Category: Call for Presentations

CFP: Preservation & Migration Seminar 2026

Preservation & Migration Seminar 2026

Digital time: show me how you do it!
Recipes for audiovisual content longevity

The FIAT/IFTA Preservation & Migration Commission (PMC), in collaboration with RTÉ and the Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI), will host the first on-site edition of the annual PMC Seminar at the Royal Irish Academy on June 4-5, 2026.

The call for proposals welcomes submissions that explore both theoretical perspectives and practical experiences, presented as presentations (30 min), discussion panels (45-60 min), or demos (20 min), within the scope of preservation, migration, and digital preservation of media content.

The deadlines to submit your proposal are:

  • March 2 – Presentations and Discussion panels
  • March 30 – Demos

Submit proposal

CFP: Librarians, Archivists, and Museum Professionals in the History of the Health Sciences Annual Meeting

2026 LAMPHHS Annual Meeting Call for Proposals

Librarians, Archivists, and Museum Professionals in the History of the Health Sciences (LAMPHHS) invites you to submit a proposal for its annual meeting, to be held in Buffalo, New York, June 3 – 4, 2026.

The concept behind this year’s program is thinking beyond the boundaries of conventional health practices. Building on this idea, the Program Committee invites members to look beyond traditional ideas of healthcare and explore the often-overlooked world of alternative healing. We encourage you to review your collections with a new perspective, looking for stories, artifacts, and practices that highlight spiritualism, cultural medical traditions, faith healing, folk medicine, and other local health systems that are hidden in the records of midwives, physician assistants, pharmacists, social workers, chaplains and other spiritual caregivers, and family caretakers. This theme opens up conversations about how communities have found wellness in many different ways, including groups such as Christian Scientists and Jehovah’s Witnesses, and how allopathic medicine has responded to or included these alternative treatments. By exploring these connections, the conference aims to expand our understanding of what healing has meant in different times, places, and belief systems.

Session Formats: The Program Committee encourages submission of proposals that may include, but are not limited to, the following formats:

Traditional Conference Presentations: Speakers should expect to give a presentation of no more than 15 minutes followed by discussion.

Panel Discussion: 60-90 minute session with a panel of 3 to 4+ individuals informally discussing a variety of theories or perspectives on a common topic. Please confirm participation with all panelists before submitting the panel proposal.

Special Focus Session: 60-minute session designed to highlight innovative archives or museum programs, new techniques, and research projects. Audience participation is encouraged.

Workshops, Other Formats: Have a format idea that isn’t represented? Feel free to propose an alternative!

NOTE: Panels and sessions are limited to 90 minutes: 12-15 minutes for each panelist + 12-15 minutes for Q&A.

Please submit your proposal via this submission form: https://forms.gle/mUvE6EASRzPeHGvP8

The deadline for submitting session proposals is February 15, 2026.

You must be a LAMPHHS member to submit a proposal. Not a member? Join for only $25.00 at https://lamphhs.org/

If you have any questions, please email Howard Rootenberg at (howard@rootenbergbooks.com) or Brooke Fox (foxeb@musc.edu)

Call for Posters: Midwest Archives Conference and the Society of Ohio Archivists joint 2026 Annual Meeting

Annual Meeting: Call for Poster Presentations 2026

The Midwest Archives Conference and the Society of Ohio Archivists will hold a joint 2026 Annual Meeting on May 14-16, 2026 at the Ohio Union on The Ohio State University’s campus in Columbus, Ohio.

Founded in 1870 as the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College, The Ohio State University sits a few miles north of downtown Columbus. A city unto itself with an enrollment of more than 65,000, Ohio State is known for its top ranked academic programs in engineering, agriculture, and business, its world class research endeavors. For more information about the host and the conference, see the meeting website.

The 2026 Program Committee invites poster proposal submissions on all aspects of archival practice and research, as well as on topics from allied and related fields. The Program Committee seeks a diverse slate of presenters, representing a variety of personal and institutional backgrounds, perspectives, and voices. We seek to foster a culture of inclusion in the MAC-SOA program and encourage submissions from students, new professionals, first-time presenters, and those from allied professions. Membership in MAC and/or SOA is not required to present. Poster presentations will be onsite only, and at least one author must be present.

Proposals are due by 11:59p CST February 8, 2026. There will be no deadline extension.

The Program Committee invites poster proposals touching on the theme “Find it Here.”

