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Digital Storytelling Colloquium presentation

"Digital History and Communities in an Age of Surveillance"

In an age of surveillance capitalism and a modern Internet that seems prone to misinformation, hostility, and real-world violence, one might wonder what value it offers to the humanities as an place of conversation. This talk addresses the seemingly disparate themes of historical interpretation and digital surveillance to consider the meaning and values embodied in technology used in digital history. There is a long history of digital technology enforcing gender and racial boundaries, yet also opening new pathways for communities to tell their stories. Using examples from projects at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, the talk will explore how engaging with communities through digital community engagement can open important avenues for communities to tell their histories not in a way that is extractive---that is, surveilled, categorized, data-fied, and quantified---but instead offers a meaningful engagement with people and how they experience technology. 

 

Jason A. Heppler is a historian and senior developer at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University. He is a historian of the twentieth century North American West and Great Plains and has over ten years of experience designing, developing, and leading digital history projects. He is the author of _Silicon Valley and the Environmental Inequalities of High-Tech Urbanism_ (published by Univ. of Oklahoma Press, coming in April 2024) and co-editor of _Digital Community Engagement: Partnering Communities with the Academy_ (Univ. of Cincinnati Press, 2020), which won the 2021 National Council on Public History's Book Award.

 

The IDRH Digital Storytelling Colloquium is a series of virtual events focused on the ethics, politics, and techniques of digital storytelling. Stretched over the length of the academic year, the events feature exemplary projects from across the world and across the KU campus, model digital storytelling practices, and introduce participants to a range of digital storytelling tools. The vision of the colloquium is to build a community of inquiry and an incubator for ideas.   

  • Tiffany Gonzalez
  • Dave Tell
  • Milton Machuca-Galvez

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