Aiyegbusi, T. & Khumalo, L.
Aiyegbusi, T. & Khumalo, L. 2022. Digital Humanities Outlooks Beyond the West. In O’Sullivan, J. (Ed.). The Bloomsbury Handbook to the Digital Humanities. (Pages 29-40). New York. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Publication year: 2022

The field of Digital Humanities (DH) continues to grow. This is both in terms of expanding into new geographical locations away from the global north (which is also referred to here as the West), and in terms of various disciplines and theoretical contexts in the academy. The exigence to investigate how this explosive growth embraces new frontiers exists. In this chapter we explore how the global north, viewed as the centre of DH activities, interacts with the peripheries in this process of expansion as both knowledge spaces actively contribute to the global knowledge economy. In answering the question whether or not DH is intrinsically inclusive we explore how DH engages with cultures and societies beyond the West and proffer some explanations for some identified deviations. The tension that exists between the DH that takes place in the West and the DH that takes place in the peripheries can be negotiated if the “other worldviews” in the peripheries can be embraced as new knowledge models. We argue that this will consequentially move us towards a unified DH, with various knowledge models that contribute equally to the ever growing global knowledge economy.