From hands-on experiences at Maryland Day to national conversations on Black data and digital futures, AADHum has a full season ahead. Here are a few upcoming events, opportunities for students, and highlights.

On Saturday 4/26, join AADHum, NarraSpaceXR, the Lakeland Heritage Project, Soft Souls Foundry, The Small Games Lab, and <desc> lab under the big MITH tent at Maryland Day 2026. You'll find us on Tawes Plaza, where we’ll be hosting a range of interactive experiences designed for all ages and levels of familiarity with digital tools!

AADHum + NarraSpaceXR are excited to welcome DC Retro Jumpers. Whether you're remembering or learning anew, come jump Double Dutch with us! We'll be jumping rope, playing with motion capture, and thinking about technologies of Black rhythm and movement! Step into our digital playground, where percussive rhythm meets interactive and holographic projection.

And all day long:

Join Soft Souls Foundry to experiment with pixel art, make a zine (maybe with a side of augmented reality)! Or take a speculative glimpse into computing's gendered past with a punchcard programmed knitting machine.

Glimpse archival futures while testing out LiteraryDJ. AADHum + Hip-hop– but make it two turntables and... a database? Or come learn more about MITH's work with The Lakeland Community Heritage Project.

Visitors can also join the Retro Computing lab to explore archival computing setups. Or learn more about web-accessibility through hands-on demonstrations with <desc>lab. And Small Games Lab will be joining in to lead some vintage video gaming!

Whether you’re curious about creative technologies, interested in the intersections of art and research, or just looking for something fun and unexpected, our Maryland Day experience will offer plenty to explore– and a few take-home goodies along the way! Stop by, say hello, and experience the kinds of work happening at the intersection of culture, computation, and community.

UMD undergraduate students are invited to apply for one of our Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) teams by Friday, April 24. VIP teams offer a unique opportunity to collaborate closely with faculty on ongoing research and creative projects, working alongside peers from different disciplines and experience levels– for credit! Whether you’re interested in digital humanities, experimental design, helping old machines and software keep up with present, meeting the challenges of or the cultural dimensions of technology, our VIP teams are spaces where undergrads can contribute meaningfully to research while developing their own skills and interests.

Our teams:

• Immersive Realities in Digital Humanities Workgroup (IRiDH) — working alongside AADHum, NarraSpace, and The Small Games Lab, exploring immersive media, storytelling, and critical and experimental approaches to building digital environments. Led by Marisa Parham, Professor of English, Associate Director of MITH
• RetroComp — engaging with the history and creative possibilities of legacy computing systems. Led by Jeffrey Moro, Assistant Clinical Professor of Digital Humanities and Digital Studies at MITH and AADHum
• <desc> lab — investigating new approaches to digital scholarship and archival humanities research. Led by Raffaele Viglianti, Senior Research Software Developer at MITH

Students selected for VIP teams will gain hands-on experience while building collaborative research portfolios. Visit the VIP website to learn more about each team and how to apply.

In early May, our ongoing celebration of the planet continues with an upcoming Earth Day Arcade a Small Games Lab event in MITH at Hornbake Library, organized by Himadri Agarwal.

This arcade experience centers games that engage with environmental themes, inviting players to think critically about climate change, sustainability, and our evolving relationship with the natural world. From playful simulations to thought-provoking narratives, the featured experiences will highlight how games can serve as powerful tools for exploring complex ecological questions.

More details soon, so be sure to keep this event on your radar!

This May, AADHum will travel to New Orleans to participate in Who Owns Black Data III: The Fight for Black Futures. This dynamic series of conferences and activations, organized by the Black Beyond Data group, brings together scholars, artists, and technologists to examine questions of data, ownership, and power — issues that also sit at the core of AADHum’s work. As a lab committed to digital and experimental research on Black life, we are excited for this opportunity to work with our WOBD colleagues toward more just and sustainable futures at The Amistad Research Center.

In October, AADHum will also be represented at the annual meeting of the American Studies Association. We're bringing a panel titled “Digitality, Interactivity, and the Work of Black Memory," featuring work by AADHum's Andrew W. Smith, Christin A. Washington and Marisa Parham, and Afrotectopia artist Ari Melenciano. Dr. P. Gabrielle Foreman will be on hand as the panel's respondent. We'll be exploring how developing digital tools and interactive practices structurally based in Black lives can shape the ways how histories are preserved, experienced, and reimagined.

Also at ASA, a group of AADHum graduate students will be offering a panel of lightning talks. Join panel chair Christin A. Washington (AmSt) + Himadri Agarwal, Alice Bi, Funmilola Fadairo, and Lisa Abena Osei (English) + Renee Scott (WGSS), and Fatima Seck (CompLit) at "From Theory to Project to Plan: Improvisation and Keeping the Spirit in Digital Research." These presentations will highlight the creative and iterative processes that animate digital humanities, emphasizing experimentation, adaptability, and the importance of holding one's intellectual and cultural grounding across the research process.

Our colleagues at #DigBlk are currently seeking a creative and forward-thinking Data Scientist to support innovative work at the intersection of computational research, digital scholarship, and Black archival studies. This role focuses on engaging Black archival collections and datasets through critical approaches to AI. It is an exciting opportunity for someone interested in shaping how emerging technologies interact with questions of history, culture, and data. If this sounds like you or someone in your network, we encourage you to explore the position and share it widely. Learn more through the link below.