Potential areas of focus include:

  • Distinct approaches to collecting, reference, and instruction
  • Overcoming challenges to making collections accessible and discoverable
  • Successful community archiving projects and partnerships
  • Utilizing facilities in unique ways to highlight and provide access to collections

For more ideas, see the earlier conference Call for Session Proposals here.

Authors are required to present their posters in person during scheduled times during the meeting, Thursday 3:00 – 3:30 pm and Friday 3:00 – 3:30 pm. These presentations are more like elevator speeches that summarize the poster content with attendees who stop by the poster to view it and ask questions. 

Proposal Evaluation

The MAC-SOA PC Poster Subcommittee will evaluate all proposals submitted by the deadline. Proposals will be evaluated in two ways: 1) merit and clarity of the 1750-character abstract; and 2) completeness of the proposal, particularly having well-developed content to understand all relevant aspects of the topic. Authors of posters accepted for inclusion in the MAC-SOA 2026 Annual Meeting will be notified in February 2026.

To submit a proposal, please fill out the MAC 2026 Poster Proposals Submission Form.  The deadline for submitting poster proposals for the 2026 MAC-SOA Annual Meeting is February 5, 2026.  We look forward to seeing you in Columbus!

Poster Prizes

MAC memberships will be awarded to a select number of posters based on the following criteria: 

  • Originality 
  • Relation to meeting theme (“Find It Here”)
  • Creativity displayed in the poster

Poster Session Tips

Poster sessions are a means to communicate and exchange ideas, programs, research, and projects to fellow MAC-SOA meeting attendees

Posters typically include pictures, data, graphs and/or diagrams with narrative text on paper backing that are approximately 36×24 inches. MAC will provide easels, thumb tacks, and appropriately sized foam board. 

Helpful tips on creating posters are available at these links:

Poster sessions cannot be used to advertise products or to display vendor items. If you are unsure if your proposal qualifies or if you have questions about the poster submission process, please email Adam Wanter, Poster Coordinator, at awanter@midpointelibrary.org

Frequently Asked Questions

  1. Question: Will MAC pay my travel expenses and/or registration fee to attend the annual meeting if I am presenting a poster?

Answer: No, MAC cannot reimburse you for your travel or conference registration expenses. However, MAC offers travel scholarships for first-time meeting attendees. Applications for the Mark A. Greene Award for First-Time Meeting Attendees are due March 16, 2026. SOA also offers a variety of scholarship opportunities.

  1. Question: What if I have a conflict with poster session presentation time?

Answer: At least one author of the poster must be present during the poster sessions.This is an opportunity to engage with conference attendees who stop to ask questions and provide further details about poster content. Poster sessions cannot be presented unless at least one author is present during the allotted times.

  1. Question: What happens if I must cancel my poster session because I can’t attend the conference?

Answer: Please plan on a backup person who will be able to represent your poster if an emergency arises. If an alternate presenter is unable to be arranged, your poster will not be included in the poster session.

  1. Question: Can I have an internet connection or other electrical or technical support?

Answer: If your poster session includes electrical equipment, you may need to provide your own source of power (e.g., batteries). We cannot guarantee electrical support or Internet connections in the poster session area. Audio-visual presentations that include sound are not encouraged, as they can be distracting to the other presenters and attendees. However, if you can supply headphones for viewers/listeners, sound is acceptable. Please note in your proposal if you request specific electrical support.

  1. Question: What about simultaneous submissions? Can I submit a poster session proposal about a project for which I’ve also submitted a manuscript for publication in a journal?

Answer: Yes, poster submissions for articles that have been simultaneously submitted for publication are welcomed, if you note the simultaneous submission on the proposal form.

  1. Question: What is the difference between the MAC Exhibit area and the MAC Poster Session Area?

Answer: The exhibit area is designed for vendors or organizations to promote their wares or groups. The poster session area is expressly for authors to present their work on research or projects.

  1. Question: Can I present a session and a poster?

Answer: Yes, but submission preference will be given to authors who are not already presenting.

CFP: DCMI 2026

DCMI 2026, the twenty-fourth International Conference on Dublin Core and Metadata Applications, invites researchers, practitioners, and experts from diverse domains to explore the dynamic landscape of metadata in the theme of Meaning-Driven AI: Using Metadata to Align Systems with Human Values. The fast-paced advances in artificial intelligence (AI) create new research opportunities for metadata. While AI has the potential to enhance metadata quality through systematic tasks like error detection and data standardisation, meaning-driven AI explores how structured data can capture human preferences, beliefs, and experiences to create intelligent systems that truly understand what people value.

