Ctrl Alt Delete: Rebooting Narratives through Digital Humanities
Revolutionary dreams erupt out of political engagement; collective social movements are incubators of new knowledge. _-- _Robin D.G. Kelly, _Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination _
This presentation traces the arc of Museums Respond to Ferguson and #BlkTwitterstorians–two born digital projects that emerged at the height of the Movement for Black Lives. The chats started with queries that then influenced deeper dialogue on how scholars and activists together could use history to inform a world specifically void of policing and incarceration. Both projects hinged on collective engagement with a few questions (and critiques) to incubate new ideas on how to present and preserve Black history with Black futures in mind. While both projects happened online, low-tech methodologies deeply informed project decisions. Phone calls, in-person meetings and printed chats played an important role in shaping the project. There was a heavy emphasis on the public, but the projects influenced the personal in ways that ultimately led to Museums Respond to Ferguson’s end and #BlkTwitterstorians refocus. This presentation will also include a demonstration, inviting participants to walk through constructing a dialogue on Twitter: preparation, rules for engagement, reflecting, and planning for archiving and dissemination.
Speakers
Aleia M. Brown serves as the Assistant Director of the African American History, Culture and Digital Humanities (AADHum) Initiative where she co-directs the Restorative Justice Project and leads research, teaching, and programmatic initiatives. She was the recipient of the 2017-2019 Mellon-ACLS public fellowship, working as program manager at the Humanities Action Lab at Rutgers University-Newark. There she launched the multi-media installation Climates of Inequality: Stories of Environmental Justice. As Curator of African American History and Culture at the Michigan State University Museum she worked with the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation in Cape Town, SA to co-curate the traveling exhibition Ubuntutu: Life Legacies of Love and Action, and co-author the companion catalog. She has written and given talks on her two digital projects #BlkTwitterstorians and #MuseumsRespondtoFerguson. The desire to surface how Black folks have imagined and crafted liberation animates her exploration in un/merging material culture and virtual environments. Her current manuscript in progress reckons with the historic mishandling of Black women’s textile art and illuminates the sophisticated ways that makers have visualized Black political thought. Brown holds a Ph.D. in Public History from Middle Tennessee State University, an M.A. in Public History from Northern Kentucky University, and a B.S. in History from the Honors College at Coppin State University.
Related Research
