One of the world’s first and oldest academic networks, HASTAC has over 18,000 members from 400+ affiliate organizations. HASTAC (pronounced like “haystack”) stands for the Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory, an interdisciplinary network formed in 2002-03. HASTAC was an early participant in a National Science Foundation initiative to create “collaboratories,” online research clusters without walls, spanning multiple institutions and disciplines. 

HASTAC has two mottos that inform our practice: “Changing the Ways We Teach and Learn” (a commitment to equitable, lifelong, peer-to-peer collaborative pedagogies) and “Difference is Our Operating System” (an aspiration to be a network dedicated to social justice and with zero community tolerance for discriminatory language or actions). “Collaboration by Difference” is HASTAC’s prized methodology.

The student-led network, HASTAC Scholars, hosts Digital Fridays (now Commons Fridays), collaborative reading groups and book reviews, and other events offering opportunities, skills training, and constructive feedback in a mutually-supportive environment.

In Summer 2022, HASTAC.org proudly joined the Humanities Commons to begin its next iteration as “HASTAC Commons.”