Placed Writing: Displacement, Home and Digital Literacy Communities
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
11-2009
Abstract
Global displacements result from tragically traumatic situations such as war, genocide, terrorist acts, political violence, natural disasters and economic hardship. Displaced groups and individuals surviving such circumstances, locally and around the world, have begun to utilize online communities and resources to reconnect and voice experiences of lost homes and places. For example, in the case of Hurricane Katrina survivors in the United States, individuals shared and continue to share their written memories, including concepts of home, online via the Hurricane Digital Memory Bank (HDMB).This essay shares writing by Katrina survivors, specifically writing on the HDMB, about home and displacement. The author explores the way in which one local community’s digital concepts of home can inform global understandings of home for survivors of displacement. Further, it is implicitly argued that digital communities provide distinctly profound opportunities such as prolific writing and subsequent healing as well as creating connections with global communities participating in similar expressions and recovery related to their unique displacements and experiences.
Recommended Citation
Selected Proceedings of the International Symposium, “40 Years of Philological Studies at Sibiu,” Sibiu, Romania, 19-21 November, 2009.