Metadata has an expanding role in enabling the transparent, trustworthy, and effective representation of data, information, and knowledge, and as a result, is being transformed from simply “data about data” to being data that underpin knowledge. In this expansion of metadata’s role, we strive to bring innovative ideas, projects, and practices together that can foster and protect humanity.

DCMI 2026 serves as a unique platform for the discussion of innovative research and practice, presenting visions for future metadata development and solutions to practical metadata problems. Join researchers, practitioners, and experts from a wide range of sectors in a collaborative exploration of metadata’s evolving role through your papers, posters, panel discussions, best practice reports, designathon/hackathon, workshops, and more.

DCMI 2026 will feature exclusively in-person meetings.

Key areas:

Under the theme Meaning-Driven AI: Using Metadata to Align Systems with Human Values the DCMI 2026 conference welcomes submissions on the following topics broadly related to metadata design, deployment, and best practices (but not limited to):

  • Metadata and AI: The role of metadata in explainable and reproducible AI, metadata representations for machine learning (ML) models and datasets, application of AI in metadata generation, and knowledge-driven metadata for ML applications.
  • AI Agents: AI agents that leverage metadata to anticipate human preferences, make context-aware decisions, and act in ways that align with the values and needs of the people they serve.
  • Human-Centered Metadata and Interaction: Exploring user experience (UX) in metadata systems and adaptive metadata systems that evolve based on user needs.
  • Data Integrity and Reliability: Innovative metadata research and practices that ensure data integrity, accuracy, provenance, and reliability.
  • Ethics and Metadata: Addressing ethical considerations in metadata creation and management to build trust, ensure fairness, mitigate bias, and promote transparency in AI and data governance.
  • Adaptation to Emerging Technologies: Transforming metadata constructs and systems to enable the full utilization of technologies in AI, linked data, and knowledge bases.
  • Metadata and Data Science: Application of data science theories and methods in developing linked, intelligent metadata to facilitate transformation.
  • Metadata for the Public Good: The implications and significance of metadata in trustworthy AI; the role of metadata in supporting the fight against nefarious deepfakes, misinformation, and disinformation; open data, open science, and open metadata.
  • Cultural and Social Dimensions of Metadata: Digital humanities and metadata practices in memory institutions, semantic and computational metadata for cultural heritage objects, equitable metadata representation for historical materials, and critical study of metadata theories, practices, standards, and tools.
  • Metadata Supporting the FAIR and CARE Principles: Solutions and practices in creating FAIR metadata, case studies of data reusability fostered by metadata, and new data structures and models supporting metadata interoperability.

Submission Guidelines

  • At least one author of an accepted submission must physically attend the conference to present the work in person.
  • Submissions must follow the guidelines for one of the categories enumerated below.
  • All submissions must be in English.
  • All submissions must be made via the Submission System, https://go.dublincore.org/dcmi-2026/submission-portal
  • Submissions must be a single Portable Document Format (PDF) along with the document’s source.
  • The source file should be Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx), or LaTeX files in a single compressed zip file (.zip).
  • Authors are required to include their ORCID in their submissions.

Templates

  • All submissions must use the official DCPapers template for DCMI conference proceedings.
  • Templates for both Microsoft Word and LaTeX are available in the DCPapers template repository. Template files can be downloaded from https://github.com/dcmi/dcpapers-templates/releases/latest
  • Any modification to the template, including but not limited to adjustments in margins, typeface sizes, line spacing, paragraphs, and list definitions, is discouraged.
  • Users of Microsoft Word are required to install the Libertinus font family on their computer. The DOCX template contains detailed installation instructions.
  • Users familiar with LaTeX should prefer the LaTeX template.
  • An Overleaf template is available at https://go.dublincore.org/dcmi-2026/overleaf-template
  • Please use GitHub issues exclusively for inquiries and reporting template-related issues at https://github.com/dcmi/dcpapers-templates/issues
  • Detailed formatting guidelines are included in both the DOCX and LaTeX templates.
  • Authors are required to add their ORCID in the submission as indicated in the templates.

Submission categories

Note:

  • The open-access conference proceedings are indexed by Scopus, DBLP, Google Scholar, Semantic Scholar, ACM, and Crossref. Online proceedings will be available before the start of the conference.
  • Presentation slides, poster slide images, and student forum extended abstracts will be published on the DCMI website.

Full papers

Full papers either describe innovative work in detail or provide critical, well-referenced overviews of key developments or good practices.

  • 8-10 pages, single-spaced, plus references
  • Not previously published elsewhere

Short papers

Short papers are narrower in scope than full papers and may be either a description of work in progress, or a project report that concisely describes a specific model, application, or activity.

