Equity in Digital Publishing

Instructors:     

Ela Przybylo Illinois State University

Amy Verhaeghe York University,

Sharifa Patel McMaster University

Krista Benson Grand Valley State University 

Jae Basiliere Grand Valley State University 

Description:

Publishing is broader and more digital than ever before. From e-books to Wikipedia, open access journals to Twitter, and podcasts to audiobooks, publishing is in the hands of the many at the same time as it continues to constitute a multi-billion-dollar oligarchy consolidated in the hands of a few, fostering continued inequalities in making and accessing knowledge. In this course, we will draw on digital humanities praxis and theory to ground feminist, queer, antiracist, and Indigenous processes of digital journal-making. While digital publishing as a tool, methodology, and pedagogy of subversive knowledge creation and sharing has blossomed in the last decade, few have examined the intrinsic DH praxis of this work. As Editors of the radical open access intersectional journal Feral Feminisms, we will explore the feminist, queer, antiracist, and decolonial possibilities of digital publishing. Drawing on both historical feminist publishing undertakings (such as the 60s and 70s Women in Print Movement and The Kitchen Table Press) and contemporary publishing innovation (such as Indigenous publisher Theytus Books and journals such as Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women’s and Gender Studies and Decolonialization: Indigeneity, Education, and Society), we will work with participants to re-envision what digital publishing could be. Together we will explore digital publishing with special attention to questions of gender, race and racism, access, sexuality, and settler colonialism. As a praxis-based course that merges practice and theory, participants will have opportunities to experiment with modes of digital publishing in collaboration with each other

Intended Audience:

Feminist scholars and students wanting to think about equity and justice in relation to digital humanities and digital publishing.