Digital Humanities, Afro-Indigenous Foodways Symposium to be Held in April at William & Mary

WILLIAMSBURG – At theintersection of digital humanities and food April 10-11 will be the “Digital Bites: Exploring African American and Indigenous Foodways in the Digital Age,” symposium hosted by William & Mary’s Equality Lab. The symposium, held at the Muscarelle Museum of Art, will feature workshops and lectures by experts in the fields of digital humanities and Afro-Indigenous foodways. The symposium is free to the public and will run from 10 a.m. through 3 p.m. on Friday, April 10, and from 9:30 a.m. through 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 11. Food trucks will be available for on Saturday for a charge.

Friday kicks off with a workshop about the digitization of an indigenous foodways course at William & Mary, followed by discussions on the field of digital humanities led by William & Mary Libraries Rachel Hogan, and Dr. Dorothy Kim of Brandeis University. Kim’s areas of research are Early Middle English culture (1100‐1350) and the digital humanities.

Saturday will be packed with several interactive workshops and lectures. EMMY-nominated and James Beard Award-winning community organizer, and social media influencer KJ Kearney,operator of the social media-based “Black Food Fridays,” will lead his “Black Food Storytelling Workshop.” Christopher Custalow of the Cherokee Nation will join symposium coordinator Andre Taylor to discuss Afro-Indigenous foodways and how we engage with them today in a digital world.

Dr. Avery Blankenship will deliver the closing keynote lecture on Saturday, addressing the intersection of digital humanities and Afro-Indigenous foodways. Blankenship, an assistant professor at Texas A&M University, focuses her research on nineteenth-century American literature, cookbooks, domesticity, and Digital Humanities.

Digital Bites Lineup

Friday, April 10, 2026

10 am – Welcome address

10:30 am – “The Power of Digital Humanities: Innovating for Community and Justice,” Rachel N. Hogan, W&M Libraries

11:30 am – “Digital Pathways to Cultural Knowledge: Building Accessible Platforms for Indigenous Foodways Education,” Sydney Newell and Diana Theisinger, STLI

12:30 pm – First Day Keynote, Dr. Dorothy Kim, Brandeis University

 

Saturday, April 11, 2026

9:30 am – Second Day Welcome

10 am - “Shared Roots: Interpreting Afro-Indigenous Foodways in the 21st Century,” Andre Taylor and Christopher Custalow

11 am – “Linguistic Atlas Project of the Greater Caribbean,” Dr. Iyabo Osiapem, William & Mary

12 pm – “Mapping Meaning: Spatial Approaches in Digital Humanities,” Dr. Shannon White, William & Mary Center for Geospatial Analysis

1 pm – “Black Food Storytelling Workshop,” KJ Kearney, Black Food Fridays on Instagram

2 pm – Cultural Studies Presentation, Kit Bauserman, William & Mary

3 pm – Second Day Keynote, Dr. Avery Blankenship, Texas A&M University

4 pm – Closing remarks

For more about the “Digital Bites: Exploring African American and Indigenous Foodways in the Digital Age,” contact Andre Taylor at ataylor06@wm.edu.