The intersection of digital humanities and postcolonial studies presents rich opportunities for collaboration and critique. As Risam (2018) explores, both fields grapple with representation and knowledge construction, despite their differing approaches. Integrating postcolonial theory into digital humanities can help transform it into a more inclusive, self-critical, and socially oriented field. Greater diversity, both in terms of people and perspectives, is needed to avoid reproducing dominant paradigms. Postcolonial approaches can provide important critical insights into the digital humanities, examining how tools and practices can perpetuate inequality. Digital humanities provide new means of engaging with colonial history by digitizing archival materials and generating visualizations and interactions with these records. Yet digital humanities must also be wary of reproducing the colonial gaze through its tools and platforms.
The concept of postcolonial computing, which examines the design and development of technology within different cultural contexts, is particularly pertinent to this endeavor. It seeks to understand how colonial legacies influence power dynamics and knowledge production in technology, a field historically dominated by Western paradigms that often marginalize non-Western perspectives and perpetuate power imbalances. These colonial structures in computing manifest as biased algorithms, exclusionary user interfaces, and limited technological access for marginalized communities, contributing to a digital divide that privileges the Global North (Warschauer 2003; Noble 2018; D'Ignazio / Klein 2020). Addressing these structures requires a critical examination of how power, culture, and history intersect in the design and use of technology, promoting a move towards inclusive, equitable, and culturally sensitive computing practices (Irani et al., 2010).
In the digital age, historical narratives are not just recorded but reconstructed, and in regions like Central Asia, where Soviet-era repressions left indelible marks, the potential for digital humanities to facilitate this reconstruction is immense.
The project aims to create an open-access digital platform that brings to light the history of state repressions and forced displacements in 20th-century Soviet Central Asia by integrating biographical databases, personal narratives, and digital assets related to victims of Stalinist policies. Additionally, it seeks to address digital colonialism by critically assessing and improving current digital tools and systems for cultural heritage preservation in Central Asia.
Digital humanities tools and techniques can be used to analyze and visualize data related to colonial histories, uncovering patterns, connections, and power dynamics that were previously hidden or ignored. Mapping tools can visualize the spatial dimensions of colonialism, revealing the extent of colonization, displacement, and exploitation.
Digital humanities can contribute to decolonizing historical knowledge production in Central Asia by providing tools, methodologies, and platforms that help uncover underrepresented voices and challenge dominant narratives shaped by the colonial experience. Moreover, creating standardized multilingual digital corpora is crucial for preserving linguistic diversity in the region and enabling natural language processing for the digital integration of marginalized languages.
The complex legacy of the Soviet Union in Central Asia involves a tangle of modernization efforts, empowerment narratives, and oppressive colonial tactics, including persecution and enforced population transfers. These campaigns, epitomized by Stalin’s purges, are not merely historical footnotes but active memories that shape current political and social landscapes. While these topics remain sensitive, the ethical application of DH methodologies offers a pathway to new insights and the fostering of dialogues aimed at healing and understanding.
Recently, Central Asian scholars have increasingly adopted digital tools to reconstruct cultural memory around Soviet repressions by aggregating biographical databases, oral histories and archival materials. However, these initiatives often operate without critically addressing the biases present within their methodologies or ensuring the inclusion of subaltern voices. Thus, there's a pressing need for a postcolonial DH framework that prioritizes ethical considerations and community engagement.
The project proposes developing an interactive repository integrating dispersed assets to illuminate concealed repression narratives through decolonizing lenses. Features will include collaborative data integration, localization of interfaces, multilingual content access, critical data provenance tagging, and networked commemoration functions. Case studies focusing on the consolidation of biographical records and the construction of a personal digital archive will be presented to showcase the repository’s ability to support multidirectional storytelling.
Technical strategies proposed in this paper for an integrative digital repository include collaborative data integration, multilingual interfaces, critical metadata, and participatory commemoration features. The infrastructure intends to catalyze multidirectional engagement with living legacies of violence. Building ethical digital humanities research capacity in Central Asia ultimately means recognizing diverse cultures, needs and aspirations on their own terms. This forms part of wider efforts toward reclaiming autonomy and pluralism in representing the past.
The project is not merely an academic exercise but a practical strategy to address the digital divide and empower communities affected by Soviet-era repressions. It involves close collaboration with regional experts who have firsthand experience with the history of repression and forced deportation and have created relevant digital resources based on biographical information.