Call for Proposals
Deadline to apply: 18 November 2026
Notification of acceptance: 11 January 2027
Please note that you will have to create an account in Oxford Abstracts to submit a proposal.
The 12th Global Digital Humanities Symposium is delighted to return, with events across countries and modalities in mid-May 2027. Michigan State University continues as host and is partnering with the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, as a lead into their annual DH@Guelph Summer Workshops.
The schedule of events will be as follows. All Symposium days will be live streamed. Multilingual days will be supported through human-generated, live interpretation:
- 10 May (Monday) – In-Person Symposium at Michigan State University (in English)
- 12-13 May (Wednesday-Thursday) – Virtual Symposium (in English, Spanish, and French)
- 15 May (Saturday) – In-Person Symposium at the University of Guelph (in English and French)
- Mid-May, Post Symposium – DH@Guelph Summer Workshops
We invite work at the intersections of critical DH that engages with anti-colonial and post-colonial frameworks, supports feminist and anti-racist praxis, and crosses political and disciplinary borders. We define the term “humanities” expansively to create space for a range of issues that encourage interdisciplinary understandings of the field.
This Symposium welcomes proposals by Wednesday, 18 November 2026 midnight in your timezone.
This year, we especially anticipate and welcome presentations on the following topics, and we are especially interested in hearing about specific practical, creative, and theoretical examples from the Global Majority context:
- Multilingualism and language justice in DH
- Indigenous led DH work and community engaged collaborations in DH
- Globally situated human-AI collaboration and critique in DH
- DH approaches to the study of the environment and considerations of environmental justice in DH infrastructure and practice
We are always interested to hear about the following topics, and their connections to the digital, as reflected in global research conversations and ethical DH practices across disciplines:
- Relational, distributed, and/or creative frameworks and practices in global digital pedagogy
- Public and community-engaged DH
- Digital historical research and archives
- Minimal, material, and sustainable approaches to DH
- Surveillance, censorship, and/or data privacy in global contexts
- Open data, open access, and data preservation as resistance
- Borders, migration, and diasporas with an emphasis on the effects of warfare and conflict
- Feminist and queer perspectives in DH
- Disability justice and accessibility
- DH methods in interdisciplinary and cross-regional research
- Digital storytelling and artistic representations in digital spaces
- Computational literary studies
Presentation Formats
Virtual
Submission and presentation language options: Spanish, French, English
Presentation materials (draft slides and presentation text) for lightning talks, 15 minute presentations, and panels must be submitted to conference organizers 2 weeks in advance of the Symposium (Monday, 26 April 2027).
7-min lightning talk
Proposal: 250-300 words
Dynamic, hyper-focused talks designed to provoke questions. No more than 2 speakers may present, but the number of listed authors is unlimited.
Presentation text and slides must be submitted to conference organizers 2 weeks in advance of the Symposium for language interpreters’ preparation.15-min presentation
Proposal: 250-300 words
Engaging talks that take a deep dive into a topic, method, or project. This may include reports on experimental, developing, or completed projects as well as critical and/or theoretical discussions.
Presentation text and slides must be submitted to conference organizers 2 weeks in advance of the Symposium for language interpreters’ preparation60-min panel
Proposal: 100 words describing the panel as a whole, plus 100 words for each presentation in the panel.
A pre-composed set of 3-4 presentations on a unified topic or theme. Panelists must leave at least 10 minutes for Q&A with the audience, but may structure the rest of their time as they like.
Presentation text and slides must be submitted to conference organizers 2 weeks in advance of the Symposium for language interpreters’ preparation.Project showcase and Artist Gallery
(Not live streamed; no live interpretation)
Proposal: 250-300 words
The Project Showcase and Artist Gallery is a session similar to a poster session, in which presenters share their work with small groups or individuals over the course of 30 minutes. Moderators will be present to support and facilitate the live discussions among presenters and audience members.These presentations are best suited for discussing concrete projects and digital art projects at any phase in their development, rather than for introducing theoretical frameworks or critiques. We invite artists and designers to submit data-driven online artworks related to this year’s theme.
In-Person
Submission and presentation language for In-Person at Michigan State University: English
Submission and presentation language options for In-Person at University of Guelph: English, French7-min lightning talk
Proposal: 250-300 words
Dynamic, hyper-focused talks designed to provoke questions. No more than 2 speakers may present, but the number of listed authors is unlimited.15-min presentation
Proposal: 250-300 words
Engaging talks that take a deep dive into a topic, method, or project. This may include reports on experimental, developing, or completed projects as well as critical and/or theoretical discussions.60-min panel
Proposal: 100 words describing the panel as a whole, plus 100 words for each presentation in the panel.
A pre-composed set of 3-4 presentations on a unified topic or theme. Panelists must leave at least 10 minutes for Q&A with the audience, but may structure the rest of their time as they like.
A pre-composed set of 3-4 presentations on a unified topic or theme. Panelists must leave at least 10 minutes for Q&A with the audience, but may structure the rest of their time as they like.Posters
(Not live streamed)
Proposal: 250-300 words
Presenters will share their work with small groups or individuals over the course of one hour. These presentations are best suited for discussing concrete projects at any phase in their development, rather than for introducing theoretical frameworks or critiques.
The Global Digital Humanities Symposium follows an open review process. Names and institutional affiliations of submitters will be shared with reviewers, and names and affiliations of reviewers will be shared with submitters along with a comment on their submission from each reviewer.
Submit a proposal: https://app.oxfordabstracts.com/stages/81897/submitter