We believe that, at its best, digital humanities is the practical application of an experiment—and a deeply political one. At the center of the digital humanities should be an emphasis on individual and collective agency. Reading, writing, and publishing in the digital must and always already do take place in public, collaborative spaces. This is the great project of the social Internet and an imperative for the digital humanities: to make space for thoughts and idea —even our most scholarly and esoteric—to be made relevant. The work of digital humanities scholarship, then, should be less focused on publishing articles as content repositories and more on reimagining scholarship as pedagogical, publishing as a way to create conversations and bridge academic and non-academic communities. We must walk always along the precipice of radical inclusion — not so that we may include others in the conversations we’re having, but so that we may have the chance to be included in their conversations.

Jesse Stommel is Executive Director of the Division of Teaching and Learning Technologies at University of Mary Washington. He is also Co-Director of Hybrid Pedagogy and Digital Pedagogy Lab. His work focuses on Critical Digital Pedagogy, specifically thinking about how educators encourage student agency with technology. He’s got a rapidly expanding LEGO collection and a rascal pup named Emily Jane Beyoncé (named after his three favorite feminists). You can find Jesse on the web at jessestommel.com.

Sean Michael Morris is Co-Director of both Hybrid Pedagogy and Digital Pedagogy Lab. He is also Senior Editor for Research and Education at Instructure. Sean is interested in the practice of critical digital pedagogy as a social movement, while also strongly identifying with the post-digital. He learns, teaches, and theorizes from a contemplative perspective. You can find him on the web at seanmichaelmorris.com.