We are glad to announce that our current EADH president, prof. Karina van Dalen-Oskam, has been elected new chair of the ADHO Steering Committee (SC).

Below goes her first message to all involved in or interested in ADHO.

Dear fellow digital humanists,

I have just been informed that I have been elected as the new Chair of the ADHO Steering Committee, to serve for the remainder of the current term, ending at DH2016 in Krakow. I will try to serve ADHO as best as I can as interim Chair.

What I love about ADHO, and Digital Humanities in general, is that all people involved share the wish for innovation and collaboration. Innovation in our research, through collaboration with others – and best of all, with more and more diverse others. We want to draw everybody in, and want to make everybody feel welcome. That is a good thing. However, in the last few weeks, we found out the hard way that we deal with significant cultural differences in our ever-growing world-wide organization. Communication strategies that work well in one culture can be harmful and counterproductive in others. The good thing is that we have representatives of many different cultures in our midst, who can help in finding out the best ways to go forward.

The first thing I have asked the Steering Committee to do, is to establish a protocol or a set of rules/guidelines for dealing with these fundamental cultural issues. We will not be the only organization that runs into this kind of problems. I have asked all members of the Steering Committee to do some research, and I would welcome input from others as well. Can you find guidelines that we could adopt/adapt for ADHO? Do colleagues from other international organizations have suggestions based on their own experience? Are there policy makers who can help? Please send your material and your own suggestions to me personally at karina.van.dalen@huygens.knaw.nl. I will gather all information and together with the Steering Committee decide on which rules to follow for the remainder of my term. When we have selected a proper set of guidelines we will return to dealing with our daily business – and with a much better chance of success. I’d like to receive your ideas on Monday November 30 at the latest.

You can mail me in the following languages (in order of preference): Dutch, English, German, Afrikaans, French. I will answer you in Dutch or English. I wish I had the time to add more of your languages to my short list. As you know, I am not a native speaker of English. This means that if you read something strange or funny in my messages, that is probably due to my non-native English. And if you would feel insulted by my words – then something has really gone wrong language-wise and/or culture-wise! In that case, please contact me personally, so I can take away any worries or explain in a better way what I meant.

I am very much looking forward to collaborating with all of you.

Yours sincerely,

Karina van Dalen-Oskam

See ADHO announcement.