IRIS Center for Digital Humanities and Social Sciences

A student looks toward the camera smiling, wearing leather and metal armor on his arm and hand. Behind him, the screen displays two manuscripts with references to 14th century Genoese coyracies (or cuirasses).

What’s medieval armor doing in a #DigitalHumanities class? Opening up questions about the role of surrogate sources! We often talk about the affordances of digital surrogates: gains like access and linked data, as well as limits like the inability to convey material, multisensory knowledge.

How book recommendations at a barbershop led to an online network to find Black literature : St. Louis on the Air Inspired by barbershop chats and a brotherly contest over hip-hop facts, the Black Lit Network is a digital resource designed to make African American literature more widely accessible. Southern Illin...

Take a listen to @hrambsy.bsky.social’s interview about the Black Lit Network on @stlpublicradio.bsky.social! From the barbershop to the classroom, it’s a project deeply rooted in a genuinely public humanities. When you’re done, visit www.blacklitnetwork.org and try it out! #DigitalHumanities

Check out these ideas for critical approaches to AI in humanities classrooms! #DigitalHumanities

A screenshot from an email. It reads: "Hey Meg, This is ready for you to break:"

Just a day in the life of a digital humanities center
#DigitalHumanities #DHBreaks

A flyer for an IRIS donation drive. Text: THANKS, IT HAS POCKETS IRIS CENTER DONATION DRIVE: ADD POCKETS TO YOUR REGALIA Learn to DIY Inseam Pockets IRIS Center (Peck 2226) August 11, 1:30-3:00 Get Pockets Added for You Drop off: IRIS, Aug 6-12 Pickup: IRIS, Aug 13-15 SUGGESTED DONATION: $25 SIGN UP AT HTTPS:/ /IRIS.SIUE.EDU/POCKETS

You know what regalia needs? Pockets. IRIS can help, and in return, you can help IRIS!

Learn to add them yourself or have us do it for you for a suggested donation of $25.

Sign up at iris.siue.edu/pockets. Space is limited!

#DHMakes

SIUE Awarded $1.6M Grant from Mellon Foundation to Support Public Knowledge Digital Project on African American Literary Studies, Jointly Headed by SIUE’s Dr. Howard Rambsy

Congratulations to @hrambsy.bsky.social and his collaborators on the award of a new grant to support the Black Lit Network! The Black Lit Network uses data viz and digital storytelling to provide new entry points into the study of African American literature. bit.ly/bln-mellon #DigitalHumanities

A flyer for a workshop, “Crafting a Digital Humanities Assignment,” which will take place in the IRIS Center at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville on July 30 from 11:00-12:00. The flyer features cartoonish images of a laptop, megaphone, magnifying glass, and other objects.

Ope, it’s syllabus season. Join us for an in-person workshop on how to incorporate meaningful digital assignments and activities into your course, in ways that both enhance students’ engagement with the course content and encourage them to think critically about technology. #DigitalHumanities

I’m super excited for this one! It combines some of my favorite things: minimal computing, critical data studies, spatial justice, and free and approachable DH pedagogy. If you can’t make this one, keep an eye out for future events! #DigitalHumanities

Register for the workshop here:

The SIU System Office of Community Engagement Putting Ourselves on the Map: Data, Bias, and the Stories We Tell Learn how everyday tools like maps and spreadsheets shape public memory-and take part in telling your own story The Wedge 620 E Broadway, Alton, IL Wednesday, July 16, 2025 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM Free and Open to the Public The July Community Collaboration Lab, co-hosted with the SIUE IRIS Center, will explore how data shapes what we see, who gets represented, and how communities like the Metro East are too often left out of digital spaces. Dr. Meg Smith, Interim Director of the IRIS Center, will lead participants through real-world examples of data bias and introduce digital storytelling as a powerful tool for reclaiming narrative control. As part of the session, attendees will contribute their own stories and insights to a collaborative community map that highlights the Metro East as a vibrant cultural space. The map will remain open for future Lab participants to build on, creating an evolving record of local knowledge, identity, and place. For more Information, contact Dr. Connie Frey-Spurlock at connie.freyspurlock@slu.edu https://siusystem.edu/community-engagement/

This Wednesday, join us at the Wedge in Alton to chat about data representation, learn some spreadsheet and mapping technologies, and share your experiences of the Metro East as a cultural center. Free and no experience needed!

