It is something of a mantra in business that one should imagine the worst case scenario and prepare for it from both a logistical and an ethical standpoint. What if we apply this thought experiment to the digital humanities? Justified or not, digital humanities projects elicit fear and criticism from within and without the discipline — various working groups have warned of the dangers of siloed information and the neglect of physical archives, fellow humanities colleagues often see in the methods of DH an end to the narrative mode of history. We propose to anchor our conversation in a case study of one or more digital resources and come away with some clear proposals for avoiding a worst case scenario.

Ellen Tani and I are proposing to lead this session together.