DHd Conference 2018

The 5th ‘Digital Humanities in the German-Speaking Region’ (DHd) conference will take place from 26 February to 2 March 2018 at the University of Cologne. It will revolve around the guiding topic ‘Critique of Digital Reason’.

The digital humanities are often seen as simply processes of investigating issues from the various relevant subject areas, transformed into a digital format. There is also a widespread notion that the digital humanities are largely driven by data, algorithms and tools and dominated by their immediate possibilities and applications. How can this be reconciled to the critical stance of the traditional humanities? Are there certain implicit, tacitly accepted agendas tied to our interaction with digital media, to modelling, operationalising and formalising our work with computers, which demand more reflection through intellectual criticism?

This conference aims to shift the focus to critical dimensions of digital research, inspiring new approaches to theory-building and epistemology in that area. Within this framework, the conference will address societal, social and political dimensions of the ubiquitous digitalisation processes, focusing on such heterogenous concepts as forms of interaction, participation, education, digital literacy, and the consequences and backlash of digitality for scholarship and society.

The conference will explore the following topics (among others):

• Critique of digitalisation – formats, standards and practices
• Critique of digital products, projects and tools
• Critique of digital methods
• Critique of digital humanities (both traditional subjects and established digital humanities)
• Critique of digital scientific theory
• Critique of digital society