Aligarh: Mr. S. Anas Ahmad, Assistant Professor in the Department of English, Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), presented a research paper titled “Reimagining Archival Accessibility: Digital Humanities Collaborations Between India and the UK” at the Digital Humanities UK-Ireland Annual Conference 2025, held at the University of Glasgow, Scotland.
The international conference brought together over 150 delegates from more than 15 countries, with representation from leading institutions including the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, King’s College London, Trinity College Dublin, and the University of Edinburgh.
In his paper, Mr. Ahmad addressed the critical challenge of the inaccessibility of colonial and independence-era archives housed in British repositories. He proposed a low-resource, multilingual digital humanities framework that emphasises translation, narration, and contextual metadata to enhance archival access for Indian audiences.
Drawing upon his teaching experience and grassroots digital humanities initiatives at AMU, the paper advocated for minimal computing, multilingual pedagogy, and community-driven collaboration as essential components for achieving equitable archival access.
The presentation contributed meaningfully to ongoing global dialogues on archival justice, postcolonial digital humanities, and transnational academic partnerships.
Mr. Ahmad’s participation was supported through the Digital Humanities UK-Ireland Early Career Grant. He expressed gratitude to Professor M. Rizwan Khan for his mentorship and academic guidance, and to Professor Shaheena Tarannum, Chairperson of the Department of English, for her consistent support.
