Roopika Risam

@roopikarisam.bsky.social

8.5K followers 1.9K following 4.5K posts

Chair of Film & Media Studies at Dartmouth 💚, equestrian🐴, author of DATA EMPIRE (Harper & Torva, July 2026) https://roopikarisam.com

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Roopika Risam is an associate professor of film and media studies and of comparative literature and faculty in the Digital Humanities and Social Engagement cluster at Dartmouth College. She was formerly Chair of the Department of Secondary and Higher Education and Associate Professor of Education at Salem State University. She is a scholar of digital and postcolonial humanities. .. more

Art 25%

Communication & Media Studies 21%

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Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · Sep 23

It's UK official! DATA EMPIRE, coming July 9, 2026 🤩

Front page of the bookseller with four author photos and announcements. Mine says "Torva wins seven-way auction for 'breathtakingly ambitious' human history of data"

Torva, an imprint of Transworld, has signed the first trade book by Roopika
Risam, associate professor of digital humanities at Dartmouth, in a seven-
way auction.
Publishing director Alex Christofi acquired UK and Commonwealth rights
to Data Empire: A Human History of Records and Rule from Emma Bal at
Madeleine Milburn. North American rights were pre-empted for six figures
by Sarah Haugen at Harper.
Recommended by the publisher for readers of Nexus and The Age of
Surveillance Capitalism, Data Empire shows how data gathering has been
"fundamental" to the human species' success, driving advancements
throughout history as well as enabling the exercise of power.
The blurb states: "From ancient cave markings and knotted strings to
colonial censuses and modern surveillance, data has always been used to
shape civilisations, uphold empires and control lives. The story of empire is
the story of data - and knowing this history is the first step to breaking its
grip on the future."
Christofi said: "It is breathtakingly ambitious to read data back into the
whole span of human history, from the first clay tokens to the era of
surveillance drones - but it becomes impossible to unsee. Professor Risam
has written a paradigm-shifting book that is going to change how we
understand the struggle to keep control of our own data in the present."

Risam's academic research explores how histories of race, empire and
technology shape the modern world. She is the author of New Digital Worlds,
taught in over 150 universities worldwide, and past president of the
Association for Computers and the Humanities.

"I'm fortunate to be working with Sarah Haugen at Harper and Alex Christofi
at Torva, who understand the urgency and scale of this project and have
shaped it with shared editorial vision, and with Emma Bal at the Madeleine
Milburn Agency, who challenged me to think more daringly about what this
book could be."
Torva will publish Data Empire in hardback and trade paperback on 9th July
2026.

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 5h

Oh good! I would love to see your article as my library’s coverage for the journal seems to end in 1868. rrisam, gmail. I am really excited to see how these conversations develop. And I just love anyone whose answer to what they are doing in DH right now isn’t AI 😭

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 5h

One time in my professional life, I would like some time to just sit with things and do them slowly. But it’s always a hustle for some reason. (Courtesy of final manuscript revisions due on Dec. 9th that I’d love to dwell on for another month but for reasons we have to get this book out in July.)

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 5h

Poor Amy had to deal with my innate desire to do what you say we shouldn’t which is police what we call things 😂

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 5h

Have you read @aearhart.bsky.social’s new book on digital literary redlining? I think you may find it useful.

Reposted by Roopika Risam

Amardeep Singh @electrostani.bsky.social · 6h

I have a new #DH essay out in a German journal called Archiv, as part of a special issue on "Archives and the Global Turn." The title is: "Anthology, Archive, Corpus: the Design and Implications of _African American Poetry: a Digital Anthology_."

Here's a thread about it in plain English:

1/

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 16h

Pretty rich on a holiday weekend literally celebrating colonialism.

Hari Kunzru @harikunzru.bsky.social · 22h

‘Remigration’ is a term that comes out of the European far right. Its use by the DHS account is a sign of democratic and epistemic collapse

DEPARTMENT
Homeland Security
@DHSgov

The stakes have never been higher, and the goal has never been more clear:
Remigration now.

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 21h

Congratulations!!!!!!

Reposted by Roopika Risam

Kathleen Alves @katalves18c.bsky.social · 21h

Unboxing day! Literally squealed to see her 💕 Many, many thanks to @bucknellupress.bsky.social for the love and care that went into this project!

Reposted by Steve Peers, Alan Richardson, Roopika Risam , and 2 more Steve Peers, Alan Richardson, Roopika Risam, Erin O’Donnell, Jeff Crisp

Hari Kunzru @harikunzru.bsky.social · 22h

‘Remigration’ is a term that comes out of the European far right. Its use by the DHS account is a sign of democratic and epistemic collapse

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 1d

They’re really just making us immigrants feel great, welcome, and safe, aren’t they.

Reposted by Rosemary A. Joyce, Roopika Risam, Julia M. Wright , and 4 more Rosemary A. Joyce, Roopika Risam, Julia M. Wright, Ann Bartow, Greg Linden, Nicole Guenther Discenza, Annalee Newitz

Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 1d

I don’t know if anyone else notices or cares, but when I see a presentation in which the speaker uses obviously generated-AI images to illustrate their slides, it makes me immediately less confident in whatever other content they’re presenting.

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 1d

I do know that his undergrad degree was from University of Tokyo.

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 1d

@jeddobson.bsky.social reports that his "special-student days" referenced in the article means he was a non-degree student.

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 1d

@jeddobson.bsky.social confirms this is correct. I had never heard the phrase "special student" before!

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 1d

I literally thought it was a typo and the student days were special to him 😂

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 1d

Thank you for solving that mystery, which also crossed my mind but wasn't pressing.

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 1d

AHHHH that's what "special-student" is. I was mystified by that adjective. Thank you, Keeper of All Things Dartmouth 💕

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 1d

Dartmouth friends, help a girl out. I was research someone and found a reference to him in our alumni magazine: Eiji Wajima '30S. What on earth would "S" stand for? Would this have been Guarini before it was called Guarini? archive.dartmouthalumnimagazine.com/article/1965...

Alumni in Japan | Dartmouth Alumni Magazine | MARCH 1965

archive.dartmouthalumnimagazine.com

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 1d

It’s been a big dream of mine forever.

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 1d

Courtesy of 🦃 day texts, my childhood bestie seems to agree that we should go to Rapa Nui for our 45th birthday trip because it fits the criteria of somewhere we haven’t been that’s incredibly cool, where the boys won’t want to come. It’s a logistical nightmare but 🤞🏽.

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 1d

Zucchini bread. Pumpkin bread. Cornbread. 😉

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 1d

Please know how long it took for me to find the rest of the table beyond a place for two under all the books and notes and papers…

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 1d

Awww! Love these photos. And glad you survived the gluten-free biscuits!

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 1d

Thank you! I am very proud of the table.

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 2d

Cast iron skillet, melt the butter in it and swirl around before putting it into the batter.

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 2d

Always actual corn kernels!!!

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 2d

A cup!!!! 😱

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 2d

Happy Day of Turkey! Let’s start an internet fight. Sugar definitely belongs in cornbread. 💕

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 2d

Are the same errors showing up with different students?

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