WEBSITES AS SOURCES:
How should humanities and social sciences approach, use and diffusepublicly available online sources?

The deadline has been extended to the 30th of November.

The Jean Monnet Chair in History of European Integration and its Research Programme ‘Digital Humanities Luxembourg’ — DIHULUX (research unit Identités-Politiques-Sociétés-Espaces [IPSE]), together with the Centre Virtuel de la Connaissance sur l’Europe (CVCE), are pleased to launch the call for papers for the DHLU Symposium 2012. This Symposium follows the DHLU Symposium 2009, also organised in Luxembourg by these two institutions on the topic of ‘Contemporary history in the digital age’. This second edition aims to examine the use of websites as sources for research in the humanities and social sciences, especially encouraging an analysis of this heuristic question in the field of European integration studies (EIS). The Symposium will address both methodological aspects and the theoretical and institutional implications of the public dissemination of research results, focusing on digitised and online published sources as well as on websites themselves, which will be analysed as born digital sources. The potential of this innovative research approach will also be explored and emphasised. The Symposium will be structured around the following research clusters, but may also include other related approaches:

1.      Holding the mirror

This first cluster addresses the challenges and potentialities of online archives offering primary sources for research purposes. It
will look into the modes of presentation and theoretical-methodological debates concerning uses, approaches and interconnections of such sources.

2.      The critical added value

This cluster focuses on online secondary sources and enhanced publications, with a special emphasis in digital research corpora. It
aims at examining ongoing developments in the intertwining modes between available primary sources and resulting secondary sources centred on the priority of critically commenting and enriching contents as a scientific asset.

3.      (Self-)reflections and the creative observer

This cluster will take a step beyond textual sources to examine the unique features of audiovisual sources and hence of new forms of
creation and re-creation of historical memories. A special section within this cluster will be dedicated to innovative digital oral history sources and projects.

4.      Institutional and dissemination aspects: digital public history

This cluster will focus on forms of institutionalisation of digital research practices, results and dissemination strategies by means of
collaborative projects in the humanities and social sciences targeted towards a wide variety of audiences.

5.      Web history and digital history methods for the use of websites as sources

Web history constitutes a new scientific field centred on the historical study of websites for research purposes, thus paving the way for increasingly interdisciplinary trends in the humanities and social sciences. This session will offer Web historians the opportunity to share their experiences concerning their ongoing results and chosen methods.

We welcome papers focusing on digital humanities and social sciences from researchers and scholars at all stages of their careers. Papers examining cases related to European integration studies (EIS) are especially encouraged. Abstracts (max. 500 words), submitted together with a short CV (max. 250 words) and a list of publications, can be written in English or French and should be sent to the following contact email address, which can also be used for any enquiries:
frederic.clavert [at] cvce.eu

The authors of the selected proposals will be invited to present their contributions at the DHLU Symposium 2012, to be held in Luxembourg, and their papers will be published in the Symposium proceedings (only English versions of the revised full papers will be accepted for publication). Participation costs will be covered up to a set limit.

Deadline for proposals: 30 November 2011

The Symposium will be followed by THATCamp Luxembourg/Trier, closely linked to the main themes of the Symposium and offering technology and humanities specialists the opportunity to meet and discuss during brainstorming sessions based on the Symposium’s liveliest debates.
THATCamp Luxembourg/Trier will be co-organised by the Center for Digital Humanities (Universität Trier).

The First Meeting of the International Federation for Public History (IFPH) will take place alongside these two events.

For further information, please refer to the DHLU Symposium 2012 website: http://www.digitalhumanities.lu