In June 2024, over forty participants from across the Caribbean and the United States met for a week at the University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, for the CDSC’s second annual Caribbean Digital Scholarship Summer Institute (CDSsi). Since its inauguration last year, the CDSsi has provided a space for training archivists, librarians, faculty, and graduate students to learn specific computational, pedagogical, and methodological skills and approaches centered on the Caribbean in digital scholarship.

Between June 10-14, Participants choose between three different workshop courses offered by the Insititute to hone their digital dexterities, learn new skills and develop new projects. In the Critical Digital Pedagogy workshop, professors Dan Castilow and Tzarina Prater invited participants to think critically about various digital tools ranging from social media platforms to online databases and learning management systems used to create, modify, and deliver content to student-learners. Across the week, the class conceptualized, proposed, designed, and presented student community-engaged projects that each employed different digital tools to center learners as co-creators of knowledge in that project.

The second workshop on Digital Archives, led by professors Nicole N. Aljoe and Sonya Donaldson, introduced participants to the tools and techniques associated with the various key digital archival practices. Throughout the week, participants explored the leading debates about repository collections to understand fundamental concepts related to physical and digital archives and archiving practices. The course introduced participants to various possible digital tools, techniques, and strategies for working with digital archives as they worked hands-on with their projects.

The institute also offered participants the opportunity to learn coding skills as well. In the Minimal Computing Workshop led by Dr. Schuyler Esprit and Dr. Alex Gil, participants learned how to build their own sustainable web projects that catalog and present digital cultural artifacts using minimal computing principles. Across one week, participants acquired new usable knowledge about data preparation and management fundamentals, static site generation, and version control. On the last day, participants presented their fantastic projects to the institute. These projects also provided participants with a portable data set that can be repurposed, preserved, and built on into different prototypes without relying on institutional resources.

In addition to the workshop curriculum, the Institute coordinated a field trip to the Ritcher Library mid-week to visit the collection exhibition of Jacques Stéphen Alexis, a renowned Haitian novelist, essayist, activist, and neurologist, in addition to the library’s expansive Cuban diaspora cultural heritage collections. The field trip ended with an engaging presentation led by Dr. Stephanie Chancy about the Digital Library of the Caribbean recent efforts.

This week-long programming provided participants with valuable experience to build foundational skills, connections, and new ideas as a budding cohort of Caribbean DH practitioners, peers, and educators. The institute is a product of the CDSsi’s larger goals to address the need for training and mentorship that considers the Caribbean region’s particularities, expands the talent pool, and secures a viable future for digital scholarship in Caribbean studies.

Thanks to CDSC members Kelly Baker Josephs and Gabrielle Jean-Louis for organizing this event! The CDSsi is now accepting applications for the Summer of 2025. You can read more information and apply here.