Embedded Pedagogies: Digital Humanities Teaching and the Infrastructure of Change

This volume offers a timely and incisive exploration of teaching in an era of institutional instability and political pressure. Drawing on extensive experience as a digital humanities practitioner and administrator, Walsh argues that teaching does not occur solely in the classroom but is deeply shaped by the policies, structures, and values embedded within universities themselves.

Focusing on the concept of 'embedded pedagogies', the book reveals how institutional norms, such as claims to neutrality, intellectualism, and future-orientation, quietly shape what and how educators can teach. Walsh combines theory with practical insight, using case studies, digital projects, and firsthand reflections to demonstrate how these forces operate and how they can be challenged.

Organized around four core institutional values-knowability, neutrality, intellectualism, and the future-the book provides both critical analysis and actionable strategies. It offers guidance for educators seeking to navigate and transform hostile or resource-constrained environments, advocating for pedagogies grounded in transparency, collective care, and social justice.

Ultimately, Walsh presents a compelling vision of teaching as a form of institutional intervention. By making visible the hidden pedagogies of higher education, this book empowers educators to reimagine their roles and to work collaboratively toward more equitable, sustainable, and hopeful futures for universities and their communities.

Brandon Walsh is Head of Student Programs in the Scholars' Lab, a digital humanities and experimental research center in the University of Virginia libraries. He has published numerous pieces that build toward the ideas in this book concerning how digital humanities pedagogy can reflect and enact infrastructural change in higher education. With over two decades teaching experience in a variety of environments, he currently oversees the fellowship programs in the Scholars' Lab. In this context, he teaches and works directly with dozens of students each year on a range of professional development, design, and digital humanities activities. His chapter in Digital Futures of Graduate Study in the Humanities entitled "The Futures of Digital Humanities Pedagogy in Times of Crisis" argues for the urgent need for educators to direct their work towards the social and political crises of the present. In addition, Walsh values working in public in order to spark conversation and share process-oriented work as evidenced by his published pieces and editorial work with The Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy, Programming Historian, and the #DLFteach Digital Library Pedagogy Cookbook. He blogs regularly at walshbr.com.