Is Software Production a Cultural Practice?
computer science is not all that well equipped to understand itself and its own founding object, let alone help the humanities with their relation to computing and the digital. (Hall, “The Digital Humanities Beyond Computing”, 3)
it is essential that humanists assert and insert themselves into the twenty-first century cultural wars, which are largely being defined, fought, and won by corporate interests. (Presner, “Comparative Literature in the Age of Digital Humanities”, 196)
Between September 4-5 2018, the Trinity College Dublin Centre for Digital Humanities will convene an interdisciplinary working group of researchers from across the humanities, the social sciences and the computer sciences, at the Trinity Long Room Hub, Dublin. The broad aims of the working group is to address the question “Is Software Production a Cultural Practice” and to consider how best the humanities can contribute to our understanding of the computational and the digital. A more nuanced description of the working group and its aims is set forth in the Trinity Centre for Digital Humanities Software Culture Working Group Position Paper.
Invitation for Expressions of Interest.
Prospective participants are asked to submit a response to this white paper, informed by but not necessarily focussed on their current research, but positioned in terms of how this research might inform a wider dialogue. We want people to take risks, to learn from each other, and to expand their access to perspectives emerging in other disciplinary communities.
This is not a conference to showcase empirical, technological, or indeed even humanistic research, but rather a sandbox, designed to spark new ideas and establish links between disciplines, or indeed move into a post-disciplinary space of shared expertise.
As such, the organisers are being deliberately vague in terms of submission guidelines. However, there are a number of leading questions laid out in Section Four of the position paper which may help to focus your response. Responses should include the following:
- The name of the participant
- The participant’s institution
- Three keywords.
Please email the response as a Word document to doranm1@tcd.ie by May 11, 2018. Participants will be notified of acceptance by May 31, 2018.
All accepted responses will be circulated among the working group participants ahead of the event in September. To facilitate the circulation of the working group materials and to ensure a common understanding of the multiple perspectives within the conversation, invitations may be issued alongside a request for participants to update their proposals. In this event, revised proposals will be submitted by June 30, 2018.
Expenses.
The Trinity Centre for Digital Humanities will offer reimbursement of return flights and accommodation up to a maximum of two nights following participation in the working group to all working group participants. The event will be fully catered.
For enquiries about any of the above, please contact: doranm1@tcd.ie (Michelle Doran).
*** The organisers of the working group are grateful to acknowledge the financial ***
support of the Trinity Long Room Hub Research Incentive Scheme.