No More Excuses

Male colleagues whom I respect, read, think with and sometimes disagree with: it is time. Time to see gender equity (at the very least) and our much touted inclusivity be realized. As a feminist I think dissensus is necessary and disagreement can be productive. I don’t want to hide our many differences. But it is time to stop behaving as if there aren’t any/enough/enough good women working in the fields that fall under our “big tent.” There are no more excuses for having an all-male panel, an all-male editorial board,  an all-male DH qualifying exams reading list, an all male anything.

Hearing that people have a hard time coming up with examples of women who program, women who have published in DH, women to be on grant or advisory boards, women who can be invited as featured or plenary speakers – some of us have gathered together and made a set of resources. There’s the Build a Better DH Syllabus, Build a Better List of Code Experts, and now Build a Better Panel. You have over 100 280+ women from across the globe, representing a range of disciplinary and methodological approaches. We have all manner of intersectional identities and ranks represented in our lists. Soon you’ll have info on where you can contact those folks in order to invite them and learn from them. We will be building a speaker’s bureau and you can find more information there as well.

There are no more excuses. You know we are here and that we do damn fine work. Going forward, all-male panels can only be construed as a choice, not an issue of ignorance. We have been busy building the communities we want to see within DH,  and now we’ve taken time from our research, our teaching, our lives to pull together information for you – now it’s your turn to do your part.