Tessera

Mary Valante @medievalmaryq.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Back to the city of joy, where walking to places and with people—sweatily and (un)hurriedly—is everyday life. If yesterday was all about the central city (peaking at Hogg Market), today will be at a local queer archive and among its publics. The image is from a once alive bird site three years ago.

This week, I've been experiencing new recesses in and connected to the memory lanes of a city otherwise familiar; a city always made visceral by the large pedestal fans of a musty bookshop, or one where queerness comes to life in the most ordinary of sweaty convos in transit. The experience of new and protective nooks in the memory lanes of a city once lived continue into this week, thanks to encounters both serendipitous and long awaited. The heat feels different here but the warmth of these connections underpins our queer and trans everydayness. Two tweets each from June 21, 2023, and June 27, 2023.

Where fiber history meets Pride. This is a large piece (10x28') of one of the two original 30x60' pride flags, the only known surviving section of either. They were designed, hand dyed and sewn by a community of queer artists. The colors are slightly different from most rainbow flags today.

Long-Lost Fragment of First Rainbow Pride Flag Resurfaces After Four Decades

The brilliantly colored banner—now on view in San Francisco—flew on "Gay Freedom Day" in 1978

smithsonianmag.com

Alan Liu@alanyliu.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Concluding with grounded practices of hope and a shout-out to Mariame Kaba, we—@acarantomorford.bsky.social, @arungapatchka.bsky.social, and I—see "hope as an infrastructure itself, cobuilt in connection with lands, waters, and cyberspace, moving us to BYOI: as Build Your Otherwise Infrastructure."

From Ch. 14, “Resisting BYOI (Bring Your Own Infrastructure) in Digital Humanities Learning Spaces” by @kshpatel@mastodon.social, Ashley Caranto Morford, & Arun Jacob dhdebates.gc.cuny.edu/read/critica..., in _Critical Infrastructure Studies & Digital Humanities_ @UMinnPress@mastodon.social

Text excerpts from Ch. 14, “Resisting BYOI (Bring Your Own Infrastructure) in Digital Humanities Learning Spaces” by Kush Patel, Ashley Caranto Morford, and Arun Jacob (Pedagogy of the Digitally Oppressed Collective), in _Critical Infrastructure Studies & Digital Humanities_ (pp. 277, 278 in print ed.):

"We have crafted a fictional creative writing piece—a Twine narrative (discussed later in this chapter)—based on our own lived experiences but set within fictional institutions and using fictional technological platforms…. Our Twine narrative is set at the beginning of the global Covid pandemic and consists of a series of email chains. Readers follow the experiences of faculty, staff, students, and precarious workers at postsecondary institutions in India, the United States, and Canada as they navigate changes to educational processes and organize their activities through online infrastructures…."

"In the accompanying reflection that follows the Twine story, we provide a rationale and analysis of the creative piece involving three concepts: responsibilization, crisortunity a crisis situation presenting the opportunity for someone to gain something], and digital infrastructural otherwises. With each of these concepts, grounded in specific sociotechnical realities, we reflect on the possibility of reimgining infrastructure to enable more care-filled and just teaching, learning, and organizing…."

On June 11, 2:30pm AEST // 10am IST, @specksofthings.bsky.social and I are hosting an Online Office Hour during #IAW2026, the theme of which is #ArchivesForJustice. Access the meeting link here (thejustarchivescollaboratory.hcommons.org) and join us to learn about the project or say hi over a cuppa.

A portrait mode poster in blue tinting that depicts a table in the foreground on top of which are images of print and handwritten archival materials held at QAMRA (Queer Archive for Memory, Reflection and Activism) Bengaluru, India. Towards the background is a monitor on which appears a frame image from a video in the archive. On the wall in the background of the image are various printed papers pinned to the wall. The text on the poster reads as follows: Online Office Hours, Thursday, June 11, 2026, 2:30 pm AEST and 10 am IST for the Dialogue Series CFP. The project title is The Just Archives Collaboratory and the subtitle is queer and trans archives, care, ethics, and histories.

Alan Liu @alanyliu.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Check out this month’s Felt Notes 💌 on Power (buttondown.com/JustFuturesC...) or the coming together of worlds from graduating lab works, lab pop-ups, Vikalp, and SSSHARC to The Just Archives Collaboratory site, archival bootcamp, and resisting BYOI (Bring Your Own Infrastructure) in DH book chapter

Power

ID: The Just Futures Co-lab Pop-Up called “Queer Passages” for, with, and at Vikalp’s Art Exhibition on May 28, 2026. Queer Passages brought together...

buttondown.com

Announcing the release of the online, open-access edition of _Critical Infrastructure Studies & Digital Humanities_ (in Debates in DH series): dhdebates.gc.cuny.edu/projects/cri.... Editors: Alan Liu, Urszula Pawlicka-Deger, James Smihties @jamessmithies.bsky.social). Print ed. appeared January 2026