July 16, 3:00-4:30

#DigitalHumanities #STL #StLouis #MetroEast

Today's AI Fictions Reading Group discussed @mdoriarussell.bsky.social's The Sparrow. It might seem like an unusual choice since AI quickly recedes to the background, but its extractive, venture capitalist vision of AI ca 2019 is an apt indictment of our present moment. #DigitalHumanities

A summer day in IRIS looks like...
💻web development
💡 teaching consultations
🧮building tools for assessment
🗺️map-making
☀️surviving the St. Louis heat (barely)

#DigitalHumanities

I made a map for tracking how much of the city I've visited by various modes. I'll keep adding datasets over time, but for now it contains city parks and bus routes. If you also like to track things, feel free to fork and reuse!
msmith0913.github.io/stl-sandbox/
#stl #StLouis #DigitalHumanities

Even if we were to achieve the pipe dream of universal digitization, you cannot account for archival silences without building human relationships grounded in mutual trust, care, and a commitment to repair.

I finally read that awful NYT AI history piece, and I will add one note to The Discourse. As many have noted, LLMs are limited to what’s been digitized, a tiny fraction of what’s in the archives. But especially egregious: the book being written in that piece is an indigenous history.

The SIU System Office of Community Engagement Putting Ourselves on the Map: Data, Bias, and the Stories We Tell Learn how everyday tools like maps and spreadsheets shape public memory-and take part in telling your own story The Wedge 620 E Broadway, Alton, IL Wednesday, July 16, 2025 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM Free and Open to the Public The July Community Collaboration Lab, co-hosted with the SIUE IRIS Center, will explore how data shapes what we see, who gets represented, and how communities like the Metro East are too often left out of digital spaces. Dr. Meg Smith, Interim Director of the IRIS Center, will lead participants through real-world examples of data bias and introduce digital storytelling as a powerful tool for reclaiming narrative control. As part of the session, attendees will contribute their own stories and insights to a collaborative community map that highlights the Metro East as a vibrant cultural space. The map will remain open for future Lab participants to build on, creating an evolving record of local knowledge, identity, and place. Southern Illinois University System OFFICE OF COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT IRIS For more Information, contact Dr. Connie Frey-Spurlock at connie.freyspurlock@slu.edu https://siusystem.edu/community-engagement/

Hey Metro East! Come chat about data representation, learn some spreadsheet and mapping technologies, and share your experiences of the Metro East as a cultural center. Join us at the Wedge in Alton on July 16. Free and no experience needed! #DigitalHumanities #STL #StLouis #MetroEast

From @megsmith.bsky.social #ach2025: “Infrastructure is something we owe to one another”. On NEH ODH's support for researching, amplifying norm+good of DH failure. Post-NEH ODH 💔: can infrastructure for DH be mutual aid? What might it look like fully untethered from federal funding? +

@megsmith.bsky.social reminds us that infrastructure is a mutual obligation and a mutual aid #ACH2025

Meg Smith and slide "Infrastructure as mutual obligation and mutual aid, or... What do we do with failures of infrastructure?"

Love love love a good failure talk, props to @megsmith.bsky.social for going there. #ACH2025

AI Fictions Reading Group (Summer 2025) How do we conceptualize our relationship to technology and each other? What do we owe to one another in the evolving technological landscape? Join us this summer for a “reading” group, where we’ll …

Next time, we’ll be discussing Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Klara and the Sun. Want to join us? Head over to iris.siue.edu/ai-fictions for all the details and to sign up.

What a great first meeting! Our conversations about Mrs. Davis took us from the Duolingo owl (and its heavy-handed manipulation tactics) to pedagogies of process, with lots of stops in between. Thanks to everyone who shared their expertise, experiences, and reactions to the show!

