[cross-posted with the permission of the organizers]

Digital Humanities and Narratives of Science, Technology, and Medicine

NeMLA 50th Anniversary Convention in Washington, DC (March 21-24, 2019)

This workshop examines how the history of science, technology, and medicine are applied to the digital humanities. Since written, visual, and audio content are getting more dominant in the scholarly discourse, what type of digital resources can enrich our understanding of this field of the humanities? While it can be argued that researching for traditional academic settings and for the digital humanities requires different linguistic codes, genres, and resources, it is true that popularization of scholarly contents relies on selections, rhetorical devices, and visualization techniques.

How have the digital humanities affected historical and medical narratives? How do they impact the theoretical, critical, and teaching practices of academics in teaching and research? Alongside pioneering projects such as Six Degrees of Francis Bacon, The Galileo Correspondence Project, and The Newton Project, this workshop examines directions of medical humanities studies, examining perspectives and visualizations of projects which innovated the theory and methods of cultural and literary studies. We welcome presentations that consider theoretical concepts and methods in the digital humanities, explore analogies and differences in digital humanities projects, and research intersections in science, technology, and medicine in the early modern and modern period.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Digitization of primary texts and impact on philology
  • Interpretation and visualization of scientific data and technological information found in early modern texts
  • Medical humanities projects from all historical periods
  • Digital projects of scientists’ networks in the 1600s
  • Collaborations between DH specialists and academics
  • Technical resources for digital humanities projects
  • Pedagogical practices for DH projects in the history of science, technology, and medicine
  • Learning Management Systems as integrated tools for DH projects

In this workshop, we will explore the application of computer-based/computing technologies to the history of science, technology, and medicine. Interdisciplinary reality and virtual knowledge in the early modern and modern time will be represented through case studies focused on science as a dynamic field of inquiry and on historical figures of physicians, scientists, and experimenters. These case studies are a starting point for discussion about the latest developments and ideas in the digital humanities, in collaboration with university libraries and academic presses.

Please submit abstracts (300 words for single paper, poster, or demonstration) and an academic CV (100 words) by email to: digitalhumanitiescfp [AT] gmail.com. The deadline for all proposals is September 30, 2018.