With the “Hear, Here” series, we aim to facilitate conversations around new research in the humanities. Faculty fellows at the Institute for the Humanities will discuss a part of their current project in a short talk followed by a Q & A session.

About this talk: Rebellious Memories: Expanded Archives and Technologies in the Americas aims to delineate the ethical challenges and implications communities face when collectivizing memories of violence through digital technologies. This talk analyzes the lessons and challenges faced by community initiatives across continental geographies that are invested in gathering documentation and developing new forms of expressing their memories in pursuit of truth, justice and transformation. Examining the processes of making activist new media community based projects, as well as their contexts, and the events that triggered their creation I will discuss technologies of memory, testimony and documentation in the age of AI, problematizing the possibilities of open source, censorship and manipulation.

Emilia Yang is a 2024-25 Hunting Family Faculty Fellow at the Institute for the Humanities and Assistant Professor of Art & Design.