Colonialism denies its allocation to the past. It persists, sometimes in very real modes of governance, and is resisted—whether through anti-colonial movements or by epistemological frameworks developed in the field of postcolonial studies. Its persistence demands that we ask how it has changed alongside exponential data accumulation, fast evolving mediums, accelerating advancements in artificial intelligence and machine learning, and the vast reaches of human networks.

This Colloquy brings together scholars who use computational methodologies and digital humanities frameworks to position the digital as material and thereby challenge the replication of inequalities in the digital space. These thinkers trace continuities across mediums, observe human-AI relations, and question the digital infrastructures of scholarship. This Colloquy aims to unite these scholars, their tools and disciplines into a cross-disciplinary discussion of colonialism even as it dissipates into the cloud.

Roopika Risam’s book chapter, “The Stakes of Postcolonial Digital Humanities” from her New Digital Worlds: Postcolonial Digital Humanities in Theory, Praxis, and Pedagogy lays the foundation for this Colloquy’s focus on the intersection between colonialism and digital worlds. Risam emphasizes the need for marginalized voices to be involved in the creation of new digital worlds because it is not about hope but about cultural survival. The chapter asks, “Will these be the worlds that reaffirm the dominant cultural values and knowledge hierarchies or will they be the ones that we use to imagine new forms of resistance through digital knowledge production?”

Extracts from Neema Githere’s Substack letter, which alternates between verse and what Githere calls “guerrilla theory,” illustrate how theory and praxis can come together to create new digital worlds that resist traditional hierarchies inherited through colonialism. Githere enters spaces of conversation where the stakes are often about cultural survival, but consistently points towards hope through concepts like data healing and love as social activism and civil disobedience.

The other initial contributions here evince the central concerns of this Colloquy. On the topic of AI, we include Dr. Hēmi Whaanga’s (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Mamoe, Waitaha) essay from the Indigenous Protocol and Artificial Intelligence Working Group on the extractive potential of AI systems. To encourage us to think about resistive digital practices, the introductory chapter from André Brock Jr.’s Distributed Blackness (2020) explores cyberspace as a new avenue for Black refusal of white hegemony and Black identity formation.

We know conversations and findings about colonialism and the digital age will only proliferate. To this end, we welcome contributions of essays, journal articles, and book chapters from thinkers preoccupied with the specific threats and potential affordances of our digital moment.

Learn more about the Colonialism, Post, and Anti in the Digital Age Workshop.