CfP: Digital Humanities 2016

26 Aug 2015 - 00:00

Digital Humanities 2016: The Past and the Future

Call for Proposals: English | French | German | Italian | Polish | Spanish

I. General Information

The Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations (ADHO) invites submission of abstracts for its annual conference, on any aspect of digital humanities. This includes, but is not limited to:

  • humanities research enabled through digital media, data mining, software studies, or information design and modeling
  • social, institutional, global, multilingual, and multicultural aspects of digital humanities;
  • computer applications in literary, linguistic, cultural, and historical studies, including electronic literature, public humanities, and interdisciplinary aspects of modern scholarship;
  • quantitative stylistics and philology, including big data / textmining studies;
  • digital arts, architecture, music, film, theatre, new media, digital games, and related areas;
  • emerging technologies such as 3D printing, single-board computers, wearable devices, applied to humanities research;
  • creation and curation of humanities digital resources; and
  • digital humanities in pedagogy and academic curricula.

For the 2016 conference, contributions that address social, institutional, global, multilingual, and multicultural aspects of digital humanities are welcome; but also contributions that address quantitative and statistics methods applied to texts and submissions on interdisciplinary work and new developments in all field of digital humanities.

Presentations may include:

  • posters (abstract maximum 750 words);
  • short papers (abstract maximum 1500 words);
  • long papers (abstract maximum 1500 words);
  • multiple paper sessions, including panels (regular abstracts + approximately 500-word overview); and
  • pre-conference workshops and tutorials (proposal maximum 1500 words)

The deadline for submitting poster, short paper, long paper, and multiple paper session proposals to the international Program Committee is midnight GMT, 1 November, 2015. Presenters will be notified of acceptance by 7 February, 2016.

Workshop proposals are due by midnight GMT, 14 February, 2016, with notice of acceptance by 7th March, 2016.

For DH2016, workshops endorsed by a SIG can be proposed by midnight GMT, 15 December 2015, with notice of acceptance by 30th of January 2016.

A link to the online abstract submission system will be available on the conference website: http://dh2016.adho.org/. Please check the website for updates. Previous Digital Humanities conference participants and reviewers should use their existing accounts rather than setting up new ones. If you have forgotten your user name or password, please contact Program Committee Chair, Manfred Thaller <manfred.thaller@uni-koeln.de>.

To facilitate the production of the conference proceedings, authors of accepted papers will be asked to submit final approved versions of their abstracts via the DHConvalidator.

II. Types of Proposals

Proposals may be of five types: (1) poster presentations; (2) short paper presentations; (3) long papers; (4) three-paper or full-panel sessions; and (5) proposals for pre-conference workshops and tutorials. Based on peer review and its mandate to create a balanced and varied program, the Program Committee may offer acceptance in a different category from the one initially proposed, and will not normally accept multiple submissions from the same author or group of authors. Papers and posters may be given in English, French, German, Italian or Spanish.

1) Poster Presentations

Poster proposals (500 to 750 words) may describe work on any relevant topic or offer project and software demonstrations. Posters and demonstrations are intended to be interactive, with the opportunity to exchange ideas one-on-one with attendees. In addition to a dedicated session, when presenters will explain their work and answer questions, posters will be on display at various times during the conference.

2) Short Papers

Short paper proposals (750 to 1500 words) are appropriate for reporting on experiments or work in progress, or for describing newly conceived tools or software in early stages of development. This category of presentation allows for up to five short papers in a single session, with the length held to a strict 10 minutes each in order to allow time for questions.

3) Long Papers

Proposals for long papers (750 to 1500 words) are appropriate for: substantial, completed, and previously unpublished research; reports on the development of significant new methodologies or digital resources; and/or rigorous theoretical, speculative, or critical discussions. Individual papers will be allocated 20 minutes for presentation and 10 minutes for questions.

Proposals relating to the development of new computing methodologies or digital resources should indicate how the methods are applied to research and/or teaching in the humanities, what their impact has been in formulating and addressing research questions, and should include critical assessment of their application in the humanities. Papers that concentrate on a particular tool or digital resource should cite traditional as well as computer-based approaches to the problem and should include critical assessments of the computing methodologies used. All proposals should include relevant citations to sources in the literature.

4) Multiple Paper Sessions

These consist of one 90-minute panel of four to six speakers, or three long papers on a single theme. Panel organizers should submit an abstract of 750 to 1500 words describing the panel topic, how it will be organized, the names of all the speakers, and an indication that each speaker is willing to participate in the session. Paper session organizers should submit a statement of approximately 500 words describing the session topic, include abstracts of 750 to 1500 words for each paper, and indicate that each author is willing to participate in the session. Papers that are submitted as part of a special session may not be submitted individually for consideration in another category.

5) Pre-Conference Workshops and Tutorials

Participants in pre-conference workshops and tutorials will be expected to register for the full conference as well as pay a small additional fee. Tutorials are normally intensive introductions to specific techniques, software packages or theoretical approaches with a small number of instructors. Workshop proposals may take many forms including proposals with a full slate of speakers and presentations, but also proposals to issue an independent call for papers from which submissions will be chosen by organizers.

Proposals should provide the following information:

  • title and brief description of the content or topic and its relevance to the digital humanities community (not more than 1500 words);
  • full contact information for all tutorial instructors or workshop leaders, including a one-paragraph statement summarizing their research interests and areas of expertise;
  • description of target audience and expected number of participants (based, if possible, on past experience); and
  • any special requirements for technical support.

Additionally, tutorial proposals should include:

  • a brief outline showing that the core content can be covered in a half day (approximately 3 hours, plus breaks). In exceptional cases, full-day tutorials may be supported.

And workshop proposals must include:

  • intended length and format of the workshop (minimum half-day; maximum one and a half days);
  • proposed budget (as digital humanities workshops are expected to be self-financing); and
  • if the workshop is to have its own call for participation, a deadline and date for notification of acceptances, and a list of individuals who have agreed to be part of the workshop’s Program Committee.

Workshops endorsed by a SIG:

Workshops endorsed by a SIG and focused on a topic related to the concerned SIG  are required to follow the same instructions as other workshops, but proposers should also note that:

  • they have to be endorsed in writing by a SIG;
  • the deadline application is earlier (see above);
  • they should have at least 10 confirmed participants.

III. Information about the Conference Venue and Theme

DH2016 will take place in Kraków, Poland; this is only the second time (after Debrecen 1998) that our conference comes to Central/Eastern Europe. The region’s rich past and its recent rapid growth has inspired the conference theme, ‘Digital Identities: the Past and the Future’.

The conference is hosted jointly by the Jagiellonian University and the Pedagogical University of Kraków. Their collaboration is a manifestation of the vivid digital humanities scene emerging in Poland’s major centre of learning and culture.

IV. Bursaries for Early-Career and Emerging Scholars

The Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations will offer a limited number of bursaries for early-career scholars presenting at the conference. Application guidelines will appear on the ADHO website later this year: http://www.digitalhumanities.org

V. International Program Committee

Chair: Manfred Thaller (EADH)

Vice-Chair: Diane Jakacki (CSDH/SCHN)

Michael Eberle-Sinatra (CSDH/SCHN)

Jennifer Guiliano (ACH)

Brett D. Hirsch (aaDH)

Leif Isaksen (EADH)

Asanobu Kitamoto (JADH)

Inna Kizhner (centerNet)

Maurizio Lana (EADH)

Kiyonori Nagasaki (JADH)

Roopika Risam (ACH)

Glenn Roe (aaDH)

Sinai Rusinek (centerNet)

Outgoing Chair: Deb Verhoeven (aaDH)

See also