CFP: Research Foundations, 12 Dec. 2012 (Havana, Cuba)

Research Foundations for Understanding Books and Reading in the Digital Age: E/Merging Reading, Writing, and Research Practices
12 December 2012.  Hotel Parque Central, Havana, Cuba.
Proposals due 15 May 2012.
Digital technology is fundamentally altering the way we relate to writing, reading, and the human record itself. The pace of that change has created a gap between core social/cultural practices that depend on stable reading and writing environments and the new kinds of digital artefacts – electronic books being just one type of many – that must sustain those practices now and into the future.
This one-day gathering explores research foundations pertinent to understanding new practices and emerging media, specifically focusing on work in textual and extra-textual method, in itself and via exemplar, leading toward [1] theorizing the transmission of culture in pre- and post-electronic media, [2] documenting the facets of how people experience information as readers and writers, [3] designing new kinds of interfaces and artifacts that afford new reading abilities, [4] conceptualizing the issues necessary to provide information to these new reading and communicative environments, [5] reflecting on interdisciplinary team research strategies pertinent to work in the area, and beyond.  Presentations addressing these and other issues in relation to emerging / transforming (digital) infrastructures, in regional, national, and international contexts are also most welcome.  Centrally proximate to all the Americas and in the midst of a renaissance, Havana has been selected as an ideal locus for address of these issues by those across the Americas, the Caribbean and adjacent regions.
Featured events include a plenary address by Alan Liu (UCSB) and a discussion panel focusing specifically on digital humanities concerns in a regional context.
We invite paper proposals that address these and other issues pertinent to research in the area, as well as all digital humanities concerns in a regional context.  Proposals should contain a title, an abstract (of approximately 250 words) plus list of works cited, and the names, affiliations, and website URLs of  presenters; fuller papers will be solicited after acceptance of the proposal, for circulation in advance of the gathering. We are pleased to welcome proposals in all languages in which our community works, and note that the chief working language of past gatherings has been English.  Please send proposals before 15 May 2012 to siemens@uvic.ca.
The gathering takes place allied with activities of the THATCamp Caribe group (http://caribbean2012.thatcamp.org/) and Red de Humanidades Digitales (RedHD; http://www.humanidadesdigitales.mx/), the Alliance of Digital Humanities Organisations (ADHO; http://digitalhumanities.org/), the Society for Digital Humanities / Société pour l’étude des médias interactifs (SDH/SEMI; http://sdh-semi.org/), and the Public Knowledge Project (PKP; http://pkp.sfu.ca/), and is sponsored by the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH), the Implementing New Knowledge Environments (INKE) research group, and the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).  Earlier gatherings of this group have taken place in conjunction with the Second International Symposium on Digital Humanities for Japanese Arts and Cultures (Kyoto, November 2011; sponsored by the Japanese Association for Digital Humanities, the Digital Humanities Center for Japanese Arts and Cultures at Ritsumeikan U, INKE, and SSHRC), the conference Texts and Literacy in the Digital Age: Assessing the Future of Scholarly Communication (The Hague, December 2010; sponsored by the National Library of the Netherlands, the Book and Digital Media Studies department of Leiden U, INKE and SSHRC), and at U Victoria (October 2009; sponsored by INKE and SSHRC).
Notes:

  1. For travel inquiries and assistance, please contact
    1. Camille Eade, Leisure Travel Consultant, UNIGLOBE Geo Travel: phone 250.756.3952  ext. 5265 / toll free 1.888.290.9239, fax 250.758.0727, email ceade@geo.ca.
    2. Mariana Best, Sabri Travels: phone +44 (0) 20 7223 4330, fax +44 (0) 20 7223 4502, email mariana@sabritravels.com, website www.sabritravels.com.
  2. US Citizens may travel to Cuba for the purpose of professional meetings or conferences.  Information at http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1097.html#entry_requirements; authorisation module at  http://cubatravel.ofac.treas.gov/.  US Citizens may wish to work through Cuba Travel Services (CTS; http://cubatravelservices.com/), which is licensed by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.