Roopika Risam

@roopikarisam.bsky.social

8.2K followers 1.9K following 4.4K 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 · 3h

😂😂😂😂

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 4h

“If we figure out what it means to be human, NO ONE TELL CHATGPT!” -my contribution to the AI leadership group this morning

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 1d

Primary them all.

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 1d

Won major auntie points by giving my favorite teen the Tiffany bracelet I received for my 16th birthday to her for her Sweet 16. If she only knew I was actually planning to pay any amount for Noah Kahan tickets, only to learn they are unscalpable so I had to come up with a better idea.

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 2d

I very rarely run out of steam so badly that I can’t bring myself to do just a little bit more work. Fortunately, tomorrow is the horse convention.

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 2d

As far as I know, solely the internet!

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 2d

I mean, I am more for regular low stakes social hangs with people I like than social occasions!

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 2d

I mean they were telling their mom too 😂

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 2d

Who are the people I text all the time who I’ve known for 20-40+ years and see when we can co-locate? The folks I have breakfast with on Fridays? The barn fam I am going to the horse convention with tomorrow? The people I work on things with, who I can count on for more than work? Strange.

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 2d

Someone who shall not be named apparently told my mother that I don’t have friends, prompting a Saturday morning inquisition about my alleged lack of friends. Why, y’all.

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 3d

“You can always interrupt me to give me little-known facts about Pan-Africanism.” -my beloved, who can stay

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 3d

Apparently I have many repressed feelings about being on the faculty AI leadership thingy that ALL just came out in a text flood to a friend this morning.

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 4d

I am going to the annual horse convention this weekend and just got a talking to about how I cannot come home with another horse. And I only have one!

a man standing next to a white horse with the words gasps in horse written below it

Alt: a man standing next to a white horse with the words gasps in horse written below it

media.tenor.com

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 4d

I deeply appreciate how many friends I have who also believe that when daylight savings time ends, it's perfectly acceptable to have a drink at the campus hotel bar at 4pm.

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 5d

Solidarity for every Desi who had to listen to their parents say, “Look at that Zohran Mamdani. *He* became mayor of NY. Why aren’t you mayor of NY?” today. ✊🏽

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 5d

Hands down, the best professional decision I made last year was to work with @performant.bsky.social. Could not love collaborating with @jamiefolsom.bsky.social @anindita.org and their amazing colleagues more. 😍

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 5d

In completely wild stuff this data visualization project reveals... one of the women who participated in the First Pan-African Conference, Ada Harris, was a teacher from Indianapolis who also patented the hair straightener. Thank you, Ada Harris, for one of my favorite implements.

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 6d

It’s a DH project so it will make it to the world, but it’s the will anyone actually find this useful feeling. Though I feel that a lot writing too.

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 6d

That feeling of having spent six years on a project and wondering if it was actually a total waste of time. Blergh.

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 6d

I really never had a chance to not be a postcolonialist, did I?

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 6d

Data cleaning is reminding me of the time I was head delegate for Zaire at the Dublin Model UN Conference in 1997 (I know at least one of you was there!) and a major offensive in the civil war was launched, so we were running down Grafton Street on Easter Sunday trying to find a newspaper.

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 6d

I will simply leave this clip from Lil' Bush, a cartoon I mightily enjoyed in the 2000s, right here. www.dailymotion.com/video/x2jynk

Lil’ Bush – Satan Hates Cheney

Dailymotion video by thatsfunny

www.dailymotion.com

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 6d

I should never make jokes. I joked to a friend about EvergreenLearnPineTherabot, the all-in-one green place AI platform, and this was in the student paper today. www.thedartmouth.com/article/2025...

Parent and alumni donations have raised $5 million for Evergreen.AI

Evergreen project directors hope to raise an additional $11.5 million over the next year.

www.thedartmouth.com

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 6d

Here is a new one: being asked to review a manuscript that I have a chapter in.

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 6d

I see you @jamiefolsom.bsky.social thinking "oh no, not moar data" 😅

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 6d

The fun thing about working on some of the later events related to Pan-Africanism is getting to send texts to friends saying "just put your uncle/aunt/father/grandfather in the dataset."

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 7d

I had 16 week semesters with a 4/4 teaching load for 9 years at my last institution and it was brutal. No one needed that.

Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 8d

The quarter system, y’all. Can’t decide if I love it or hate it.

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