Organized futures: speculative design for more just and joyful scholarly infrastructure

This article explores my process for designing just and joyful scholarly infrastructure by performing a representative speculative experiment: drafting a digital humanities scholarship review clinic shaped by a “what if . . . ?” framing. I describe and analyze possible practices and policies toward running an affirmative experience of review for written genres of digital humanities scholarship, including conference abstracts, grant proposals, digital project reviews, and blog posts: a “Water Your Work” clinic focused on strengthening and supporting both scholarship and scholar. I share how I work through these ideas at a mid-stage, rather than only their eventual polished outcome, to increase how publicly and transparently we practice the design processes that might help us grow more just, caring, and effective scholarly communities. I conclude by exploring next steps for improving the thought experiment and testing it in the real world, including through analysis of relevant existing fields of study and values systems.