The CDSC traveled to Yale University in New Haven, CT, to celebrate the tenth iteration of The Caribbean Digital (TCD) conference on December 7 and 8, 2023. TCD is an annual international event held in the United States and the Caribbean since 2014. Since then, the TCD has created a dedicated space of exchange for Caribbeanist-focused digital scholars. The two-day conference included panels, roundtable conversations, artist presentations, and project show-and-tells.

TCD began with several presentations by scholars showcasing their cutting-edge digital repository and archiving projects. PhD student Waleska Solorzano, for example, introduced us to their archiving project entitled “The Venesporan Artists Project”, which creates a single digital space for chronicling contemporary art and artists of Venezuelan descent and identity dispersed across international borders. UPR Caribe Digital DH undergrad Fellows Valeria Acevedo Argüelles and Pat Santalices Torres also showcased their community based project, Las caras lindas de Santurce. As a digital repository, it documents the oral history of Calle Loíza residents in Santurce, Puerto Rico, by bringing together interviews curated into the form of podcasts, a photographic digital exhibition, and an auto-ethnographic blog. Opening showcases were followed by a panel on engaging digital humanist methodology in archival recovery, and the concluding keynote dialogue between professors Natasha Lightfoot, Nicole Aljoe and Kaiama Glover on the challenges in doing DH work.The panel reflected on their prior experiences with collaboration, funding, platform and sustainability failures in the development of their DH projects, and the lessons these experiences provided. The night ended with a reception where the 2023 Artist in Residence, Ruben Cabenda, presented his latest animated work ‘Tongo Sondi’ (or ‘things about a tongue’).

Friday continued with fantastic morning sessions that discussed collaboration and theory in the digital humanities. The day started with a grad and undergrad student led roundtable discussion between the Taller Entre Aguas’ Registro Project and Early Caribbean Digital Archive Project teams. Together they introduced the audience to a wide range of interdisciplinary approaches and digital methods that engage data in ways that center enslaved peoples lived experiences and stories. In the following panel on theory, scholar Samantha Stephens asks us to consider how programming might be adapted to the dynamics of control in the Black Atlantic world to explore how technology facilitates resistance and rebellion in Caribbean history.

Afternoon and evening sessions followed with fascinating panels on pedagogy and practice. For example, Malisa Richards demonstrated how the integration of virtual reality technology into computer networking curricula can help reimagine the development of immersive instructional design, tech and strategy. The conference concluded with a showcase of 2023 CDSC micro-grant awardees, whose work ranged from creating massive digital repositories to designing mapping projects centered on the Caribbean. You can learn more about their projects here. The CDSC ended the night announcing the new cohort of microgrant awardees for 2023-2024

The Caribbean Digital creates a vital space for global conversations about the present and future of digital humanist inquiry by providing a platform for researchers, librarians, and educators doing important work in and about the Caribbean. We thank all the participants and collaborators who made this conference possible!

TCD is the official organizer for the archipelagos journal, whose published peer-reviewed scholarship has inspired and contributed to many digital projects in Caribbean Studies.

A recording of the panels is available on The Caribbean Digital X website.