The Conference Coordinating Committee of the Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations (ADHO) invites proposals to host the Digital Humanities Conference in 2023.

Digital Humanities (DH) is ADHO’s annual international conference. ADHO's constituent organizations are the European Association for Digital Humanities (EADH); the Association for Computers and the Humanities (ACH); the Canadian Society for Digital Humanities / Société canadienne des humanités numériques (CSDH/SCHN); the Australasian Association for Digital Humanities (aaDH); centerNet; Humanistica, l'association francophone des humanités numériques; the Japanese Association for Digital Humanities (JADH); the Digital Humanities Association of Southern Africa; Red de Humanidades Digitales (RedHD); and the Taiwanese Association for Digital Humanities (TADH). The next joint DH conference (DH2020) will be held in Ottawa, CA, co-organized by the University of Ottawa and Carleton University in alliance with CSDH, 22-24 July 2020. DH2021 will be held in Tokyo, Japan, organized by the University of Tokyo 25-30 July 2021. DH2022 will be held in Graz, Austria, organized by the University of Graz.

For DH2023 the call for hosts is “open”, meaning that we invite bids from academic institutions anywhere in the world in coordination with a designated ADHO constituent organization (see list above). We are particularly interested in proposals from institutions or groups of institutions that 1) have developed or are developing digital humanities communities and organizations, 2) have not previously hosted a DH conference, and/or 3) are interested in developing new modes of conference organization and participation. Please note that the local organizers must be members of one of the ADHO constituent organizations listed above, or their associate organizations.

Conference Information

The conference has traditionally attracted between 500-1000 attendees. It consists of 3 days of panels, papers and posters, preceded by 2 days of pre-workshops and pre-tutorials. There are normally 6 or more parallel sessions per time slot and a small number of plenary presentations and receptions. Meetings of the committees of ADHO’s constituent organizations (COs) precede the conference, and lunchtime slots are normally used for the member meetings of the COs. The peer-reviewed academic program is developed by an international Program Committee, which is appointed by the COs. Local organizers may want to explore the feasibility of innovative forms of participation that would reduce environmental impact.

Local Organizers’ Responsibilities

Local organizers at the host institution are responsible for developing the conference website, providing facilities, organizing a conference banquet, and coordinating any other social events that the local hosts think appropriate. The conference is entirely self-financed through conference fees and any other financial contributions that ADHO or the local organizer is able to arrange. ADHO provides partial financial underwriting of the conference (and can, in certain circumstances, advance small amounts of funds for expenses that need to be prepaid) and works together with the local organizers to ensure that registration fees and other income will support all conference expenditures; the details can be found in the ADHO Conference Protocol and related documentation. ADHO also finances certain conference awards, such as named prizes or bursaries. In consultation with the ADHO Program Committee, the local organizers may suggest plenary speakers whose travel, subsistence, and registration must be funded from the conference budget; again, see the Conference Protocol for details.

The local organizers are expected to set three levels of registration fees: for members of ADHO constituent organizations; for non-members; and for students.

ADHO uses the conference management system ConfTool, and the ADHO Infrastructure and Conference Coordinating committees provide support for this system, including access to data from previous conferences. Local organizers are required to use the ConfTool system for registering participants and including them in special events such as the banquet, but actual credit card payments may be processed outside ConfTool by the local organizer.

Proposal Process

For DH2023 we are introducing a slightly modified process: 

Parties interested in submitting a proposal should contact a Constituent Organization officer by 28  February to express interest and request support. Potential organizers then inform the chair of the ADHO Conference Coordinating Committee, Diane Jakacki (dkj004@bucknell.edu), of their intention to submit a bid (no later than 31 March). The CCC chair will then provide a packet of information and guidelines including protocols, codes of conduct, financial models, and examples of past successful conference bids, as well as a memorandum of understanding between ADHO and local organizers. Documentation can be found here: http://adho.org/conference. Proposals should be submitted to D.Jakacki by 15 May 2020. 

Written proposals should include the following:

• an overview of facilities at the host institution

• a summary of local institutional engagement and support for the organizers, and contingency plans in case of problems 

• possible arrangements for social events, including the conference banquet

• options for accommodation, including provisional costs and special attention to low-cost student housing

• travel information and advice for participants

• a provisional budget, with an estimated registration fee

• options for payment (credit card, foreign currency, etc.) by participants

• a brief outline of potential approaches to conference sponsorship

• any other information that will help the ADHO Steering Committee make a selection

The DH2023 host will be selected at the DH2020 conference in Ottawa, Canada. Proposers must be prepared to give a short presentation and to answer questions at the ADHO Constituent Organization Board meeting on the 20th of July at DH2020 in Ottawa.