#DigitalHumanities

Hey #DigitalHumanities and #AmLit folks! @recoveryhubaww.bsky.social is offering free summer workshops to support DH projects that center the work of (global) American (trans-/queer-inclusive) women writers. If that sounds like you, register here! recoveryhub.siue.edu/2025/05/14/s...

Next week is the first meeting of our AI Fictions Reading Group! We’re kicking things off not with a book but with a show: Mrs. Davis. If you’d like to join us, please sign up at the link below. #DigitalHumanities #TechEthics

I’m laid up sick instead of helping with tornado clean-up, so here’s my small contribution:
Monday’s storms dumped a ton of rain on already damaged houses, and one of the casualties will be family photos and documents. If you’ve got damaged (modern!) photos, here are a few immediate triage steps.

Check out this post from Dr. Meg Smith about how traditional media and digital storytelling can combine to advocate for better public transit! #DigitalHumanities isn’t just for the classroom — it’s for being active and engaged members of our communities.

If you’ve been working on medieval Irish #DigitalHumanities in the last year, we’d like your updates! We’re assembling the Year in DH for the upcoming issue of Eolas. Please share your pubs, projects, grants and other DH news! #MedievalIreland #IrishHistory #IrishStudies @vickymcalister.bsky.social

Both can be taken for undergrad or grad credit, and I’m anticipating a really rich set of disciplinary perspectives among students as well as on the syllabus.

DIGITAL CURATION & STORYTELLING TECHNOLOGY AND LITERATURE HUM430/ENG482 Tues/Thurs 11:00-12:15 Will Al save the world? Will it doom it? What is technology without the humanities? Is the internet really forever? In this class, we'll use literature about science and technology to engage critically with our own technologies. As we experiment with digital theory, electronic environments, and texts (both analog and born-digital, we'll explore our relationships to technology, to one another, and to our pasts, presents, and futures. Along the way, we'll work with a variety of tools for digital humanities scholarship and storytelling. TOPICS INCLUDE... • Al fictions • Games as texts • Electronic literature • Digital storytelling • Data storytelling • Digital archives and exhibits

New course alert! This fall we’re offering the brand new HUM430: Digital Storytelling and Curation! It’s linked with ENG482: Technology and Literature, and we’ll engage with both science fiction and history of tech as we learn a variety of tools for digital storytelling. #DigitalHumanities

Flyer for an AI Fictions Reading Group, summer 2025, hosted by the IRIS Center How do we define our relationship to technology and each other? What do we owe to one another in the evolving technological landscape? In this “reading” group, we’ll explore AI ethics through AI fictions: books, short stories, and television that explore the possibilities and limits of AI. More details: https://iris.siue.edu/ai-fictions Schedule: June 4, 2:00-3:30: Mrs. Davis (tv show) June 19, 2:00-3:30: Kazuo Ishiguro, Klara and the Sun (novel) July 9, 2:00-3:30: Mary Doria Russell, The Sparrow (novel) July 23, 2:00-3:30: Annalee Newitz, "When Robot and Crow Saved East St. Louis" and Cat Rambo, "Red in Tooth and Cog" (short stories + podcast) Questions? Contact Dr. Meg Smith at margars@siue.edu

Summer feels both around the corner and eons away, but we're already planning. Check out our new AI Fictions Reading Group! We'll use AI fiction -- tv, novels, short stories -- as a tool for exploring and developing AI ethics. More details: iris.siue.edu/ai-fictions/
#DigitalHumanities #CriticalAI

A flyer for a talk with a photo of a recording microphone and a graphic of sound waves. The text reads: Left Unsaid: Historical Context for a Southern Illinois News and Info Radio Show Mark Poepsel, PhD Mass Communications IRIS Center Morning Bytes Friday, April 18, 10:00 AM Peck Hall 2226

Today! Join us this morning in the IRIS Center for a presentation from @mark3000.bsky.social on a mid-century radio show and how it connects to its rural southern Illinois context. #DigitalHumanities