  • 4-5 pages, single-spaced, plus references
  • Not previously published elsewhere

Panels

Panel sessions are organized by experts in a specific area of metadata. Each panel serves as a focused exchange regarding the latest research and/or best practice in the area.

  • 1-2 pages extended abstract with panelists’ bios of 100-150 words each

Workshops

Workshops engage participants in active work to address one or more well-defined problems or issues. The style of workshops may vary depending on the organizers, and may include presentation/discussion-based or problem-solving-based activities.

  • 3-4 hours (half-day) or 6-8 hours (full-day)
  • 1-2 pages of descriptions
    • Objectives
    • Format
    • Names of organizers
    • Event plan (Agenda or Activities)
  • Descriptions will be included in the online Proceedings

Conference registration is required (Full registration or one-day registration).

Project reports

Project reports are for the presentation, demonstration, and evaluation of work-in-progress related to metadata best practices.

  • 2-page extended abstract, single-spaced, plus references

Posters

Posters are for the presentation of projects, research under development, or late-breaking results.

  • 2-page extended abstract, single-spaced, plus references

Tutorials

Tutorials introduce specific topics of current interest in metadata practice, optionally including hands-on practice. Proposals for tutorials must include:

  • 2-3 page proposal including:
    • Title of tutorial and topic to be covered (2-3 paragraphs)
    • Target audience and expected learning outcomes
    • Tutorial style: lecture, demonstration, hands-on practice, etc.
    • Any prior knowledge required (e.g., RDF, programming languages)
    • Whether participants must (or should) bring laptops or install software beforehand
    • Presenter bios (100-150 words each)

Student Forum

The student forum aims at providing an opportunity for master’s and doctoral students to share their experiences and exchange ideas of best practices, research in progress, and findings in areas related to metadata innovation.

  • Less than 1500 words plus references
  • All presenters participating in the Student Forum will automatically qualify for the Student Forum Award competition. Winners will be chosen by the Student Forum Committee, and they will receive prizes of $300 for first place and $200 for second place to assist with travel expenses.

Important Dates

Deadlines for submissions:

  • Papers (full and short), Panel, and Workshop: March 30, 2026, 23:59 (AoE)
  • Posters, Project Reports, Student Forum, and Tutorials: May 1, 2026, 23:59 (AoE)
  • Best Practices and Talks are by invitation

Notification to authors:

  • Paper, Panel, and Workshop: May 15, 2026
  • Poster, Project Reports, Student Forum and Tutorials: June 1, 2026

Final copy of papers due: June 15, 2026

CFP: Student Posters, Society of Southwest Archivists Annual Meeting

The Society of Southwest Archivists invites graduate and undergraduate students to submit an abstract for a Student Poster Presentation at the 2026 Annual Meeting from April 29 to May 2, 2026 in Waco, Texas.

Theme: Deep in the Heart of Archives

Student Poster Presentations may describe applied or theoretical research that is completed or underway; discuss interesting archival collections students have worked with; or report on archives and records projects in which students have participated (e.g., development of finding aids, public outreach, database construction, etc.).

Submissions should focus on research or activity conducted within the 2024 – 2025 academic year. Posters dimensions should be 32 by 40 inches, situated horizontally.

Abstracts can be submitted via email until Friday, March 6. Submit your abstract to program@southwestarchivists.org with “2026 Student Poster Presentation” as your subject line.

Include the following in your one-page abstract:

Title
Author(s) & CVs
Purpose of Project/Research
Description of Project/Research
Conclusions/Findings of Project/Research

Selected participants will be notified by Friday, March 20. They will have the opportunity to attend the in-person student poster presentation in Waco on Friday, May 1 from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. and submit a recorded presentation of their poster to be included in the Zoom Events platform.

We can’t wait to see you in Waco as we explore what’s deep in the heart of archives!

CFP: ELUNA 2026 Practical Applications and General Product/Tool Demonstrations Track (April 29 – May 1, 2026 – Los Angeles, California) – Ex Libris

ELUNA Call for Proposals–Practical Applications and General Product/Tool Demonstrations Track

The ELUNA 2026 Annual Meeting Program Planning Committee is excited to open the Call for Proposals for sessions in Practical Applications and General Product/Tool Demonstrations! We invite you to submit your 45-minute breakout session ideas for the 2026 Annual Meeting by January 15, 2026.

