CFP: Roundtable: Discovery, Recovery and its Responsibilities in the Digital Age
at SSAWW 2021
One can only feel giddy (if not somewhat overwhelmed) by the vast expanse of untapped treasures awaiting in the digital archives. While certainly not a panacea for what Susan Belasco in 2009 observed as academe’s marginalizing infrastructure, digital platforms including library databases like American Periodical Series; the free and broadly accessible HathiTrust and Chronicling America; and institutional digital archives have exponentially increased opportunities for discovery, recovery, and more nuanced understanding of authors’ lives, productions, and contexts.
And yet. These untapped treasures also pose tricky ethical questions and scholarly dilemmas on individual and institutional levels. Boundaries, definitions, and categories may be loosening, but nevertheless continue to girdle recovery and scholarly publication opportunities. Further, and relatedly, is that “writing describes only a fraction of how cultural representations may be produced,” as Legacy’s description of its Profile feature recognizes. How does the digital archive speak to this, and how do scholars handle situations wherein recovery focuses on the written rather than the writer? How do feminist scholars honor what Travis Foster and Timothy M. Griffiths refer to as “our role as caretakers” (“Introduction” to Legacy: American Women’s Writing and Genealogies of Queer Thought” 7)? What does it mean to have an ethics of care? When does it complement or conflict with what it means to do due diligence as scholars?
This roundtable invites participants to share their own experiences and reflect on discovery, recovery, and responsibility in the digital age.
Submit abstracts of 150-250 words to Nicole Livengood, nl002@marietta.edu, by January 18th.