Afro-Brazilian Community Data Networks: Care, Connection and Education

On October 28, 2026, at 6.15 pm Eduard Arriaga, Associate Professor, and Department Chair of Language, Literature & Culture at Clark University, will give a talk in the context of the WOC Research Center lecture series. This event is a collaboration of the ERC project AFROEUROPECYBERSPACE, the WOC Research Center Digital Diaspora and the Computational Literary Studies Group of FB 10 at U Bremen.

His talk discusses the concept of “community data networks” and the way they have been developed as an alternative to challenge data, digital and algorithmic determinism. Focusing on Afro-Brazilian groups, networks, and organizations that adopt and adapt data-driven tools and discourses, the talk invites us to reflect how these groups offer community centered alternatives to produce digital content, generate data infrastructure, and think technology, data and digital culture from decolonial and counter-colonial perspectives. Although these groups could be perceived as advocates for data and digital justice, their aim is larger. They expect to achieve social, racial, and environmental justice at large to reaffirm their humanity. In that sense, this presentation will engage the idea that community protocols with the digital as well as community struggles and innovations can inform the digital humanities to become part of a radical digital humanism. 

Eduard Arriaga is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Language, Literature and Culture at Clark University. He is also serving as Chair/Elect of the Executive Board of the Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations (ADHO), one of the most recognized digital humanities organizations globally. Arriaga is leading projects and initiatives such as “DMining Lab”, “Mining and Data-Mining,” “Community AI Lab,” and the Language of AI among others.  He has published six books and numerous articles on literature, literary theory and digital humanities, Afro-Latinx and Black digital humanities in outlets such as DHQ, Debates in the Digital Humanities, Hispania, Casa de las Américas, etc. His most recent co-edited volume, Afro-Latinx Digital Connections (Florida Press, 2021 and re-edited in 2025) is a collection of essays and interviews that explore ways in which Black Latinx communities engage our digital world. He is currently working on a book project under contract with Vanderbilt University Press, tentatively titled Afro-Brazilian Community Data Networks.