Our conference theme is “Libraries Always Changing.” Libraries and archives are some of the best organizations to address this. All of you adapt to continue to create and improve connections by integrating various technologies allowing your patrons to access and interact with information and other resources in new formats via different tools. You pioneer new programs to fulfill community needs as your visions help you champion your patrons. We look forward to seeing your unique spin on this topic.

The Practical applications & general product/tool demonstrations track encourages proposals for all topics, and here are just a few to think about!

  • Workflows and projects in and across acquisitions, cataloging/metadata management, circulation, resource sharing, etc.
  • Cross-departmental collaborative projects
  • “Cool tools” that integrate with, or help with, Alma workflows
  • Metadata management
  • Data cleanup
  • Managing or using COUNTER statistics 
  • Cross-training/ changing jobs and applying skills from one module to another
  • Documenting institutional knowledge, recording workflows, preparing for retirements and other changes 
  • Changes in the ILL landscape

Submit your session proposal(s) by the January 15, 2026 deadline!  Once again, we are using the Dryfta platform to collect your proposal submissions.

  • Visit our Ex Libris Knowledge Days and ELUNA Conference 2026 event page
  • Log in with your credentials used last year (or create a new account if you didn’t create an account previously by choosing Attendee Registration – Create Account)
  • Click your name menu > My Submissions
  • Click “New Submissions” on the My Submissions page
  • On the Submission form, click once on the Event Name in the Submission Type field to show the Annual Meeting proposal fields – even if Annual Meeting is already displaying
  • Enter your proposal information (you can save and complete the presentation proposal later if needed)

Want to review the proposal form fields for the Annual Meeting without logging into Dryfta? Or would you like some guidance filling them in? Visit the ELUNA Proposal Tips page for more information.

You’ll see more reminder messages from us throughout the 2026 Annual Meeting lifecycle. And even if you are not interested in presenting at the Annual Meeting this year, we hope you plan to join us for one or more ELUNA 2026 Conference events at the Westin Bonaventure in Los Angeles, California.

  • ELUNA Developers Day+: April 27 – 28, 2026
  • ELUNA Analytics Afternoon: April 28, 2026
  • ELUNA Annual Meeting:  April 29 – May 1, 2026

Looking for hands-on training for Ex Libris products? Ex Libris will offer Knowledge Days as a pre-conference event on April 27 – 28, 2026.

If you have any questions about the ELUNA 2026 Annual Meeting or the other ELUNA 2026 Conference events, send them to ELUNA’s LibAnswers Queue for the ELUNA 2026 Planning Team to answer.

We are happy to answer questions about the Practical Applications & General Product/Tool Demonstrations sessions (our emails hyperlinked below).  Hope to see you in Los Angeles! 

Rebecca Hyams, Meghan Lenahan, and Keelan Weber

Co-chairs, Practical Applications & General Product/Tool Demonstrations Track

2026 Oral History Association Annual Meeting: Call for Proposals

2026 Oral History Association Annual Meeting: Call for Proposals

October 14-17, 2026 | Portland, OR

Landscapes of Memory

Our memories are shaped by the landscapes we inhabit—both real and imagined. These landscapes are shifting in the face of environmental change, political instability, and an ongoing sense of crisis. Ancient connections with the natural world are being severed, and people are displaced not only from this innate connection to the earth but also from familiar ways of living and relating to one another. As oral historians, we witness narrators’ struggles to imagine new identities within this changing ecology.

For the 2026 Oral History Association Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon, we invite contributions from around the world —from those working in academia, advocacy, education, and community-based practice—that speak to how people shape and are shaped by the landscapes they inhabit, traverse, defend, or are forced to leave behind. We welcome proposals that explore relationships to land, memory, and movement across shifting environmental, political, and cultural boundaries.

The Pacific Northwest offers a vivid backdrop for these conversations. Portland is where many Indian tribes collaborate on river and salmon habitat restoration. It is where Governor Tom McCall pioneered environmental laws that became a national model, and where artists, writers, and community organizers have long given voice to place, displacement, and environmental justice. The region’s convergence of urban innovation, protected wilderness, and layered histories invites wide-ranging discussions about how oral histories illuminate ecological crises, stewardship, and resilience.

