Digital Humanities at Michigan State University is proud to extend its symposium series on Global DH into its sixth year as an entirely virtual event. Digital humanities scholarship continues to be driven by work at the intersections of a range of distinct disciplines and an ethical commitment to preserve and broaden access to cultural materials.
DH has been a key site for interrogating narratives about disruption, connection, virtuality, surveillance, algorithmic bias, data and resistance, the digital divide, and digital accountabilities. In this moment, shaped by a global pandemic – and increased visibility of movements for social justice – these narratives and conversations are as urgent as ever.
DH communities have raised and responded to these issues, pushing the field forward. This symposium is an opportunity to broaden the conversation about these issues. Scholarship that works across borders with foci on transnational partnerships and globally accessible data is especially welcome. Additionally, we define the term “humanities” rather broadly to incorporate the discussion of issues that encourage interdisciplinary understanding of the humanities.
Focused on these issues of social justice, we invite work at the intersections of critical DH; race and ethnicity; feminism, intersectionality, and gender; and anti-colonial and postcolonial frameworks to participate.
This symposium, which will include a mixture of presentation types, welcomes 300-word proposals related to any of these issues, and particularly on the following themes and topics by Sunday, December 13, Tuesday, December 1, midnight in your timezone:
This year we especially anticipate and welcome presentations on the following topics:
- Global DH during a global pandemic
- Surveillance, censorship, and/or data privacy in a global context
- DH as socially engaged humanities and/or as a social movement
- Equity in digital access
- DH as a tool of political empowerment
We are always interested to hear about the following topics:
- Productive failure; failure as a part of DH praxis
- Critical cultural studies and analytics
- Cultural heritage in a range of contexts, particularly non-Western
- Open data, open access, and data preservation as resistance, especially in a postcolonial context
- How identity categories, and their intersections, shape digital humanities work
- Digital humanities, the environment, and climate change
- Global research dialogues and collaborations within the digital humanities community
- Global digital pedagogies
- Indigeneity – anywhere in the world – and the digital
- Digital humanities, postcolonialism, and neocolonialism
- Borders, migration, and/or diaspora and their connection to the digital
- Digital and global languages and literatures
- Innovative and emergent technologies across institutions, languages, and economies
- Scholarly communication and knowledge production in a global context
Presentation formats:
- 5-minute lightning talk (300 word proposal)
- 15-minute presentation (300 word proposal)
- 90-minute panel (100 word proposal describing the panel as a whole, plus 100 word description for each presentation within the panel)
- Project showcase (300 word proposal)
- There will be a session similar to a poster presentation fair, in which presenters will share their work with small groups or individuals. Rather than a set presentation length, this project showcase will enable one-on-one feedback and ask presenters to share about their work in a more conversational and extemporaneous way.
The 2021 Symposium will be run as an entirely virtual event. We will use Zoom as the primary space for symposium attendance. All presenters and registered attendees will receive a Zoom link via email in advance of the event and are welcome to join in the Zoom meeting to follow presentations, ask questions, and engage with the community. Presentations, panels, lightning talks, and Q&A sessions will also be livestreamed on Youtube. All are welcome to join in by watching the presentations on Youtube and participating in the livestream chat feature. Questions for presenters will be taken from both the Zoom room and the livestream chat.
Presenters are required to join the Zoom meeting during their respective session, but have the option not to have their presentation livestreamed. We will support pre-recorded presentations as needed for presenters concerned about connectivity and bandwidth challenges. We encourage pre-recorded parts of presentations that make creative use of the pre-recorded format. We also encourage proposals for non-traditional formats for virtual presentations or workshops, particularly those that utilize the tools and/or the experimental and collaborative ethos of DH. We invite any and all re-imaginings of what a virtual conference presentation can be.
Examples of presentations from previous years in these formats can be found at the DH@MSU Youtube Channel.
For the first time, the 2021 Symposium aims to expand our linguistic offerings to include presentations in Spanish and French. We will aim to make interpretation available for English into Spanish, English into French, and both Spanish and French into English. Additionally, submissions can be made in English, French, and Spanish, and presenters will indicate the language of presentation in their submission. Interpretation will not be available for the Project Showcase.
Please note that we conduct a double-anonymous review process, so please refrain from identifying your institution or identity in your proposal.
