Weaving in Resilience: Determining Capacity and Resisting Pressures in Digital Humanities

This poster examines the ways workers in small-scale digital humanities (DH) persist under deficits of time, funding, and support. Through interactive design, this poster weaves together two underlying threads: platforms and partnerships. In the platforms thread, the poster illustrates technology as both a source of challenge and opportunity. DH workers simultaneously combat rising costs and corporate interventions into their work. Exploration of this reality will prompt viewers to examine the question: with limited time and resources, what options remain for a librarian to resist funding deficits and value erosion? The partnerships thread explores strategies for managing relationships and advocating for continued support. Exemplified through contributors' experiences, the poster will illustrate how one can grow micro- and macro-DH programs that remain aligned with available time and resources. Furthermore, the partnerships thread will provide real-world advocacy examples showing how DEIA-based projects can persist amid funding cuts, institutional restrictions, and other threats from the contemporary political climate. Based on research and diverse experience from institutions of varying sizes and locations, this poster prompts viewers to examine their profile in connection to DH work and will provide structured questions and considerations that can be used to examine one's own resources and capacity. Weaving a commitment to technology ethics and justice throughout its tapestry, the poster will help equip viewers with strategies in the navigation of the current challenging DH landscape.