Possible areas of focus include, but are not limited to:

  • Ecological knowledge, Indigenous storytelling, and traditional/local epistemologies
  • Displacement, migration, activism, and environmental change
  • Borderlands and their stories—whether shaped by international borders, colonial legacies, or climate crises—and the questions they raise about identity, belonging, and resilience
  • Foodways, coastal livelihoods, sacred geographies, and senses of place grounded in memory
  • How digital tools, social media, and emerging technologies shape or amplify environmental narratives and collective memory
  • How oral history bridges local and global contexts in documenting environmental change
  • How people remember and make meaning of the places they have lost—or reclaimed
  • What it means to belong to a place today
  • Interdisciplinary approaches—from Memory Studies, Environmental History, and related fields

We encourage proposals from academics, independent scholars, activists, museum curators, tribal historians, teachers, students, archivists, documentary filmmakers, artists, creative writers, ethnographers, and other practitioners whose work relates to these themes. The Program Committee welcomes broad and creative interpretations of the conference theme and encourages innovative formats, such as workshops, interactive sessions, performances, digital media presentations, and collaborative community reports.

To submit a proposal, please click here.

To view the submission guidelines, please click here.

Contact Email

oha@oralhistory.org

URL: https://oralhistory.org/2026-call-for-proposals/

CFP: “Political Activism and material culture: definitions, practices, periodisations. A dialogue between researchers, archivists and museum curators”, ACTIVATE – MSCA Horizon Europe Project, University of Padua, 4-5 May 2026

This workshop is part of the project “ACTIVATE: The activist, the archivist and the researcher. Novel collaborative strategies of transnational research, archiving and exhibiting social and political dissent in Europe (19th-21st centuries)”. ACTIVATE receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2023 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 101182859.

The project was launched in January 2025 and explores in a 4-year initiative practices of collecting, archiving, and promoting documents, objects, and data, contributing to a renewed European history of social and political dissent from the early 19th century to the present day.

Further information about the project is available at https://activate-horizon.eu/

“Political Activism and material culture: definitions, practices, periodisations. A dialogue between researchers, archivists and museum curators”
Call for Paper | ACTIVATE WP3 Workshop #1
May 4-5 2026 | University of Padua and online
This workshop aims at bringing together academic, archival, museum partners with specific expertise on the relationship between politics and material culture. In recent decades, historiography has undergone a ‘material turn’ that has led to a less asymmetrical focus on the relationship between human and non-human, in particular objects and artefacts. This has produced new perspectives on the construction of social identities, the experiences of consumption and the trajectories of everyday life. At the same time, less attention has been paid to the “material history of politics” focusing on objects as key elements of political mobilisation. From the late 18th century revolutions to the recent Gen Z protests in Nepal, Philippines or Madagascar, the process of politicisation has been expressed through ‘disobedient’ objects, capable of evoking, striking and provoking in a politically significant way. Physical objects can play all sorts of roles in collective action, as we have seen in many recent movements, where material participation has been particularly widespread and important. The main objective of this workshop is to look at the history of militant culture by focusing on a scarcely developed aspect: the link between political experience and material culture. It aims to do so by promoting close cooperation between researchers and those involved in collecting, cataloguing and exhibiting such documentary material.

Workshop topics:
1) Definition of political/militant objects
How to define political objects from the perspective of historians, archivist and museums? What makes an object political, and specifically militant? What objects has political activism imagined and used in its long history, stretching from the age of revolutions to the present day? This question is particularly interesting in relation to objects that do not appear political at first glance. Are objects like Annemarie Renger’s dancing shoes or Margaret Thatcher’s handbags political objects? Bras and false eyelashes are certainly not political objects, but they became so in the feminist struggles of the 1970s. The issue is closely linked to the uses and practices that these objects generate from time to time and to the different forms of material participation that they entail, even in everyday life. It allows us to reflect on different chronologies and phases of political activism, focusing on four themes: revolutionary movements; feminisms; environmental struggles; international solidarity. A definition of political objects should go beyond time periods and materiality and also address the political dimension of everyday objects.

2) History and methods of collecting militant objects
Since the late 18th century, revolutions and protests, as well as party and grassroots mobilisations, have shown that social and political activism often leads to the preservation of material objects bearing witness to the engagement of individuals, groups, and associations. Archives, like historiography, have so far focused more on written holdings than 3-D objects and are now facing a new challenge. Museums, especially historical ones, are certainly more accustomed to collecting objects, especially those with recognized historical-artistic value. Yet political and militant objects often lack such value. How were collections formed that related to activism? Where, by whom, and for what purposes were they kept? When were they turned into heritage? What country-specific differences exist with regard to the history of collecting militant objects?

