In Memoriam: Michael Sperberg-McQueen (BA 1977, PhD 1985)

The DLCL joins the international digital humanities community in remembering the life and legacy of C. Michael Sperberg-McQueen (1954-2024). Michael received his B.A. in German Studies and Comparative Literature with distinction, and with Honors in German Studies at Stanford in 1977, along with an M.A. in German Studies at Stanford that same year. He then received his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Stanford in 1985, with a dissertation on “An Analysis of Recent Work on Nibelungenlied Poetics.”

Michael was one of the earliest graduates of what would become the DLCL to combine a rich background in the humanities with deep engagement with technology. In 1998, he co-edited the specification for Extensible Markup Language (XML) version 1.0, and chaired international standards bodies, including the W3C XML Coordination Group and the XML Schema Working Group. Michael was instrumental in the development of the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI), a set of guidelines for the digital encoding of scholarly texts. He co-edited the initial set of guidelines in 1994, and served as their editor-in-chief from 1988 to 2000. In this way, Michael helped build a path for many generations of DLCL alumni whose work intersects with both the humanities and technology, including through the current “Slavic DH” and “AI in Literatures, Cultures, and Languages” DLCL Research Units and the new DH Co-Op.

Michael was actively involved in the markup community up until his death, and despite his reputation as a giant in the field, he is remembered best for his kindness and openness towards newcomers, his sense of humor, and his generosity as a collaborator and thinking partner on both technical and humanistic questions. Balisage: the Markup Conference has collected memories of Michael Sperberg-McQueen on their website, including many of his conference wrap-up talks and his whimsical Balisage Bard entries.

For more information on how to get involved with digital humanities in the DLCL, please contact DLCL Academic Technology Specialist Quinn Dombrowski at qad [at] stanford.edu (qad[at]stanford[dot]edu).