BCaT Lab Hosts "The Promise of Black Data Storytelling"

Dr. Kenton Rambsy visits UMD

On Friday, March 31st, the Black Communication and Technology Lab (BCaT), in collaboration with Digital Studies in the Arts and Humanities (DSAH), held "The Promise of Black Data Storytelling", presented by Dr. Kenton Rambsy, Associate Professor of African American Literature and Digital Humanities at the University of Texas at Arlington.

The day began with a colloquium lecture wherein Dr. Rambsy presented about African American storytellers including: Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, Toni Morrison, and more, whose works contained a multitude of reference points to visualizing Black novels. Dr. Rambsy concluded his lecture by sharing one of his projects, the Black Literary Network. The Black Literary Network consists of  four portals – the Novel Generator Machine, the Literary Data Gallery, the Multithreaded Literary Briefs, and the Remarkable Receptions podcast. Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and coordinated by the Project on the History of Black Writing, a research unit in the Department of English at The University of Kansas, the Network includes contributions by scholars of African American literature, computer scientists, Digital Humanities scholars, illustrators, graphic designers, voice actors, and sound engineers. 

Following his lecture, Dr. Rambsy led a BCaT Learns workshop. In collaboration with the larger DICSO (Digital Inquiry Speculation Collaboration Optimism) network and other digital humanities collaboratives and scholars, the BCaT lab hosts BCaT Learns: a workshop series featuring digital tools and methods in Black studies in media and technology. Dr. Rambsy's workshop covered everything from Tableau to Jay-Z to data storytelling and addressed the question - How might we design animated and digital stories that capture the bibliographic and quantitative narratives that emerge by studying African American artistic culture?

Finally, the day wrapped up with one of BCaT's infamous BCaT Eats events. BCaT Eats offers space for students, faculty, and other members of campus to be in community, rejuvenate their spirits, build connections and, last but not least, enjoy a great meal!