1. Hashtags in the Academy
and Beyond
#
Roopika Risam
Salem State University
Twitter: @roopikarisam

2. Understanding Hashtags
# Mechanism for tagging and tracking tweets
# Archive of ideas, events, conferences,
conversations
# Teaching tool

3. Understanding Hashtags
# Medium for disseminating ideas
# Way of building communities
# Lends mode of permanency to ephemerality
of Twitter

4. Why Use Hashtags?
# Work in service of scholarship
# Challenge stereotype of solitary academic
toiling in obscurity
# Untether pedagogy from mooring within the
academy

5. #dhpoco

6. What is #dhpoco?
# Movement dedicated to global explorations
of race, class, gender, sexuality, and disability
within cultures of technology
# Brings postcolonial critique to the digital
humanities and reframes postcolonial studies in
relation to the digital humanities

7. What is #dhpoco?
# Began as hashtag
# Hashtag used to test waters on concept of
“postcolonial digital humanities” in scholarly
networks
# Revealed range of attitudes and responses to
the postcolonial digital humanities

8. #NotYourAsianSidekick

9. What is #NotYourAsianSidekick?
# Hashtag created by Asian American activist
Suey Park
# Began a public conversation on Asian
American feminism
# Quickly trended on Twitter with thousands of
participants around the world engaging

10. Hashtag Backlash
# Hashtag weariness
# Critiques of the limits of “hashtag activism”
# Social media as poor substitute for organizing
and activism

11. Tips for Using Hashtags
# Create your hashtag with care
# Encourage others to use the hashtag
# Engage with users to build community
# Accept you cannot control your hashtag
# Strategize for leveraging your hashtag