AADHum — the African American Digital and Experimental Humanities Initiative at the University of Maryland College Park — is pleased to open the application period for the AADHum Residencies Program. The Residencies Program provides humanities-centered scholars and artists with financial, conceptual, and technical support toward the implementation of an especially hybrid or experimental #BlackDH project or intervention.

Prior digital experience is not a prerequisite for this program; however all applicants should have a strong desire to learn and play, and an equally strong sense of how exploring or implementing a digital or experimental project in the arts and humanities contributes to their continued growth in Black Study. The application process itself makes space for creative and intellectual engagement— an opportunity to make something small, accomplishable, imaginative, and invigorating.

<aside> 💡 Before applying, it might be useful to check out some of our (short!) recent publications on how we think about #BlackDH and experimental humanities scholarship at AADHum— an ACH interview where we discuss the why of how we work, and our Editors’ Note to our #BlackDH edition of Reviews in DH.

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AADHum Residents are invited to apply, or are drawn from application pools for our other programs, for instance The AADHum Scholars Program and the Splash Fellows Program [tba]. Please refer to those program pages for more information.

FAQs

What is a #BlackDH project?

At AADHum, we take #BlackDH to mean an interlocking “focus both on digital studies—producing scholarship that evaluates and extends investigations into the histories and impacts of digital technologies on Black lifeworlds—and also on the ideation and production of projects that actively name blackness in the production and implementation of digital technologies” (Reviews in DH). #BlackDH projects extend digital scholarship and technology use as they relate to Black life and culture, clearly foregrounding Black diasporic strategies for thinking, making, and sharing. To learn more about how AADHum understands #BlackDH, check out the resources provided in the “💡Before applying” section above.

What do you mean by “experimental”?

Experimental research is about exploring and playing through questions, methods, and substances to produce unexpected outcomes. We’re not saying that every project proposal must feature experimental work, but we are interested in work that centers imaginative possibility in the process of investigation, and creators unafraid to be redirected as a project unfolds not-according to plan. That said, “experimental” does not necessarily mean “move fast and break things” at any cost; experimental projects still require care, and an attention to cultural and collective ethics.

For a better sense of “experimental”, check out a few examples of how AADHum members and collaborators conceive experimental work: “Collapse” is “an exploration of media mixing and remixing in times of crisis, accompanied by original prose and poetry” and our Reviews in DH review of “Braiding Braiding” reflects on a “experimental publishing project, part of an ongoing research project centered on investigating African Hair Braiding as a marker of diaspora and a form of technology.”

What is a thought partner or planner and why would I want to fund them?

Thought-partners or planners are people (probably at your institution) who would support your project when tASP is over and would benefit from being engaged in the early stages of your process. This might include librarians, technologists, and other academic staff, whom AADHum views as collaborators on the execution of digital work. This person should be someone who expects to be materially involved in your work.