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 Scholars Program. Our newly reimagined AADHum Scholars Program provides humanities-centered scholars and artists with financial, conceptual, and technical support toward the prototyping or completion of a #BlackDH project.

The AADHum Scholars Program (tASP) is a multifaceted program designed toward the individual nature of any given scholar or team’s relationship to their intellectual life. Every scholar who participates in the program will be enabled to begin, grow, or expand their digital practice.

Scholars applying to this program come with an ✨idea and a spark.✨ This might be a project that you’ve researched for years, but that stalls out when it comes time to implement it digitally. Or maybe you began exploring experimental and digital methods for presenting scholarly work in one of our workshops, and want to take your good idea™ even further. Or maybe, even, you have always been intrigued by intersections between humanities scholarship and creative engagement, and you need to plan some time and space to take the plunge.

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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Over the course of their time in the AADHum Scholars Program (tASP), scholars should expect to work with the director and 2-4 members of the AADHum team. Once you enter the program, we will be committing a large allotment of team hours toward helping you to develop your project and practice. Project development includes:

• technical and design consultation and execution,
• assistance with prototyping as both theory and practice,
• access to relevant support materials,
• assistance with standing up a work or exploration plan,
• collation of project documentation,
• assistance with convening critical interlocutors on behalf of your project.

We can also help you to plan ahead in seeking support for your work after tASP. For instance, we can help with identifying support structures for your work at your institution or beyond, or workshops that help you continue to grow your practice.

Additional resources for tASP recipients include: