Whitney Trettien & Roberto Gonzalez: Data Frictions in the History of Prisons

This recording was made as part of the “Open Research Colloquium Digital History” at Humboldt University in Berlin and was recorded on November 26, 2025.

Whitney Trettien and Roberto Gonzalez presented the lecture:

“Data Frictions in the History of Prisons”

Recording Overview

The recording examines the history of printing presses in U.S. prisons from the 1880s onward, focusing on newspapers and magazines written, edited, and produced by incarcerated people. These publications, ranging from hand-made zines to widely circulated periodicals, are presented as a powerful counter-archive to commercial and bureaucratic print produced through prison labor. The talk introduces the digital humanities project Printing in Prisons, which curates a digital collection of these materials and connects them to the contemporary crisis of mass incarceration.

Drawing on collaborations with students and justice-involved scholars, the lecture reflects on the challenges of working with prison data and partners who are currently or formerly incarcerated. It addresses issues of digital access, ethics, and long-term sustainability, and uses these “data frictions” to argue for more equitable and impactful digital humanities practices.

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📄 Abstract & further information:
https://dhistory.hypotheses.org/12205

📅 Full program of the Research Colloquium, WiSe 2025/2026:
https://dhistory.hypotheses.org/digit...

📬 Discussion & updates:
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Thumbnail Image Credits: Trettien, Whitney. “Printing in Prisons.” Penn Libraries, ongoing. https://doi.org/10.58117/2X7T-S726.