Roopika Risam

Roopika Risam is an assistant professor of English and Secondary English Education at Salem State University in Salem, Massachusetts. Her research examines intersections between postcolonial, African American, and US ethnic studies, and the role of digital humanities in mediating between them. Her monograph Postcolonial Digital Humanities is under contract with Northwestern UP, and she is also working on a manuscript that positions W.E.B. Du Bois as a progenitor for postcolonial studies through renewed attention to his literary work.

Her digital scholarship includes The Harlem Shadows Project, on producing usable critical editions of public domain texts; Postcolonial Digital Humanities, an online community dedicated to global explorations of race, class, gender, sexuality, and disability within cultures of technology; and EdConteXts, an international network of educators.

Currently, she is in the initial stages of two projects: 1) the prototype for A Cultural Atlas of Global Blackness, an interactive database and digital map that traces representations of blackness across temporality and geography and 2) a seed-grant funded study “Digital Humanities and the Common Core: Teacher Attitudes and Awareness,” which uses survey data, focus groups, and training workshops to assess the opportunities and barriers that digital humanities pose for high school humanities teachers.

Her previous course offerings, varied in nature, have included African American Literature I, World Literature I and II, English Methods (undergraduate and graduate), Young Adult Literature (undergraduate and graduate), “Our Monsters, Ourselves” First Year Seminar, Global Blackness and the Black Radical Tradition, and Multicultural Britain (graduate).

She is proud to serve on the MLA Delegate Assembly, ACH Executive Council, GO::DH Executive Board, DHCommons founding editorial board, and Hybrid Pedagogy Inc. International Advisory Board.