CFP: De Gruyter Handbook of Feminist Digital Scholarship: DS/DH at the Kitchen Table

Edited by Anne Cong-Huyen (UCSB) and Kim Brillante Knight (University of Texas at Dallas), the De Gruyter Handbook of Feminist Digital Scholarship will center on the theme of “DS/DH at the Kitchen Table.”  From the call:

This collection will bring together emerging and established feminist scholars and practitioners in the fields of digital scholarship, digital humanities (DH), and digital studies (DS) to examine the myriad ways in which digital scholarly work takes shape in academic and activist spaces. 

The objective of this collection is to draw attention to the way politics, ethics, and community can inform the development of digital research. We start with the metaphor of the kitchen table to recognize the sometimes informal spaces where this important work happens, the networks of kinship and care that sustain and drive that work, and the imperatives of these efforts, which frequently run counter to time and capital-based demands needed for promotion and tenure at academic institutions, especially in the Global North. We hope to draw attention to the valuable, but usually marginal and little recognized work that is poorly supported by academia and in the process hope to uplift and make visible the invisible labor, the extraordinary support networks, the small or “poor DH” that may have greater impact on their communities than the most prestigious and well-funded projects that are recognized as DH. The kitchen table is an informal space around which people gather to nourish themselves and others, coordinate plans for engagements in more formal spaces, build and create from supplies on hand, and do the work needed to sustain ourselves and our communities. It is a grounding space where folks plug in as needed, knowing there is always room for them when they return. 

The intent of this book is to foreground justice, care, critical perspectives, and community-centered and community-accountable scholarship. Although we currently foreground the kitchen table as a generative space, we anticipate that contributions and encounters with the writing, review, and editing process will shape the final metaphors we use. For instance, we imagine our contributors and their methods will be inspired by multiple metaphors of domestic creativity, collaboration, and connection such as weaving, beading circles, stitch n’ bitches, and so forth. 

We encourage contributions from known and emerging writers including those from the Global South, Minority Serving Institutions, state and regional colleges, small colleges, teaching institutions, and community organizations. Our editorial process will also offer opportunities to engage with each other, inform, and learn from one another.

The editors are seeking …

• Pieces that extend and deepen the domestic metaphors presented here, in relation to digital scholarship
• Scholarly or theoretical essays about engaging in feminist digital scholarship
• Pedagogical blueprints and lesson plans
• Project snapshots
• Case studies of successful (or failed) collaborations, gatherings, and process work
• And other ideas! If you want to pitch it, we’re eager to listen. Reach out to the editors at Degruyter.Feminist.DS@gmail.com

Questions and topics may include, but are not limited to: 

• How do we do feminist DH/DS? 
• How do we sustain DH/DS? 
• When and how do we end a DH/DS project? 
• How might our work emerge as tactical responses to local and community needs?
• How do we respond, or resist the rapidly evolving nature of digital technologies?
• How might AI tools enhance the study of humanities artifacts and ideas? What are the ethical implications of these tools, including their training source material, application, and intervention in or reification of systems of power and oppression? 
• How might we engage with, critique, or counter surveillance technologies, ed tech tools, and digital platforms that infringe on privacy, sovereignty, intellectual property, etc?
• What does DH/DS look like at teaching intensive institutions? community colleges? social justice organizations? and others? 
• What do our institutions or communities demand/require/need? How do they support us? How do they betray us?  
• What happens to feminist DH/DS and its focus on liberatory practices when DH is institutionalized and becomes synonymous with enrollment, cluster hires, and endowed chairs? 
• How can we practice the liberatory politics of DH/DS when embedded in institutions intent on ensuring our silence on Gaza? 
• How and why do some global events activate DH/DS rapid responses as opposed to others (e.g. Ukraine, Palestine)? 
• In this world that is post-pandemic, but by no means post-COVID, how are we navigating the shifts in our institutions: suppression of academic freedom and free speech, fiscal impacts (Austerity 3.0), changes in educational technologies (including surveillance of students), and attempts to create meaningful interventions in online learning? 
• How do we insist upon doing DH/DS as global, indigenous, trans, femme, queer, crip, and inclusive in its capacities and foci?
• How do we take stock of our own practices and privileges and how they might further perpetuate harm? And do we correct the course to do the DH/DS that we imagine as otherwise? 

Submit a 75-word professional bio and a 250-word abstract by May 1, 2025 at https://forms.gle/GaAyTomPoa6xiep78

Final contributions will be due December 1, 2025.