Project Director: Amy Ihlan, Philosophy
Part of our 2021/2022 DLA Faculty Fellows Cohort

The primary focus of my fellowship proposal is to learn how to develop and use digital humanities technologies to create platforms for collecting and sharing student work analyzing the philosophy of protest as illustrated by examples of recent or ongoing protests by individuals and organizations in the Twin Cities area. Students will do both individual and group projects exploring the philosophical implications of protest actions, as well as the philosophical perspectives that motivate and shape protests. Students will be encouraged to consider examples of protests across the political spectrum, and employ a range of different strategies and purposes. My hope is to use digital humanities technologies to share students’ work with wider community audiences (at Macalester, or beyond).  

The possibilities I envision for this course are a webpage/site or other online platform to collect and share student work, potentially linking student work with other relevant online sources. I intend to build on any digital humanities tools created for PHIL-294 in my future philosophy teaching at Mac.

I anticipate that our collective student/faculty work in PHIL-294 will also contribute to the relatively new discipline of public philosophy.  Public philosophy aims to engage the public in philosophical issues and debates, and to contribute to philosophical analysis of interesting public issues.  I am currently working on my own research projects on the philosophy of protest, and protest as a form of public philosophy –and expect that students’ projects will contribute to and expand on these, and create opportunities for collaborative faculty/student research (and possible presentation at public philosophy conferences). I also plan to share/publish my pedagogical experiences incorporating digital humanities technologies into the course – creating possible additional opportunities for student collaboration.  

Finally, I believe that fellowship support for these projects will contribute to the Macalester community.  A fellowship will facilitate creating platforms for sharing student scholarship. The content shared will help promote reflection and community discussion on the philosophical implications of various kinds of protests – a topic of interest to many of us at Macalester.  The digital humanities components of the course will also create opportunities for wider community engagement in the Twin Cities and beyond, as students learn about and connect with local organizations and community leaders as part of their work on the philosophy of protest.