ALA Lecture Series Presents:
Speaker: Ainehi Edoro-Glines on the Algorithm and the Archive.
Introduced by Shola Adenekan
Saturday March 22, 2025 @ 11:00 AM EST; London, 3:00 PM; Lagos, 4:00 PM; Johannesburg, 5:00 PM; Nairobi, 6:00 PM
Join us on the ALA YouTube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaYYHGM8iraoQF48xeCnMKw
Ainehi Edoro-Glines is a Nigerian academic of Esan descent, an assistant professor jointly appointed in English and African Cultural Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She works on African literature and digital culture. She founded Brittle Paper, a leading platform on African literary culture. Her book, titled Forest Imaginaries: How African Novels Think, is forthcoming at Columbia University Press. Her work has appeared in English Literary History and PMLA, The Guardian, Lithub, and BBC World News. She is an OkayAfrica Top 100 Women honoree for her work in literature and digital media. IN THIS LECTURE, AINEHI EDORO-GLINES MAKES A BOLD CLAIM: SOCIAL MEDIA FEEDS ARE NOT ARCHIVES, AND THE INTERNET WILL NOT SAVE OUR STORIES—WE MUST. In a world where social media platforms prioritize speed, virality, and endless scrolling, what are the possibilities for African literary knowledge making? What happens when literature—deeply tied to history, culture, and the slow work of preserving knowledge—collides with a digital world designed for speed, engagement, and constant updates? How can African literature stay visible and exploit the creative possibilities of a social media ecosystem while resisting erasure? And what does it mean to build archives in a digital world that thrives on impermanence?