3) Cataloguing and preparing metadata
Objects need to be catalogued for making them accessible to research. Therefore, questions about cataloguing and enriching metadata a central: How can a political object be described – WHAT is an object, HOW is it catalogued, and HOW does it fit into archive/library and museums structures? How do museums and archives identify and record political objects in their collections? What parameters are used to define political objects, and how is this reflected in the metadata? Which (national) standards such as ministerial requirements for metadata standards for object cataloging are used at the respective institutions that are applied during cataloging and what perspectives and problems arise due to the different nature of the description: use of data fields and how do they correspond to standards known from the archival sector, are there interfaces?

4) Preserving, reproducing, and enhancing material sources
How should different materials be handled? Paper is generally patient when stored properly, but how should fragile materials such as textiles, which are not made to last forever, be handled? Different materials place different demands on packaging, climatic conditions, and storage. Archives and museums face the challenge of preserving these materials in the long term. Dealing with objects that are irrevocably subject to decay is also a challenge that particularly affects AV materials and forces many institutions to act. Digitization is not a solution to this problem, but a resource that gives objects a second life and new uses, providing novel means of access, consultation, interpretation, and valorization. To date, militant objects have rarely been central to heritage valorization projects: thus, beyond their and museums present their collections and narrate their history.

We encourage researchers, archivists, and museum curators to submit papers addressing these topics either from a theoretical and methodological perspective or by presenting specific case studies or experiences.

Please submit your proposal, with a maximum of 3,000 characters including spaces, along with a brief CV, by 28 January 2026 to this email: activatewp3@gmail.com

Organizing Committee:
Carlotta Sorba (University of Padua)
Anja Kruke (Friedrich Ebert Foundation)
Laura Valentini (Friedrich Ebert Foundation)
Alessio Petrizzo (University of Padua)

Contact Email

activatewp3@gmail.com

URL: https://activate-horizon.eu/

CFP: Thinking Through Printing symposium

Thinking Through Printing
A Symposium on Book Arts Studios and
Book History Scholarship
University of Toronto  |  June 4 – 6, 2026
www.ThinkingThroughPrinting2026.ca

Dates: June 4 – 6, 2026
Location: University of Toronto (in-person only)
Proposal due date: January 19th, 2026, 11:59 pm EST
Submit proposals to: Submission Form

For scholars of the history of books, reading, authorship, design, and publishing, first-hand experiences with the technologies and practices of the book arts have moved from the margins to the centre of their discipline. Experiential bibliography has flourished within academic programs in book history and adjacent fields, which are increasingly populated by aspiring printer-bibliographers, faculty and students alike. To that end, book arts studios are becoming vital spaces for book history education and research.

Essential for the long-term success of these initiatives is a coherent and focused conversation on the rationales, educational goals, and research potentials of print studios and other spaces for experiential bibliography. As a follow-up to the 2025 Building Book Labs symposium at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, this event will gather present and future leaders working at the intersection of book history, research creation, and digital scholarship to reflect on achievements, share strategies, explore challenges, and plan future projects that combine book history scholarship and experiential learning in the book arts.

The Thinking Through Printing symposium will offer participants two full days of experiential workshops, roundtables, and exhibitions (June 5-6), plus a public keynote talk by Ryan Cordell (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; June 4), founding director of the Skeuomorph Press & Book Lab.

What are the research questions in book history that can only be answered via work in a print studio? How does experiential bibliography open up areas of inquiry for students and advanced researchers alike? In an age of unsettling technological change, what role do older printing technologies and practices have in helping society understand the power of words, images, and material artifacts? How might we understand the past differently by making bookish artifacts of our own within communities of practitioner-scholars? How can research creation projects that emerge from these book arts studios be better supported and recognized in academic contexts?

Our symposium will address these high-level questions through a multi-modal approach that reflects the interdisciplinary nature of the book arts and book history, combining roundtable discussions, experiential workshops, student-led poster sessions, rare book library tours, a keynote lecture and roundtable (both open to the public), and other activities.

We invite brief statements of interest (max. 300 words) which address: 1) your interest and experience in the field; and 2) a proposal for a specific topic, question, or experiential workshop that you would like to address or have addressed by the symposium. For those interested in facilitating a 90-minute workshop, please provide a short description of the activity, its goals, and tools, supplies, and other resources needed for the workshop. Workshops could be hands-on, discussion-based, or both.

Topics for workshops, roundtables, and subsequent discussions will be chosen by the program committee with the goal of representing a broad range of approaches and outputs in experiential bibliography.

