What concepts, ideas and examples from this text contribute to the theory and practice of archive ethnography?
The concept Gallon provides in terms of a “technology of recovery” is important for rethinking the ways in which digital tools and platforms such as those used in archive ethnography work can serve to challenge the racialized systemic norms present in the humanities and social sciences, providing spaces for resistance to these hegemonic structures in recovering and preserving marginalized voices. As Gallon notes, we must recognize that race itself can serve as metadata. It can shape the way we view certain groups of people, their humanity, and in digital studies, influence and determine the use of digital tools themselves. An essential consideration for archive ethnography scholars is how such digital tools can be reimagined and repurposed for critical and transformative work like that of Black Digital Studies, which serve to dismantle racialized hierarchies and reform systemic inequalities in academic knowledge production.
What is the main argument, narrative, or e/affect?
Gallon examines the relationship between the digital humanities and Black studies, emphasizing the racialization of “humanity” within the humanities and how racialized systems of power continue to shape “blackness” and marginalize the voices of black peoples within both the fields of the humanities and digital studies. Gallon argues that through Black Digital Studies, the intersection of digital humanities and Black studies, scholars can “bring forth the humanity of marginalized peoples through the use of digital platforms and tools” (p. 2). In particular, Gallon suggests that one way to do this is through, what they term, a “technology of recovery.” In terms of the Black Digital Humanities, this “recovery” consists of using digital tools to delve into archival and historical silences caused by “systemic global racialization” to restore marginalized voices and histories (p. 2).
Exemplary quotes or images?
I found the following quote to be very important for understanding Gallon’s argument: “The black digital humanities therefore foregrounds the digital as a mutual host for racism and resistance and brings to light the “role of race as a metalanguage” that shapes the digital terrain, fostering hegemonic structures that are both new and old and replicate and transcend analog ones” (p. 4).