Almost 10 years ago, under the nickname of “The DIgital Orientalist” Cornelis van Lit started a blog. The exact date was October 15th, 2013. The topic, “How to build an archive.” It counted 113 words, and promised to deliver more in coming posts.
10 years after, the Digital Orientalist has metamorphosed into a good-natured Xiaongyao 相繇 of undefined number of heads. Instead of devastating the ecology like the mythological Xiaongyao would do, we put out content to discuss the use and application of Digital Humanities in fields and area studies that were historically relegated to the domain of “Orientalist studies.” A label of convenience if you will – and one that served us well.
Now an online magazine with more than 400 posts, the Digital Orientalist represents more than a dozen of DH related topics in 14 fields. Our conferences and calls continue to grow, as does our team.
As tradition wants, my job as Ed-in-Chief is to introduce you to the new & returning members in this post. So let’s start!
The returning contributors
Alice Casalini, who joined us last year as Contributor for Central Asia. She has been a great asset in exploring digital resources for the study of Buddhist art. Moving a bit south of the Dunhuang areas, we have Rohan Chauhan, who last year joined the DO to talk about eScriptorium and digitization of texts in Urdu, Hini, and Bengali. This year, he will continue to cover DH applications in South Asian Studies. Chris Diamond is our second contributor for South Asian Studies, a polyglot who navigates 8 languages. For the DO, he writes about podcasting, DH & teaching, and annotations. Finally, we Tom Newhall, our contributor for Buddhist Studies, who has been working with the DO since 2020.
The Middle Eastern & African Studies group, the largest in the DO, sees the return of Elizabeth Bishop and Anaïs Wion, contributors for African Studies. Together, they have brought attention to a field that is now emerging in DH, and growing fast. Middle Eastern Studies are covered by Zachary Butler, for Bible Studies: do you want to read New Testament manuscripts on your phone while waiting in line? He got you covered. Helen Giunashvili returns to write about Persian Documents, among others, while Ephrem Ishac continues his work in promoting DH & Syriac Studies. Tyler Kynn and Shiva Mihan represent MIddle Eastern and Iranian Studies respectively, and are back this a.y. 23/24 with more. Last but not least, Theodora Zampaki, who has been working with the DO for a few years now, doing a great job in promoting how DH entered the field of Graeco-Arabic studies.
We then have the Eastern sides of Asia: China, Japan, and Korea. Lu Wang and Henry Jacobs will continue to explore the use of DH within Sinology. Joanne Bernardi, contributor for Japanese studies, will write again this coming Spring on DH & teaching, a topic that is increasingly becoming relevant with the rise of AI technologies.
And then new arrivals!
Working on Central Asia, we are pleased to welcome: Amitabh Vikram Dwivedi, expert of Hinduism; Soni Wadhwa, Contributor for Indian Studies; Daniel Wojahn, who also presented at our 2023 conference; Zezhou Yang, PhD candidate at SOAS working in Nepali studies; Roshane Shahbaz, for Islamic and South Asian studies, while Özge Eda Kaya will take you to the world of DH & Ottoman Studies. Finally, Erica Biagietti is our new guest contributor for Indian Studies.
The field of Japanese studies will be enriched by posts by Emma Kiey, Hirohito Tsuji, and Raúl Cervera Álvarez. The team for Chinese studies welcomes Gian Duri Rominger, expert in applying DH to studying ancient Chinese texts.
Lastly, We want to welcome Orestis Georgalas, who will write about DH in general, cartography, and DH usage in teaching.
We will then feature guest posts by our colleagues, collaborators and readers. We renew our commitment to improve representation of people, voices, topics: from PhD candidates to seasoned researchers, from African Studies to Mongolian languages, we offer a chance to anyone who is interested in sharing their work. (Feeling intrigued? Email us: digitalorientalist@gmail.com)
None of this would be possible without the amazing work of the DO Editorial Team: Rachael Griffiths for Central Asia and Indian Studies; James Morris for Northeastern Asian Studies; Mariana Zorkina for Sinology, and Jonathan Miles Robker for African Studies and Middle Eastern Studies.
When you see the DO work promoted on our social media pages, it is thanks to the amazing work of our social media team: M.Beyza Murat-Abdukarimova, Bayan Hasan and Anna Batzeli.
All the members, old and new, work on a volunteer basis. As with last year, I am thankful to every team member for their efforts, and I look forward to a year ahead filled with interesting posts and exchanges.
Follow us on X/Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
Post by Maddalena Poli, Ed-in-Chief for 23/24
The Digital Orientalist 