Critical Infrastructure Studies and Digital Humanities | Debates in the Digital Humanities

This volume reimagines the digital humanities (DH) through the expanding field of critical infrastructure studies as it explores how DH builds on and extends the field’s theories and technologies. Inc...

dhdebates.gc.cuny.edu

Alan Liu@alanyliu.bsky.social · 8mo ago

U Minnesota Press's Spring 26 catalog, listing our new Critical Infrastructure Studies & Digital Humanities (in Debates in DH series), eds. Alan Liu, Urszula Pawlicka-Deger, @jamessmithies.bsky.social): z.umn.edu/spring26. Table of contents: www.upress.umn.edu/978151791608... @uminnpress.bsky.social

Screenshot of page 52 University of Minnesota Press Spring 2026 catalog, showing the book cover, description, and contributor names of the new book in the Debates in DH series (ed. Alan Liu, Urszula Pawlicka-Deger, and James Smithies) titled _Critical Infrastructrure Studies and Digital Humanities_. The text of the description reads as follows:

How digital humanities can shape and be shaped by the infrastructures that sustain our world.

_Critical Infrastructure Studies and Digital Humanities_ reimagines the digital humanities (DH) through the expanding field of critical infrastructure studies. Featuring voices from around the globe, this volume explores how DH builds on and extends theories and technologies of infrastructure that affect society, culture, and knowledge in different national and regional contexts. Examining DH’s own infrastructural genealogy, the contributors offer readers critical reflections and bold visions for the future as they address issues of environmentalism, decolonization, Indigenous sovereignty, multilingualism, labor justice, feminism, national development, and beyond from a variety of disciplinary perspectives embedded in concrete digital systems. Including innovative “infrastructure manifests,” the essays in this book illuminate how DH can both study and shape the systems that sustain culture, scholarship, and connection....

The @jitp.bsky.social issue 29 deadline is approaching. @bynikkibarnes.bsky.social, Asma Neblett, and I are co-editing this issue—and we welcome works that rethink making in DH, incl, but not limited to, situated critiques of labor, power, and colonial oppression cuny.manifoldapp.org/read/jitp-ca...

The JITP or Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy Call for Issue 29 Submissions on Rethinking Making in the Digital Humanities. This call considers questions such as: one, how do making epistemologies shape our use of and approach to digital tools and techniques; two, how have we come to understand the form, constitution, genealogies, and politics of digital tools and techniques through making practices; and c) what new vocabularies of partnership, praxes of anti-oppression, and approaches to making labor visible through making practices? The submissions deadline is June 5, 2026. The image text is in black set against sky blue background and with lighter blue information bubbles each on website link, deadline, and call for submissions.

Dr Kush Patel@kshpatel.bsky.social · 2y ago

Meeting N++l after a few months and since their successful top surgery is sheer happiness. There’s still so much to talk, for me to learn, and for us to catch up on life and after care in these times. Such has been the experiences of this week w/ and alongside the Vikalp art exhibition: heartening.

In this whirlwind of a visit to Baroda, my queer-trans meetings, encounters, and convos w/ groups, collectives, individuals, and allies—including the queen herself, have been a high like no other. Gajra café, thanks for being that space, community, and tentacular presence for me in the city. 💜

A table runner in bright pink, teal, yellow, and black woven threads.

The pop-up had curiosity, heart, and translation in languages more than one, thanks especially to Maya who facilitated these connections brilliantly. Folx had seats at the table; the video offered a context for discussions; and we moved w/ and between the hypertexts and lab resources in group talks.

People seated at a long linear table with four laptop computers on one side and a table runner print in brown on the other side. The table also has sheets of paper in pink and white, and is helmed by Maya Sharma at the end and a television unit behind her, playing a video with a view of a similar tabletop setting from the Just Futures Co-lab. The exposed brickwork of the walls is contrasted with visual art work on each of the longer sides of the gallery.

Dr Kush Patel @kshpatel.bsky.social · 3mo ago

The Just Futures Co-lab will be setting up a pop-up display at Vikalp’s exhibition next week. Being part of the curatorial team, I’m also eager to be in community w/ artists and cultural organizers as we ask questions about the aesthetics of resistance, incl. values normativized w/in queer cultures.

The poster of the art exhibition entitled Dialogues of Collective Solidarity led by Vikalp Women’s Group, hosted by Nau Foundation, and supported by Samvedana Foundation in Vadodara. The exhibition will run from May 23rd to May 31st in the evening hours from 5pm to 8pm each day. The core poster text reads as follows: In these times of global strife, Vikalp brings together contemporary artists from the LGBTQIA+ community and allies working in visual, textual, and performance art. The exhibition is an invitation into a space of reflection, healing, and repair, and a collective dialogue across identities and communities as we locate solidarity and freedom at the heart of queerness. All text is in color black and set against the background image of a clear blue sky with soft wooly clouds and green trees.

