Call for Proposals – English

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Digital Humanities (DH) at Michigan State University (MSU) is proud and thrilled to celebrate the 10th Global DH Symposium with a combination of virtual and in-person events over the course of April 2-8, 2025.*

For the past ten years, the Global Digital Humanities Symposium has brought together a diverse range of presenters to spark cross-disciplinary, cross-cultural, and ethically engaged conversations. We will celebrate our decade in this space by reflecting on global digital humanities as a field as well as our impact on this rich area of scholarship. We therefore invite presenters from previous Symposia to return to the conference and share how their work has developed since their presentation.

As we mark this historic anniversary, our commitment to digital humanities scholarship and practice as a key site for interrogating narratives about disruption, connection, identity, resistance, ethics, and accountability continues. In a world shaped by multiple catastrophes and crises, these conversations are as urgent as ever.

We invite work at the intersections of critical DH, that engages with anti-colonial and post-colonial frameworks, that supports feminist and anti-racist praxis, and that crosses political and disciplinary borders. We define the term “humanities” expansively to open up space for a range of issues that encourages interdisciplinary understandings of the humanities.

*The virtual symposium supports presentation and attendance in English and Spanish through live interpretation. The in-person symposium will be in English. We are interested in supporting participation and presentation in additional languages as much as possible within our capacity. Please reach out if you would prefer to submit a proposal or present at the conference in another language. We will do our best to accommodate you.

This Symposium, which will include a mixture of presentation types, welcomes proposals by the end of the day Wednesday, October 16, midnight in your timezone.

This year we especially anticipate and welcome presentations on the following topics:

• Reflections on the Symposium itself–what has been our effect on the field?
• Considerations of the “global” in DH
• Trial, error, process, preservation, and project conclusion as part of DH praxis
• DH approaches to misinformation, media, and rhetoric in a global election year
• Labs, support networks, streams/variations, and infrastructure for Global Digital Humanities

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:

• Public and community-engaged digital humanities in times of crises 
• Indigeneity, anti-colonialism, and digital cultural heritage
• Humanist critiques and interventions in artificial intelligence
• Digital humanities approaches to climate and healthcare
• Surveillance, censorship, and/or data privacy in a global context 
• Disability justice and accessibility
• Open data, open access, and data preservation as resistance
• Student-centered practices in global digital pedagogy
• Feminist and queer perspectives in DH
• Borders, migration, and diasporas with an emphasis on the effects of warfare and conflict 
• Multilingualism and language justice

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Presentation Formats

Revisiting Past Presentations

7 minute presentation

Proposal: 250-300 words

In recognition of the 10th Symposium, the program committee invites previous Symposium speakers to submit proposals following up on the work they presented. Presenters will have seven minutes to share how their work has developed, shifted, or revolutionized since first presented at the Global DH Symposium. This format is only open to submitters who have presented previously at the Symposium. Revisiting presentations may be delivered in person or virtually.*

* Virtual presentation language options: Spanish, English ; In-person presentations will be given in English

Open Presentation Formats

Virtual

Presentation language options: Spanish, English

15 minute 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 minute panel

Proposal: 100 words describing the panel as a whole, plus 100 words for each presentation in the panel.

A pre-composed set of 3-5 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.

Project showcase

(Not live streamed) – we especially encourage and welcome artists

Proposal: 250-300 words

The Project Showcase is a session similar to a poster presentation fair, in which presenters share their work with small groups or individuals. These presentations are best suited for discussing concrete projects at any phase in their development, rather than for introducing theoretical frameworks or critiques.

Presenters will record a 5-7 minute presentation and submit it at least a week before the conference. The recordings will be shared with attendees ahead of time and also played at the beginning of each project showcase section. The project showcase aims at generative discussion and feedback in small groups in a conversational way over the course of 30 minutes.

In-Person

Presentation language: English

7 minute lightning talk

Proposal: 250-300 words

Dynamic, hyper-focused talks designed to provoke questions and follow up discussion. Lightning talk presenters will have 7 minutes to speak to the group as a whole, then the conference will break into smaller groups for each presenter to hear feedback, answer questions, and share further details.

15 minute 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 minute 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 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.

Poster

Proposal: 250-300 words

Presenters will share their work with small groups or individuals. Rather than a set presentation length, the presenters will be asked to submit a poster ahead of time for printing. This presentation will enable one-on-one feedback and ask presenters to share about their work in a more conversational way over the course of one hour. There will be multiple poster presentations concurring in the same space.

The Global Digital Humanities Symposium will conduct 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. 

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Travel Funding Support

Each year, the Global DH Symposium is delighted to support and host participants to the best of our capacity: this includes providing food and snacks during the in-person days (including breakfast Apr 7 & 8, lunch April 7 & 8, and dinner Apr 7), as well as travel funding for those who need it.

Presenters accepted for the in-person Symposium are eligible to apply for funding to offset travel expenses: international presenters can apply for funding up to $700 USD, while domestic presenters (USA & Canada) can apply up to $500 USD. Receipts will be required for reimbursement.

Support is also available to cover 3 nights of accommodation at Owen Hall, a dormitory residence hall on the MSU campus.

Priority will be given to: presenters revisiting past work from the Symposium or presentations reflecting on the legacy and/or state of global DH; those traveling internationally to attend the event; as well as to students and scholars without adequate funding availability otherwise.

These competitive travel funds are awarded on the basis of need. 

The application for receiving funds will open upon acceptance to the Symposium in early December 2024. The application form will ask presenters about their travel itinerary and expenses.