The challenges of translating humanities to digital
Among their multiple developments, Digital Humanities projects have enhanced the value of historical archives and have generated new readings of history, its processes, protagonists, and contexts, thus providing a fresh look at our legacies and their inscription on the contemporary horizon. These contributions open a series of questions regarding the creation and resignification of archives, and about the very notions of heritage and the role that studies in Digital Humanities have in the preservation of individual and collective memories of the present.
“Archives of the Present” seeks to establish a dialogue between different projects in Digital Humanities, carried out in very different contexts. In this conversation will converge research on the Digital Library of Morocco, the process of creating the national digital heritage strategy of the State of Chile, the complexity of preserving analogue presidential archives in a digital context, and the challenges of preserving digital creativity when archiving Latin-American digital literature.
While research experiences will be shared, the aim is also to investigate what these specific projects have contributed to the usual questions of the humanities in the broadest sense: Does this work change the way we approach the past and define what we consider valuable in the present in a world permanently reconfigured by technology?
The session will consist of short 15-minute presentations followed by a roundtable discussion and an open Q&A session.
Organized by: Global Humanities Network, Centre for the Humanities (Universidad Diego Portales), and Digital Laboratory from the Faculty of Communication and Letters (Universidad Diego Portales).
Collaborator: Cambridge Digital Humanities, Cambridge University.
***This discussion will be conducted entirely in English.
Unlocking the potential: Towards a National Strategy for Digital Heritage in Chile, for what? for whom? Daniela Serra and Barbara Ossa, Department of Heritage Studies and Education, Under-Secretariat of Cultural Heritage, Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage (Chile).
Digital Library of Morocco. Theo Dunkelgrun, Associate, Cambridge Digital Humanities (UK).
Digitizing Presidential Archives: Challenges and Implications in the Case of the Archivo Ricardo Lagos. Alejandro Martínez, Archives Programme Director, Universidad Diego Portales (Chile).
Cartography of Latin American Digital Literature: The challenges of preserving digital creativity. Carolina Zúñiga, Digital Laboratory Director, Universidad Diego Portales (Chile).
Moderator
Dr. Manuel Vicuña. Director of the Centre for the Humanities, Universidad Diego Portales (Chile).
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Daniela Serra
PhD in History, professor at the Institute of History and the Cultural Heritage Center of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. Her research areas include topics related to heritage, the history of science and culture, and particularly on the history of collecting and museums in Chile. Her professional experience focuses on project management and coordination of studies on cultural heritage. Currently, she is the Head of the Department of Heritage Studies and Education at the Ministry of Cultures, Arts, and Heritage (Chile), where she coordinates the generation of studies and statistics on heritage and the development of public policies regarding cultural heritage, with a special focus on heritage education and digital heritage.
Bárbara Ossa
Historian and Master of Arts in Cultural Heritage Studies. She has worked on various projects and institutions dedicated to the research, dissemination, awareness, and management of history and cultural heritage through different platforms, such as Memoria Chilena, a digital project of Chile’s National Library. Currently, she works in the Department of Heritage Studies and Education at the Ministry of Cultures, Arts, and Heritage of Chile, where she coordinates the development of studies, public policies, and outreach projects in the heritage field. Among them, Chile Patrimonios, a digital platform that gathers in one place heritage information in Chile.
Theodor Dunkelgrün
Theodor Dunkelgrün is Senior Postdoctoral Researcher at Trinity College Cambridge and Assistant Professor of Jewish History at the University of Antwerp. A cultural and intellectual historian of Europe and the Mediterranean world, 1450-1900, much of his work across historical periods takes place at the intersections of Biblical scholarship and the History of the Book. He is especially interested in learned encounters between Jews, Christians and Muslims and in the ways their textual traditions and scholarly practices interact, carry over, and respond to technological innovation, from the invention of print to the invention of photography. At the center of his research, in different historical and geographical contexts, is the Hebrew Bible: its readers, editors and collectors; its study, reception, and transmission; its material, visual and artistic histories. Among other activities, he is developing a DH research project on the interconnected Arabic and Hebrew book cultures of Morocco.
Alejandro Martínez
PhD in Spanish and Portuguese with a specialization in Latin American Studies from Princeton University. His research focuses on the relationships between literature, archives and visual culture in 20th and 21st century Latin America. He is currently working on his first book, Poesía expandida en Chile durante la Guerra Fría (1952-1989), based on his doctoral thesis. He is the director of the Archives Programme at Universidad Diego Portales.
Carolina Zúñiga Vásquez
Carolina Zúñiga Vásquez is an associate professor at the School of Journalism at the Universidad Diego Portales where she develops digital projects and teaches courses with an emphasis on new media, digital narratives and documentary. She is currently director of the Digital Lab at the Faculty of Communication and Letters of the same university. Her recent projects include co-investigator of the Fondecyt project ‘Cartografía de la literatura digital latinoamericana’ (2018 – 2022); director of the multimedia research ‘Raúl Zurita: Documentos públicos de la vida privada’ (2016 – 2018). During 2023 she was one of the researchers responsible for the transmedia project ‘Vestigios: Minors victims of forced disappearance’ carried out in the context of the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the coup d’état in Chile and winner of the Digital category of the UAH 2023 Excellence Journalism Award.
