Alyssa Arbuckle

On “Zonas de Contacto: A Digital Humanities Ecology of Knowledges,” by Élika Ortega

November 5, 2021 Alyssa Comments 0 Comment

In “Zonas de Contacto: A Digital Humanities Ecology of Knowledges,” Élika Ortega considers the field of digital humanities and its concentration of English-language work and output. She argues that the purposeful facilitation of zones of contact between practitioners from different regions who work in different languages would support a more diverse ecology of knowledges for the field. Ortega examines the efforts made by groups like the Alliance of Digital Humanities Organisations to encourage multilingual engagement but concludes that these efforts…

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On Living Books by Janneke Adema

October 26, 2021 Alyssa Comments 0 Comment

Janneke Adema considers the contemporary scholarly book and how it could transition from a fixed, bound object to a more fluid and evolving entity. She argues that humanities scholars should reconsider their role as authors and strive to engage with knowledge production in more open, critical, and experimental ways. Adema challenges new media scholars (such as Lev Manovich and John Bryant) and print historians (such as Elizabeth Eisenstein and Adrian Johns) for their perpetuation of the book as an unchangeable,…

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On Big Data, Little Data, No Data by Christine Borgman

October 8, 2021 Alyssa Comments 0 Comment

Borgman presents a thorough overview of research data across the disciplines. She argues that data are not very well understood but are also critical for the sustenance and sustainability of scholarship. Borgman compares how data are developed, manipulated, and stored in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities, and repeatedly suggests that better and more comprehensive research data management practices and knowledge infrastructures are needed. She writes, The value proposition for access to data is the value proposition for knowledge infrastructures….

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On “Postcolonial Open Access” by Florence Piron

September 27, 2021 Alyssa Comments 0 Comment

Florence Piron considers the benefits and drawbacks of open access in the Global South, with specific focus on Haiti and Francophone Africa. Piron argues that open access has not, in fact, created more equitable access to knowledge as many advocates have claimed. Rather, she suggests, open access has become a neocolonial tool as it has only increased access to research from the Global North, and only for those who have access to the Internet or research databases. Piron recommends decolonizing…

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On “Epistemic Alienation in African Scholarly Communications: Open Access as a Pharmakon” by Thomas Herve Mboa Nkoudou

September 27, 2021 Alyssa Comments 0 Comment

Thomas Herve Mboa Nkoudou considers how the Open Access movement has played out on the African continent, with specific focus on sub-Saharan countries. He argues that open access is not necessarily an unfettered good in these regions, unlike the popular social good / equalizing / emancipatory qualities many open access advocates have claimed for years. Rather, Nkoudou suggests, open access has increased access to western research and heralded in profit-making strategies like Article Processing Charges that have further excluded researchers…

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On The State of Open Monographs by Sara Grimme et al.

September 27, 2021 Alyssa Comments 0 Comment

Sara Grimme, Mike Taylor, Michael A. Elliott, Cathy Holland, Peter Potter, and Charles Watkinson survey the open monograph landscape as of 2019. They argue that although there has been an increase in open access monographs produced, there are further activities that could be undertaken to improve and support the production and proliferation of such texts. Namely, the report compilers suggest that publishers improve their digital asset management practices for open monographs by ensuring all digital monographs are assigned a DOI…

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On “Liberation Through Cooperation,” by Dave S. Ghamandi

January 14, 2021 Alyssa Comments 0 Comment

In “Liberation through Cooperation: How Library Publishing Can Save Scholarly Journals from Neoliberalism,” Dave S. Ghamandi argues that the current academic publishing system is thoroughly entrenched in contemporary neoliberalism. He also suggests that certain directions that the Open Access movement is taking—such as the increase of Article Processing Charges (APCs)—further a neoliberal agenda as they maintain a capital concentration with the oligopoly of corporate academic publishers. Ghamandi calls for a more radical approach to scholarly communication premised on cooperative models:…

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On Data Feminism by Catherine D’Ignazio and Lauren F. Klein

January 10, 2021 Alyssa Comments 0 Comment

Data Feminism casts a feminist perspective on data science. The book is organized around a set of principles intended to show and do feminist data work: Examine power; Challenge power; Elevate emotion and embodiment; Rethink binaries and hierarchies; Embrace pluralism; Consider context; Make labour visible. D’Ignazio and Klein draw on feminist Science and Technology Studies (STS), critical theory, and information science scholars to contest that data are “never neutral; they were always the biased output of unequal social, historical, and…

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On “Academia, Inc.” by Jamie Brownlee

November 15, 2020 Alyssa Comments 0 Comment

In Academic, Inc., Jamie Brownlee explores the multiple ways that corporatization affects the modern university system. He suggests that Under corporatization, the public mission of the university—which has often emphasized democratic goals and service to the broader community—is being reduced in favour of private and commercial interests. (5) In particular, Brownlee cites mounting tuition costs and the subsequent rise of student debt; the development of the student-consumer; the increasing casualization of the academic workforce as contingent faculty rates rise; the…

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