DH for society: e-quality, participation, rights and values in the Digital Age
The 10th AIUCD conference (UNIPI and CNR, 19-22 January 2021) aims to be a moment of study and reflection on Digital Humanities (DHs) as a privileged meeting place among different needs of contemporary society in research, politics, economics and everyday life, giving the humanist the role of interpreter and facilitator of change. Digital humanists, thanks to the knowledge and expertise acquired in recent years and experimented in numerous research activities, have been among the often silent protagonists of the change of society, pervaded by information technologies in continuous development.
For the conference, contributions are accepted that illustrate theoretical reflections on DHs, methodological aspects, project experiences, experimental results, strategies for the enhancement of research infrastructures, ethical issues and position statements.
While not excluding the possibility of presenting works on other topics concerning the varied aspects of DHs, interventions on the following topics are particularly requested:
Digital public humanities
Infosphere, digital school, changes in reading and learning, fight against digital illiteracy, characteristics and role of DH in relation to the real needs of society, public history, transversality, relationship between traditional disciplines and DH, the role of the digital humanist. The central question of this area is: with what effectiveness and with what purposes have DHs interacted and can or should they relate to the problems of contemporary society in the future? Area Chairs: Gino Roncaglia (Roma Tre) and Alessandro Lenci (UNIPI)
Open culture
Opportunities to access data, language resources, annotated text corpora, collections, archives, scientific publications, teaching resources, software, methodologies and technologies for the production, representation, conservation and enhancement of cultural heritage; replicability, sharing and dissemination of research empirical results; models and tools for the semantic representation and management of knowledge in the humanities; platforms for collaborative work and sharing of results.
The central question of this area is: how to operate to offer everyone the right opportunities in the world of research, training and sharing of cultural heritage?
Area Chairs: Roberto Delle Donne (UNINA) and Maria Chiara Pievatolo (UNIPI)
Social Networks
Models and functioning of social networks, fake news and debunking, hate-speech, opinion mining, profiling systems, models for the diffusion of opinions, echo chamber; Internet safety and cyberbullying; analysis of mobility flows in territories; sociological and economic aspects of social networks; linguistic analysis in social media.
The central question of this area is: what are the emerging problems of social networks and what solutions can be proposed?
Area Chairs: Anna Monreale (UNIPI) and Arjuna Tuzzi (UNIPD)
Tech-economy
Web economy, changes in the relations among production, capital and market intermediaries; antitrust legislation and regulations, old and new professions; digital sustainability; smart working.
The central question in this area is: how can the digital humanist help to write new rules and what training should the ruling class have to manage changes effectively?
Area Chairs: Luca De Biase (UNIPI) and Ginevra Peruginelli (CNR-IGSG)
e-Participation
Experiences, research and open questions relating to technologies and their usability and accessibility to support communication with citizens, administration and the provision of services; support for decision-making and political processes; experiences of platforms for direct and participatory democracy; multilingual and multicultural digital resources; digital democracy and evolution of its key concepts in the passage of the millennium; infrastructures dedicated to participation at all levels; methodologies and tools for the digital inclusion and participation.
The central questions of this area are: under what conditions and with which methods is it possible for DHs to encourage citizen participation in decision-making processes? how can DHs facilitate communication between administrations and citizens?
Area Chairs: Flavia Marzano (LINK CAMPUS UNIVERSITY) and Giulia Venturi (CNR-ILC)
Assistive Technologies for Inclusion:
Experiences and research in training, assistance and integration of disadvantaged categories, with special educational needs or learning disabilities; human-computer interaction, user experience, usability and accessibility, social entrepreneurship.
The central question in this area is: how do DHs provide tools for a fairer society, where citizens do not receive the same services indiscriminately (equality), but can instead enjoy services differentiated according to specific needs (equity)?
Area Chairs: Susanna Pelagatti (UNIPI) and Barbara Leporini (CNR-ISTI)
The official languages of the conference are Italian and English.
Deadlines
The deadline for submitting proposals is set for 11:59 PM of 14th September 2nd October 2020.
Acceptance information will be communicated to the authors by 13th November 2020 23th November 2020.
Format and Procedures for Submitting Proposals
The conference expects two methods of participation oral intervention and poster.
Oral intervention proposals must consist of a contribution consisting of a minimum of three (3) to a maximum of five (5) pages, bibliography included.
Poster proposals must consist of a contribution of one (1) or two (2) pages, bibliography included, with the optional indication of the hyperlink to the draft poster.
The format of proposals must follow the template indicated in the page of the conference Web site relating information for authors https://aiucd2021.labcd.unipi.it/en/conference/submitting-proposals/, and proposals must be sent in PDF format through the Easychair platform https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=aiucd2021
Proposals will be evaluated through a double blind review process. Each contribution will be screened by 3 reviewers. The contribution must be anonymized by removing authors’ names and internal references, as far as possible, avoiding that such anonymization prevents an accurate evaluation of the proposal from reviewers.
The choice of Italian or English for the contribution is not binding for communication during the conference. Accepted contributions will be published before the event in digital format only in a Book of Abstracts with an ISBN.
Evaluation Criteria
The evaluation of proposals will be conducted on the basis of the following criteria:
- relevance of the contribution to the aims of the conference;
- application of methods promoting inclusiveness and social equality;
- critical attitude towards the strategies adopted and the tools in use;
- originality, relevance or innovative approach;
- quality of the exposure;
- methodological rigor and updated bibliography;
- presence of elements of interdisciplinarity;
- replicability of the results described.
Alternative Plan in case of a Medical Emergency
If social distancing rules are imposed due to a resurgence of the ongoing epidemic and it is therefore impossible to organize the conference in attendance, the event will be held on a virtual platform with the following guidelines (more details will be published in the event of actual need):
- the authors selected will be asked for a video of a maximum duration of 20 minutes to be delivered 10 days before the event;
- the videos will be collected by the organizers and published on the conference Web site in order to allow, for each contribution, the expression of comments and questions
- the holding of virtual discussion-only meetings grouped by themes will be arranged;
- as for posters, a gallery with distributed evaluation and virtual rooms in which exhibitors can speak with interested users will be created.
“Giuseppe Gigliozzi” Scholarships
AIUCD offers two scholarships of 300 Euros each for young scholars (students and doctoral students) who present proposals accepted at the conference. Candidates can request a scholarship by checking the corresponding box on the EasyChair platform used for submitting the contribution. Before the conference, the AIUCD Board will make a preliminary review of all suitable proposals and fill in a shortlist of candidates. The winning questions will be chosen based on the quality of the presentation and announced at the end of the conference.