Fulbright scholar Paavo Van der Eecken reflects on time at CDH

Receiving a Fulbright grant to carry out part of my research at the Center for Digital Humanities has been one of the highlights of my PhD trajectory so far. The people I met and the insights I gained during my time in the United States have helped elevate my research on representations of age, race, class, and gender in historical illustrated children’s literature to a new level. But there is also something almost surreal about being at Princeton University. Its campus is in many ways a sheltered bubble; it is green, clean, and abundant with opportunities. Being allowed to live and work in such a place is a blessing that fills me with immense gratitude, but it also feels somewhat uneasy to be afforded so much while our societies are plagued by such rampant inequality.

At CDH, however, I was amazed at how cognizant people were of their privileged position, and how they used their work to uplift others. From the African Languages in the Age of AI Speaker Series, which provides empowerment in a highly uneven playing field, to the insights I gained on the importance of care in data work – which made me rethink the hidden labor behind many DH projects, including mine – communal values were always at the center of work at CDH. This combination of critical reasoning and generosity was also what I appreciated most while following the Responsible AI learning cohort, led by the GradFUTURES program. A personal capstone was being invited to share some of the insights I gained on data work with undergraduate students, in a guest lecture for the Introduction to Digital Humanities course.

The warmth people at CDH bring to their research is also present in how they treat those in their orbit. If someone were to ask me why I would recommend a research stay at their center, I would not refer to their technical expertise or theoretical knowledge – although they have those in spades – but rather to their ability to make someone feel right at home. Whether it was being invited to celebrate my first Thanksgiving with CDH Project Manager Mary Naydan and her family, practicing some of my ultimate frisbee throws with my supervisor Meredith Martin after a check-in meeting, or playing Mario Kart during the office goodbye party, I certainly learned as much about what it means to be kind and welcoming as I did about digital humanities.

Whenever I read Fulbright’s mission statement about building intercultural bridges, it always feels equally exciting and idealistic to me: beautiful words, but easier said than done. Reading blog posts about other people’s exchanges gives me a similar feeling; they always sound a little too good to be true. In writing this, I realize that this blog post falls right into that same pattern. If I were to read it, I would probably roll my eyes and think, “It surely was not that great.” However, I am starting to believe that seeing your experience through rose-colored glasses may very well be part of every worthwhile research stay. Now that I am going back to Belgium, I can only continue to be grateful for all the bridges I got to build and everyone in Princeton who has helped turn my glasses into this beautiful pink shade.