Examples of workshop and roundtable topics include:

  • Interdisciplinary research methods combining book arts, book history, and digital humanities;
  • Book arts studios as sites for pedagogical research;
  • Advocacy for and implementation of experiential, studio-based research creation in the humanities;
  • Connections between contemporary and historical practices in printing;
  • Material and practical challenges in the implementation of experiential activities;
  • Productive connections (and tensions) between digital and analog technologies, practices, and ways of thinking about material texts; what can digital scholarship learn from the book arts (and vice versa)?
  • Working and teaching with artifacts that have culturally specific histories (e.g. Indigenous type, as potential objects for repatriation), whose provenance is complex and raises ethical questions about their use

Please fill out this Submission Form to apply. The deadline for proposals is Monday, January 19, 2026 at 11:59 pm EST.

Any questions about the event or the application process may be sent to thinkingthroughprinting@utoronto.ca.

CFP: Bibliographical Society of Canada Conference, June 2026

The Many Hands of Book History
Conference of the Bibliographical Society of Canada / Société bibliographique du Canada
8-9 June 2026, University of Toronto

The Bibliographical Society of Canada invites proposals for its annual conference on the theme, The Many Hands of Book History. Drawing on Robert Darnton’s foundational article “What is the History of Books”(1985), this conference turns toward the expanded, evolving, and interdependent networks that shape book history. Darnton’s Communications Circuit model traced the movement of books through multiple hands and bibliographers today continue to stretch, challenge, and reimagine that circuit. This year’s theme considers books not simply as paper, ink, and binding, but as profoundly collaborative objects shaped at every stage by labour, creativity, culture, ownership, and interpretation.

We invite participants to explore the diverse social, material, and cultural processes through which books—broadly conceived—have been created, preserved, circulated, and transformed. We encourage papers that explore interactions between any hands involved with the book, including creators, artists, printers, illustrators, binders, publishers, booksellers, readers, collectors, archivists, scholars, and communities. We also welcome contributions that provoke new methodological, material, and theoretical questions—especially from disciplines and practitioners who may not always identify themselves as “book people.”

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Materiality and Meaning: How formats, illustration, binding, decoration, wear, repair, and digital remediation shape the interpretation, circulation, and preservation of textual objects.
  • Books as Collaborative and Communal Objects: The ways in which book creation fosters shared identities, reflects or silences human experience, and emerges from the labour and creativity of diverse communities.
  • Research Centered on Marginalized Voices: Studies of book culture by, for, and/or from 2SLGBTQIA+ communities, BIPOC communities, persons with disabilities, women, and/or religious or cultural groups.
  • Analogue and Digital Materialities: From parchment, paper, ink, and leather to bits, bytes, algorithms, and born-digital forms; questions of reprinting, digitization, open access, and remediation.
  • Tools, Methods, and Approaches: Bibliography, critical theory, scientific analysis, digital humanities, artificial intelligence, data-driven research, and other interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary methods.
  • Pedagogy and Practice: Teaching with books and cultural heritage materials; hands-on learning; community-engaged scholarship; and the impact of archival and material encounters on students, communities, and other learners.
  • The Diverse Forms and Functions of “The Book” Across Time and Place: Manuscripts, archives, zines, artists’ books, digital platforms, print ephemera, community publications, and experimental or hybrid forms.

This conference emphasizes welcoming participation across fields and career stages, including students, early-career researchers, conservators, librarians, book artists, digital humanists, bibliographers, and scholars working within or alongside book history and bibliography. Proposals may engage with material, visual, scientific, technological, or community-based approaches; with Canadian or international contexts; and with intersectional, cross-cultural, and transnational perspectives.

Proposals:

Proposals for twenty-minute conference presentations, entire panels (three presentations), or hour-long workshops may be submitted in English or French. Proposals, which must be submitted via the online form, must include the following elements:

  • Title of presentation/panel/workshop
  • Abstract indicating argument, context, and methods (max. 250 words)
  • Bio (50-100 words) including full name, professional designation (e.g., graduate student, faculty, librarian, researcher etc.), and institutional affiliation or place

In order to accommodate financial and accessibility issues, this conference will be presented in a limited hybrid capacity. Please specify whether your proposal is for an in-person or online presentation when submitting. Priority will be given to in-person presentations, and online presentations must be recorded and submitted prior to the conference.

Applicants to the Emerging Scholar Prize must also include:

  • Cover letter (1 p.) explaining the applicant’s suitability for the prize
  • CV (max. 3 pp.)
  • Proof of student status or of graduation within the past two years (copy of diploma, student identification, or official or unofficial transcript)

Deadline: 30 January 2026

For more information: https://event.fourwaves.com/bsc/pages