Dear Colleague,

We are writing to invite you to contribute to a curated collection of articles titled Pivotal Players: Academic reflections on major works that have shaped research across the Arts, Humanities, and Social Science.

ABOUT THE COLLECTION

The collection is premised on a deceptively simple observation: while researchers regularly build on prior scholarship, we rarely pause to reflect explicitly on which works have shaped us, and how. This collection creates a dedicated space for exactly that reflection.

Contributors are invited to select a publication from before 2000 that has inspired them in their own research; this may include, but is not limited to, a seminal book, article, or comparable scholarly work, and write a reflective piece examining its impact: on the field broadly, on your own intellectual and methodological development, or both. Contributions need not be uncritical. The collection welcomes honest assessments of a work's limitations, contested legacies, or the ways a field has moved beyond, or failed to move beyond, its foundational assumptions.

The collection is anchored in Digital Humanities but is explicitly transdisciplinary. Given that Digital Humanities is a relatively young field, contributors are encouraged to draw on influential works from cognate disciplines, including the social sciences, humanities, media studies, information science, musicology, education, and beyond, and to articulate how those works connect to current digital scholarship.

At a moment when knowledge production is accelerating, and the boundaries of the digital humanities are being actively renegotiated, this kind of reflexive scholarship helps the field understand its own genealogy, surface underrepresented intellectual lineages, and think more carefully about the assumptions embedded in foundational texts.

Routledge Open Research uses a transparent, post-publication peer- review model that enables rapid publication and ongoing scholarly dialogue. The format itself, reflective, personal, and rigorous, also offers academics the rare opportunity to be truly transparent about the works that have genuinely formed their thinking.

For more information about this new publication format, please contact Kristen Brida Kristen.Brida@taylorandfrancis.com.

SUBMISSION DETAILS

Final submission deadline (with rolling submission): 31 March 2027 Collection page and submission portal: https://routledgeopenresearch.org/collections/academic-reflections-major-wor...

We would warmly welcome your contribution. If you are interested or would like to discuss a potential piece before committing, please do not hesitate to contact us directly.

Janelize Morelli Janelize.Morelli@nwu.ac.za Menno Van Zaanen Menno.VanZaanen@nwu.ac.za

-- Prof Menno van Zaanen menno.vanzaanen@nwu.ac.za Professor in Digital Humanities South African Centre for Digital Language Resources https://www.sadilar.org ________________________________ NWU PRIVACY STATEMENT: http://www.nwu.ac.za/it/gov-man/disclaimer.html

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