The University of Florida, represented by Melissa Jerome, Sarah Tew, and Hélène Huet, the University of North Florida, and Universidad San Francisco de Quito hosted their second Latin America & Caribbean Digital Humanities Symposium at Universidad San Francisco Quito in Quito, Ecuador from July 4- July 6, 2024.
After a very successful 2023 symposium, hosted at UF, the team worked to organize a second iteration of the symposium, but this time in Ecuador. Their work is a great example of cross-institutional collaboration at both regional and international levels.
The symposium in Quito differed from the 2023 event in that it offered a mix of in-person and virtual sessions, while in 2023 the sessions were only in-person. Additionally, most attendees in 2023 were from Florida while in 2024, almost half of the 130 registrants were from Latin America and the Caribbean, while the other half was made of attendees from the U.S., Europe, Asia, and even Africa.
The 2024 symposium offered more than 30 presentations, 75% of which were in Spanish, with the rest in English. Participants were able to learn about different projects and methods currently being used by digital humanities practitioners who focus on Latin American and Caribbean studies, an intersection that is not heavily covered in other venues across the USA. The topics of the presentations were quite varied, ranging from heritage/food/memory, archives, community building, to art and technology, and activism.
The symposium served as a platform for sharing and learning about projects, emphasizing the crucial role importance of digital humanities in Latin American and Caribbean Studies. It also highlighted the importance of community, with several participants expressing a desire to “continue the conversation,” and explore opportunities for future collaborations.
