Preserving Hallowed Grounds: Digital Publications as 21st Century Sites for African American Memories

Session Submission Type: Panel Session

Abstract

Digital Publishing is one of the 21st Century tools through which Black Studies scholars can participate in a global dissemination and preservation of historical and contemporary understandings and interpretations of the Black experience. Media-enhanced publishing is revolutionary. In the era where Black communities and memories are fading, the preservation of sites and stories for future generations are important contributions in the maintenance of the Black experience. Digital publishing is an important solution to the preservation of Black knowledges.

The panel is designed for scholars who use and wish to use digital tools and data to enhance their publications, research and teaching. We report on the announcement of Publishing Without Walls (PWW), a new collaboration between the Mellon Foundation and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) to incorporate contemporary publishing practices into the production of Black Studies scholarship. The participants will discuss ways in which collaboration builds upon and expands Mellon-funded initiatives as well as the eBlack Studies tradition begun more than 10 years ago and sustained by faculty in the Department of African American Studies at UIUC.

Designed to ensure that scholarship on the African American experience is disseminated to the widest possible audiences, the panel will suggest ways for overcoming the “digital divide” that reach beyond equitable access to hardware and broadband connections to include obtaining knowledge about and use of digital technologies that preserve the experience.

Sub Unit

• 101st Annual Meeting and Conference of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History

Chair

• Ronald W. Bailey, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Individual Presentations

• Digital Tools and Black Studies: An Overview - Ronald W. Bailey, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Building a Collaboration to Support Digital Publishing: The Case of the University of Illinois - Harriett Green, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Fire!!!: A Resource for Preserving and Disseminating the Black Experience - Marilyn M Thomas-Houston, University of Illinois

• Understanding the Sustainability of the HBCU-CUL Digitization Initiative - Joshua Daniel Lynch, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

• New Town Blacksburg: A Case Study of Preserving a Hallowed Virginia Site - Unselected Panelist, Blacksburg Museum & Cultural Foundation

Commentator

• ASALH Audience, .