2. Neutral

Universities often respond to criticism by professing political neutrality, but this stance serves as a smokescreen for institutional policies that are inimical to education. The allure of neutral politics caters directly to external actors who desire the destruction of institutions of learning, speeding along their attempts to undermine the work we do. This chapter speaks to campus-wide policies of neutrality from the space of the library, arguing for digital humanities teaching that runs towards—rather than away from—the ever-present political and social crises that surround it. I argue for teaching administrators to articulate the political commitments of their work and to meet these values with politically-engaged student assignments. First, from an administrative standpoint, I offer the use of charters—collectively authored statements of practices and values—as pedagogical tools that intentionally frame a group’s identity around the politics and values at the heart of their work. I then discuss three DH projects with explicit values systems that extend these statements to action-oriented assignments that have an effect beyond the classroom: Baltimore Traces, the Chicagolandia Oral History Project, and the Northern Illinois University Latinx Oral History Digital Project.