New Books : General Works (includes Encyclopedias, Almanacs)

In Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History, Michel-Rolph Trouillot writes that by examining the process of history we can "discover the differential exercise of power that makes some narratives possible and silences others." Alternative Historiographies of the Digital Humanities examines the process of history in the narrative of the digital humanities and deconstructs its history as a straight line from the beginnings of humanities computing. By discussing alternatives histories of the digital humanities that address queer gaming, feminist game studies praxis, Cold War military-industrial complex computation, the creation of the environmental humanities, monolingual discontent in DH, the hidden history of DH in English studies, radical media praxis, cultural studies and DH, indigenous futurities, Pacific Rim postcolonial DH, the issue of scale and DH, the radical, indigenous, feminist histories of the digital database, and the possibilities for an antifascist DH, this collection hopes to re-set discussions of the straight, white origin myths of DH. Thus, this collection hopes to reexamine the silences in such a straight and white masculinist history and delineates how power comes into play to shape this straight, white DH narrative. A number of the pieces in this volume go back to the origin myth of the digital humanities to reassess the hagiography of Father Busa by reconsidering and recontextualizing his legacy and his work in relation to media archaeology, politics, Cold War maneuvers, mechanized genocide, the Third Reich, and the military-industrial complex as it has organized various fields, including Asian Studies. This reassessment of comparative genealogies - vis-à-vis Foucault - undergirds an alternative history of the Jesuit hagiography we have so far been unwilling to reexamine for its narrative use in embellishing an origin hagiography/historiography for digital humanities. Other pieces intertwine the digital humanities with other fields - area studies, Asian American Studies, cultural studies, literary studies, and environmental studies - in order to reexamine how the intersections and juxtapositions reveal silences in these histories. And finally, a number of pieces considers alternative praxes in rethinking these histories, whether it is an essay that is a game or a reevaluation of feminist media praxis.

In this sequel to bestselling The Visual Miscellaneum, author David McCandless reveals unexpected--and much needed--positive developments from around the world. David McCandless creates simple, elegant ways to see and understand complex, abstract, and often obscured information important to our lives. A specialist in infographics. McCandless cuts through the noise of data overload, creating visually stunning displays that not only make facts comprehensive, but illuminates their connections and adds context, making information meaningful in beautiful and entertaining way. Designed in David McCandless's signature style. Beautiful News focuses on fascinating positive developments at a time when the world has never seemed more dangerous and unpredictable. McCandless draws from philosophy, spirituality, ecology, society, technology, history, science, economics, and pop culture, to reveal positive trends and developments, from the invention of a breakthrough device that uses ocean forces to clean plastic from the world's seas, to a new method of converting donated blood to the crucial "O" negative type that can be used universally. In cutting edge graphs, charts, and illustrations, David McCandless creatively visualizes unexpected and compelling relationships between diverse data sets. Among his surprising findings: almost 250 US cities have remained in the Paris Accord; there are more female CEOs in the world than ever before; a new vaccine has been developed to help protect bees; Zika is disappearing from the Americas. At a time when we are besieged by disturbing events, Beautiful News is the antidote to brighten the darkest day--a shot of positivity and good cheer that will lift the spirts and provide sorely needed hope about our world in a way never before seen.