Abstract:

Recent years have seen a growing focus on diversity in the digital humanities,and yet there has been rather less work on geolinguistic diversity,and the research which has been carried out often focuses on the structures of geographic representation in the field or has viewed ‘language’ as a technical or linguistic problem to solve. This article takes a different view,namely that we need to consider this diversity through multiple ‘frames’ of digitally-mediated language and culture,and that this is not just a question of epistemic justice or community manners,but that the digital humanities also need to address more actively challenges around global dynamics of digital multilingualism,transcultural exchange and geodiversity in its research agenda. This paper explores these questions through the prism of ‘language indifference’ in digital studies and, responding to Galina’s call for better data on the state of geolinguistic diversity in DH(2014),it articulates possible frameworks for addressing this diversity in a strategic, programmatic and research-led manner. We conclude by exploring the role of a greater multilingual focus in what Liu calls ‘the techne of diversity’ in digital humanities(2020),and contend that the digital humanities has much to gain,and much to offer,in engaging more fully with the languages-related cultural challenges of our era.

Key words: multilingual digital humanities, linguistic and cultural diversity, digital modern languages, language indifference, disrupting digital monolingualism