Jesse Draper

I’m married with three kids, a dog, and two cats and we live among a tribe of beautiful people in the Lansing / East Lansing Michigan area. I spent the 90s trying to be a rock star and the aughts getting an M.A. in American Studies and a PhD in 20th Century Urban American History. I am a Core Faculty Member of the Digital Humanities program and an Academic Specialist in the College of Arts and Letters serving as the Executive Director for H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online, an independent, non-profit scholarly association that offers an open academic space for scholars, teachers, advanced students and related professionals. I began working with H-Net in 2013 as a Content Developer while finishing my PhD in U.S. History. I joined the organization as the Associate Director of Networks in October 2014, became Interim Executive Director in January 2020, and was appointed as the new Executive Director in November 2022.

My current research interests focus on Digital Humanities as a large-scale scholarly project. I am currently exploring how to build safe spaces for critical public discourse and leading discussions about the ethical use of AI in the humanities and social sciences at Michigan State University where I am a Core Faculty Member of the Digital Humanities Program and a member of the Critical Perspectives on AI working group in the College of Arts & Letters. I was also a contributor to Michigan State’s Guidelines for the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence Tools.

You can see the live stream/recorded video of our 2025 symposium Fear, Faith, and Praxis: Artificial Intelligence in the Humanities and Social Sciences (to be held February 20-21 at MSU) on the H-Net Commons:

https://networks.h-net.org/2025-ai-symposium

H-Net’s transition from listservs to a more robust content management system, the H-Net Commons, has presented many questions about how and why scholars use digital spaces for research and teaching. This has prompted discussion about digital publishing, peer-review, and how to utilize these new platforms to meet the needs of scholars in an increasingly digital 21st century. With 2025 Trump Administration attacks on teaching, research, and the digital preservation and presentation of that work, H-Net has begun work to be one (of hopefully many) resources for scholars to safely and securely locate their work. Check out H-Net Spaces to see our new digital project building/hosting service.

MSU Service

• Secretary, Academic Specialist Advisory Committee (ASAC) – Outreach, Michigan State University, (2025-2028)
• Curriculum Committee, Digital Humanities Program, Michigan State University, (2025-2027)
• AI – Ethics/Justice/Teaching/Learning Working Group, Michigan State University (2025-2026)
  • Critical Perspectives on AI Working Group, Michigan State University (2025-2026)
• Planning Committee, AI in the Humanities and Social Sciences Symposium, Michigan State University, (2024-2025)
• Planning Committee & Advisory Committee, 10^th Global Digital Humanities Symposium, Digital Humanities Program, Michigan State University, (2024-2025)
• Advisory Committee, Digital Humanities Program, Michigan State University, (2023-2025)
• Engagement and Outreach Committee, Digital Humanities Program, Michigan State University, (2022-2023)

Teaching at MSU

Digital Humanities (College of Arts & Letters)

• Digital Studies in Practice (DH 340)
• Digital Humanities Methods Seminar (DH 865)

History

• History in the Digital Age (HST 812)
• U.S. History Since 1876 (HST 203)
• “What We Want, What We Believe” – #BlackLivesMatter Activism in Historical Context (HST 110)
• “Race and Labor in the Development of 20th Century Detroit” (HST 201)

Anthropology

• Method and Practice in Digital Heritage (ANP 412)

Center for Integrative Arts and Humanities, Michigan State University

• Music and Society in the Modern World (IAH 241A)
• U.S. and the World: 1880 – Present, From Isolation to Global Community (IAH 201)