Abstract:
In this paper, I examine the ethics and pedagogical implications of unnaming for the political project of historical recovery. Digital humanities projects on slavery often proffer the reparative promise of serving as public-facing works that seek to recover enslaved people’s lives from archival erasure. I contend that by entwining the immaterial digital commemoration of The Unnamed Fugitive with the material monument to Le Marron Inconnu, my students’ interpretive choices illuminate the ways that deliberate unnaming can enact a shift away from anonymity and erasure and, in turn, a move towards productive engagement with the limits of knowledge and recovery in slavery’s archive.
Author: Annette Joseph-Gabriel (Duke University)
Publication: Digital Humanities Quarterly, Vol. 19, No. 1 (2025)