It’s the eve of my students’ graduate show and final exhibition as members of The Just Futures Co-lab—and I couldn’t be more enlivened by the work that has come into being and the worlds that we will continue to build moving forward.

An invitation poster from the MA Contemporary Art Practice and MDes Human Centered Design students at The Just Futures Co-lab on Srishti Manipal campus announcing the Graduate Show dates of May 16th and May 17th, 2026. The exhibition titled Acts of Knowing will run from 10am to 5pm on both days and the accompanying programming will include a performance and film screening in their respective studio and lab spaces. The poster in white and with the text in black has colored dots and a colorful lab seal.

Dr Kush Patel @kshpatel.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Placing the @jitp.bsky.social Issue 29 CFP on “Rethinking Making in DH: Critiques and Pedagogies That Transform” in dialogue w/ @literaturegeek.bsky.social’s excellent thread. See here and consider submitting: cuny.manifoldapp.org/read/jitp-ca... (full manuscripts are due June 5, 2026)

Call for Submissions | Call for Submissions | Manifold @CUNY

Transforming scholarly publications into living digital works

cuny.manifoldapp.org

Amanda Wyatt! Visconti@literaturegeek.bsky.social · 3mo ago

"But that isn't digital" DH has a thriving community of folks who investigate and/or make digitally not bc "new" but bc opportunities for social justice, rejecting gatekeeping what counts as scholarly method+contribution, real-time scholarly sharing; "technology" includes non-& pre-digital solutions

Dr Kush Patel @kshpatel.bsky.social · 3mo ago

A tiny letter and another felt note 💌 from the Just Futures Co-lab on “Collaging Selves” by Tash: buttondown.com/JustFuturesC...

Collaging Selves

ID: A collage of images of the walls of The Just Futures Co-lab at Srishti Manipal and the walls and poster from my recent home show against a black...

buttondown.com

Mariko Bennett @nachoriko.bsky.social · 4mo ago

I defended my PhD 10 years ago today. That was the least remarkable thing that happened that day. Sharing something I wrote about it last year. Since then "the horrors persist but so do we." And with dignity.

Today, @specksofthings.bsky.social and I, with Aiden Magro, launched The Just Archives Collaboratory site on @kcommons.bsky.social, where we've outlined the project purpose; linked our queer and trans archives' workshop resources; and posted a series CFP: thejustarchivescollaboratory.hcommons.org

THE JUST ARCHIVES COLLABORATORY – queer and trans archives—care, ethics, histories

thejustarchivescollaboratory.hcommons.org

For @jitp.bsky.social issue 29, we welcome submissions that rethink making in DH through reflections on bodies, lands, and infrastructures both implicated in and impacted by making practices and as discourses on labor, power, and colonial oppression among others: cuny.manifoldapp.org/read/jitp-ca...

Call for Submissions | Call for Submissions | Manifold @CUNY

Transforming scholarly publications into living digital works

cuny.manifoldapp.org

Jack Shoulder@jackshoulder.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Ending one of the most unkind and difficult weeks of this month with hope in the respective works of a forthcoming trans-feminist DH project review and my doctoral student’s successful pre-proposal defense. In community, to know and to feel that knowing, is power.

Happy Friday! We made it, everyone!

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 4mo ago

“Many discussions still approach AI primarily as a digital technology, but in many of these countries, AI is becoming visible through the infrastructures that sustain it: data centers, mineral extraction, energy demand, water-intensive cooling systems, and digital labor chains…”

From Chile to the Philippines, meet the people pushing back on AI

Individuals and communities are resisting the demands and practices of Big Tech's AI infrastructure — such as data centers and digital labor — due to their environmental and social costs.

restofworld.org

Futurity // Felt Notes, March 24, 2026 // The Just Futures Co-lab // buttondown.com/JustFuturesC...

“it would deny ppl IDs, medical boards would examine ppl that need no examination, transmen would be declared to have never existed, intersex persons would be reframed as req correction, social workers will be afraid to support persons w/o yet a lang for what they feel” theleaflet.in/leaflet-repo...

Architecture of Erasure: How the Trans Amendment Bill 2026 erases those it claims to protect

Amidst a global backsliding on trans rights, India’s new amendment threatens to erase, forget, retrospectively deny and breach into the lives of trans-people, unmaking all that the NALSA judgment had ...

theleaflet.in

Dr Kush Patel@kshpatel.bsky.social · 5mo ago

The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Bill 2026 is listed for passing in Parliament next week. Please read and sign the letter to help build a critical volume of resistance and refusal.

Link to the Collective Statement against the TG Persons Amendment Bill 2026: docs.google.com/document/d/1... Link to Sign the Statement: forms.gle/LyUCSx73w7qs...

Back in Vikalp where the work of organizing around art and queer freedom is being inflected by the sheer immediacy of organizing against the supremely unconstitutional Transgender Persons Amendment Bill released this week.