital humanities experiences for students at their institutions? As a participant on this panel, I propose to examine these questions and explore strategies that I and others have developed in response.