Oral Traditions: An Analysis of Story Telling and Performance in Paule Marshall’s Praisesong for the Widow

Dorothy Noyes, in her essay Tradition: Three Traditions, notes that the word tradition implies handing over or delivery (Noyes 233). Furthermore, tradition is identified as a communal belonging that involves the transfer of responsibility for a valued practice or performance from one generation to the next (233). This essay will apply the characteristics and role of tradition, outlined by Noyes and others, to develop a critical understanding of two acts of oral tradition pivotal to the spiritual transformation of Avey Johnson, the protagonist of Paule Marshall\u27s Praisesong for the Widow. These two interconnected acts, the story of Ibo Landing and the ritual of Beg Pardon, are instances of oral memory that are shared and transmitted between peers and to future generations through story telling and performance. Among other purposes, the oral traditions in Praisesong for the Widow give Avey a sense of belonging to the African diasporic and African American community, help her recreate and reclaim her cultural heritage, and finally, preserve the experiences of the enslaved Africans and their descendants in North America. In the novel, Marshall also sounds a warning to her readers about the need for vigilance in protecting oral traditions in the face of materialism

Asian American DH: Building Radical Communities through Justice-Oriented Praxis

This is an abstract for a proposed forum that would have been hosted at DH2020 in Ottawa. It brings together Asian Americanist faculty, librarians, and students to unpack and frame research, pedagogy, and praxis in both digital humanities and Asian American studies: What does Asian/Am DH look like? What form might a community of practice in Asian/Am DH take? How best can we support Asian Americanists, whose field is historically grounded in community organizing and activism, in applying DH methods to their scholarship? As we address these questions, we will foreground how Asian/Am DH, like other ethnic studies informed DH praxis, centers concerns of race, social justice, transnationalism, and community. Unfortunately, because of COVID-19 and the added challenges it brought, the facilitators decided not to host a forum at this time, and added a statement about our decision and the politics of the current moment

Reframing Digital Humanities: Conversations with Digital Humanists

Defining digital humanities is a unique academic challenge. In this volume, Julian Chambliss, Professor of English at Michigan State University, explores the meaning, practice, and implication of digital humanities by talking to scholars deeply engaged with digital methods and the promise they hold for the humanities

A Postcolonial Reading of (Digital) Archival Structure

Digital Humanities Forum 2015: Peripheries, Barriers & Hierarchies, University of Kansas September 26th, 2015: https://idrh.ku.edu/dhforum2015 Dhanashree Thorat is at the University of Florida.*Winner of the Best Student Paper Awar

Digital Humanities Forum 2017 - Discussion and Response Wrap-up Session

Digital Humanities Forum 2017: Digital Storytelling, University of Kansas, September 29, 2017: https://idrh.ku.edu/dhforum2017 Joseph Erb is at the University of Missouri. Anastasia Salter is at the University of Central Florida. Germaine Halegoua is at the University of Kansas. Dhanashree Thorat is at the University of Kansas