Creating community and Training for Researchers at the intersection of Black Culture and Digital Studies
The Digital Media and Community (Run:\DM.C) initiative brings together African American and digital studies to expand upon both fields. It makes digital studies more inclusive of African American inquiry and culture, enriching African American studies research with new methods, archives, and tools.
Text Needed here
Upcoming Run:\DM.C Events
Run:\DM.C Past Events
Project Description
Run:\DM.C is a space to foster community and training at the intersection of African American Studies and Digital Studies, most broadly defined, including Digital Media, Social Informatics, Technology Studies, and Digital Humanities. The initiative also provides students with a high-quality learning program that will help foster their passion for the humanities and the social sciences in the digital age while developing their research and professional development skills. This program would enrich the student experience in a variety of ways:
Run:\DM.C Events
Run:\DM.(Un)READS
Discussion-oriented, one-credit seminar course centered on scholarship at the intersection of technology, algorithms, AI, Digital Media, and African American Studies. For our inaugural (Un)Common Reads, the Spring 2025 selection is IDH2930: Race, Culture, and Algorithms. The internet is not neutral; the values of programmers, consumers, and society inform it. This course will explore Saifya Noble’s Algorithms of Oppression to understand how search engines like Google reaffirm bias and create identity.
Run:\DM.(Un)CLASS
With the AFAM Scholars Program and the Honors College, Run:\DM.C offers short-term, domestic, trip-based learning opportunities each year, known as (Un)Common Classrooms. For our inaugural Spring Break 2025 trip, Dr. David Canton and Dr. Alyssa P. Cole will host students at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., to the Afrofuturism exhibit, to the National Archives, where students will earn their researcher’s ID, and to the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University.
Run:\DOUGLASS
In collaboration with DouglassDay.org, the Center for Black Digital Research, and the Colored Conventions Projects at Penn State University, Run:\DM.C hosts an annual celebration of Frederick Douglass’ chosen birthday. Douglass Day is a yearly program that commemorates the birth of Frederick Douglass. Each year, thousands of people, including collegiate institutions from around the country, help create new & freely available resources for learning about Black history. Frequently focusing on important Black women’s archives, such as those of Anna Julia Cooper (2020), Mary Church Terrell (2021), and Mary Ann Shadd Cary (2023), students develop skills that translate into the workforce while learning about African American history and culture.
Run:\LECTURES
Run:DM.C hosts lectures for the UF campus, the local community, and its online audience each year.
Run:\INTERNS
In collaboration with the African American Studies Program and the Beyond 120 Program, Run:\DM.C works to match students with internship opportunities at the intersection of technology.
Run:\ADVISING
Run:\DM.C works with the Trailblazers organization of UF’s National Society for Black Engineers. Trailblazers is an initiative that provides first-year Black engineering students with a head start, giving them access to valuable professional resources and fostering a stronger community within NSBE while helping them adjust to campus life.
RUN:\DM.C STUDIOS
The mission of Run:\DM.C media studios is to highlight and promote the archived narratives of the holdings on the center; to foster debate and community in the field of Black Digital Humanities, Black Digital Media, and Black Digital Studies; provide opportunities for students to learn, train and practice in media arts, and hone their crafts in media production, editing, and development for mobile and dynamic digital environments.
Run:\RETREAT
Annually, the Run:\DM.C initiative hosts a writing retreat fostering an intellectual community at the intersection of technology, the digital, and culture.
