Modern Languages Book of the Month - Digital Humanities in Latin America

Posted April 1, 2020

The School of Modern Languages, in collaboration with the GT Library, has established a “Book of the Month” initiative to celebrate the research of Modern Languages faculty. The first selection is Digital Humanities in Latin America edited by Juan Carlos Rodriguez, Director of Graduate Studies and Associate Professor of Spanish, School of Modern Languages.

“As digital media and technologies transform the study of the humanities around the world, this volume provides the first hemispheric view of the practice of digital humanities in the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking Americas. These essays examine how participation and research in new media have helped configure identities and collectivities in the region.           

Featuring case studies from throughout Latin America, including the United States Latinx community, contributors analyze documentary films, television series, and social media to show how digital technologies create hybrid virtual spaces and facilitate connections across borders. They investigate how Latinx bloggers and online activists navigate governmental restrictions in order to connect with the global online community. These essays also incorporate perspectives of race, gender, and class that challenge the assumption that technology is a democratizing force. 

Digital Humanities in Latin America illuminates the cultural, political, and social implications of the ways Latinx communities engage with new technologies. In doing so, it connects digital humanities research taking place in Latin America with that of the Anglophone world.” 

-University of Florida Press
 

Professor Rodríguez is a Latin American film scholar whose research focuses on the representation of Latin American cities in documentary. He studies how Latin American documentaries represent contemporary urban issues such as housing problems, transportation dynamics, water resources, economic development, and social movements. In his publications, Rodríguez explores documentaries as moving maps and embodied cartographies of contemporary urban issues.