Digital humanities projects that work with and for knowledge communities increasingly function as forms of engaged scholarship. Taking social justice as a practical and methodological framework, this paper asks what it means to claim DH scholarship as activism – where the boundary lies between engagement and extraction (e.g. exploitation, extractive practices) and how ethical and legal responsibilities shape DH work from design to dissemination.

These topics and others form the core of the #dariahTeach course ‘Social Justice in the Digital Humanities’’ published April 2024. Twenty-one case studies highlight how DH researchers conceive their scholarship as instruments for societal change and as vehicles for public good. The course was developed by two DARIAH Working Groups, #dariahTeach and Ethics and Legality in Digital Arts & Humanities (ELDAH) funded by a DARIAH WG grant. While Social Justice as a concept and practice takes various forms, many of the featured projects frame their research around restorative social justice: a value-based approach that foregrounds inclusion, democracy, responsibility, reparation, safety, healing, and reintegration.

The course itself was conceived to be collaborative and community-driven: highlighting existing work and encouraging future scholarship. Case study authors were asked to address two specific points: 1) why and how digital humanities methods and theories were key to carrying out the project’s goals and 2) what theories and concepts from social justice (e.g. postcolonial and decolonial theory, diversifying the curriculum initiatives, data feminism) underpin the project’s design. In adopting a community-driven ethos, the majority of case studies were written by project PIs. Each underwent a peer review process, followed by a design phase with one of the #dariahTeach course designers. All contributors to case studies received recognition for their work.

Many of the case studies address ethical issues, particularly those around working with communities that have historically been excluded from dominant discourses. For many projects, ethical issues infuse all aspects of project design: balancing technological possibilities with ethical challenges. Case studies address both contemporary and historical injustices. Many of the projects themselves were developed through participatory and situated research, where digital and computational approaches as well as archival practices are themselves challenged by social justice insights and practices. The case studies demonstrate that the activist potential of digital humanities can be realised, but only with a concomitant ethical duty of care embedded as a core principle in the design, implementation, and dissemination of research – especially when working with vulnerable narratives, sensitive heritage, and contested histories.

This paper will problematize some of the issues and challenges of working within a social justice framework, highlight best practice, as well as discussing issues of ethics, privacy, and copyright. The additional duty of care when developing and disseminating content created by or about marginalised, indigenous, or minority populations, and/or those whose ethics and traditions differ from dominant western values will also be highlighted. And lastly, how these considerations are taken into account by practitioners who do research in reparative ways when dealing with contested histories and/or material cultures will be discussed.