Believe it or not, we’re past the Ides of March and with Spring Break coming to a close there’s no better time to recap what the first half of the semester has looked like for the BCaT Lab. The month of February was complete with conference presentations, workshops, volunteering, and social events to keep us engaged in Black digital humanities and cultural scholarship.

At once disorienting and captivating, Coleman’s AI-generated images thus invoke that liberatory wildness, revealing the libidinal economy that occurs at the sutures of modern technology and the contemporary black experience.

Suparak was hosted on U-M’s campus by the new Digital Studies Institute and DISCO Network programming “Search Engines” for the second in-person exhibition of her piece “Asian Futures, Without Asians.”

BCaT’s fall was busy – filled with collaborative learning and research opportunities, scholarship presentations, and fellowship and bonding through our weekly and monthly events. Although the lab (and UMD) is on Winter break, it seemed like an appropriate time to share more about and reflect on all that the fall semester offered us which included: conference attendance and presentations, further developed research by our Black Digital Migration team, BCaT Lunch & Learns, BCaT Eats, and a multi-authored book panel with scholars from the DISCO Network.

Now is an especially important moment for humanists, makers, and social scientists to engage in collective dialogue about humanity’s entanglements with technology. 

Allucquere Rosanne “Sandy” Stone and Cassius Adair discuss and reflect on their experiences communicating with the trans community through the evolution of the digital world.

After a summer that never feels long enough – we’re back! Not only are we back but we’re excited to delve into another year of research, scholarship, and critical making that engages Black digital humanities.

What happens when 14 scholars in the humanities collaboratively write a book in five days?

This year’s theme, Digital Physical Entanglements: Environments, Bodies, and Space addressed the intertwining relations between digital and physical realms.

DISCO believes that the arts have a crucial role in conversations about equitable futures. With funding from the University of Michigan Arts Initiative, ‘Search Engines’ will bring artists to campus who are deeply invested in leveraging new media to create work that critiques existing social and political inequalities.

Each year the Black Communication and Technology (BCaT) conducts collaborative projects that examines the intersections between Black culture, digital technologies, and rhetorical imaginations. Dr. Rianna Walcott led 2023’s compelling BCaT collaboration with insights on digital Black migrations, which seeks to reimagine what informs Black users mobilities to other platforms when significant changes are made to apps that impact their user experience.

Disability rights activist Lydia X. Z. Brown speaks in conversation with the DISCO network about ableism and technology.

Author Logan Smilges reflects on Queer Silences in their talk with the Digital Studies Institute.

Rianna Walcott, Fellow with the BCaT Lab, writes about her hopes for her work with the DISCO Network.

Lida Zeitlin-Wu, a Michigan Curriculum Hub Fellow, writes about her hopes for her time with the DISCO Network.

Rhea Basarkar, a DSI undergraduate minor and student writer, reflects on the DISCO Network Lecture Series event, “Racial Replication: Michelle Huang in Conversation with Lisa Nakamura and Huan He.”

DISCO’s lead PI, Lisa Nakamura, reviews the past year and what lies ahead for the DISCO Network.

A small intimate group gathered on Zoom in April to discuss these questions at the Digital Accessible Future (AF) Lab’s panel on “Crip Mentoring, Access Advocacy, and the Job Market.”

David Adelman, a Fellow with the Digital AF Lab, writes about his hopes for his work with the DISCO Network.

In May 2022, our DISCO Graduate Scholars gave lightning talks on their research.