The word humanist is broadly defined, and is applicable to several disciplines. Andrew Gildersleeve defines himself as not just a humanist, but a digital humanist. Andrew graduated from Lewis and Clark Law School with his Juris Doctor, as well as his BA in English. Throughout his career, he spent time as a teacher, a writer, and most recently, he worked for the Alaska native tribal health consortium as their Digital Communications liaison. Because of his experiences working with rural Alaskans, and specifically Alaska Native peoples, I felt that his experience would lend perfectly to this interview.
What is the purpose of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium?
Among a variety of responsibilities, the primary objective was to take care of the health of the people we represented as well as the health of the environment that they were so dependent upon. We worked with people throughout the state, as well as government and corporate officials in varying positions.
What were your responsibilities as the Digital Communications Liaison?
Well, there were a lot of challenges involved with my position. I had to take language that the fed government used in their official documentation and translate to a sort of layman speak for the native community, so in a sort I was a translator. It involved a lot of sensitivity, to be able to connect with these people and in a way that was conciliatory and helpful, and not as a bureaucratic official. I was in charge of all external communication to those communities, including designing websites, copy briefs that established tone and audience, starting social media channels to reach people, leveraging existing channels to support traditional culture programs, such as traditional food contemporary chef, the list carries on and on.
What challenges did you see the people facing recently in reflection of the economic downturn and increasing political impotency?
Living in rural Alaska has always been expensive, which is a problem for people who are not always able to find gainful employment in their village. Specifically, fuel prices skyrocketed, as well as the general cost of living, in addition to natural environmental factors such as the hard winters and disappearing villages syndrome. It’s become extraordinarily hard for these people to get by, so as their advocate I witnessed a lot of this and formed a very personal view on it. Even the influence of corporate interests have led to degradation of traditional food stocks (due to population loss from commercial fishing, over-hunting, and disease). Thankfully, the digital age has given those people a voice in opposition to things like projects that would impact their livelihood. One such project is the proposed Pebble Creek Gold mine, which stands to threaten a vast network of rivers and streams in southwest Alaska, the spawning grounds of Alaskan Salmon, a vital subsistence source for these people.
What challenges did you face in working for a corporation?
Through my time there, I found that corporate institutional values are fundamentally at odds with the needs of the people. The corporate structure is built for survival, and even though we were a non profit, we did all sorts of deleterious to the communities- such as building water treatment facilities on top of perfectly good spring water. As a digital humanist, it was difficult to separate my personal views from my professional life- that’s why I don’t work there anymore. At the end the day, what kept me going was I knew I was working toward a good cause. I still work toward that cause, but in a fashion that doesn’t require me to sacrifice my personal beliefs in any way.
What do you believe is the biggest obstacle to humanism, digital or otherwise?
Lack of education. The lack of dialogue. You can be ahead of the curve creating solutions and stuff, but at the end of the day there is an uneducated element that is opposed to creativity and humanism. Because I am a humanist I am naturally conciliatory, but there are a lot of dogmatic beliefs out there that impede our ability to move forward. Political polarization and an inability to compromise is the biggest threat to humanism. It’s a shame that the discussion has become so vitriolic that the basic needs of the people, rural or otherwise, are ignored in favor of everyone trying to be right. There’s no compromise whatsoever anymore. There’s no appreciation for the value that humans bring to the table based off virtue alone– no support for education, traditional languages and cultures are being neglected to the point of extinction, it’s quite sad really.
Thanks for your time Andrew, I really appreciate the thoughtful dialogue!
Anytime!
Although humanism is broad, it’s also very specific. Andrew has a lot of passions, his biggest being education. Through education, he believes, we can preserve the value of humans– creativity and culture specifically. It’s very interesting to see how your environment can change the way you view the world and the people in it, as every place is going to have its own set of unique challenges. Everyone places value in their own set of morals or beliefs, and like it or not, we’re all in this together.