First call for papers DHASA Conference 2025 https://dh2025.digitalhumanities.org.za
Theme: The role of humanities in digital humanities and artificial intelligence
The Digital Humanities Association of Southern Africa (DHASA) is pleased to announce its fifth conference, focusing on the theme The role of humanities in digital humanities and artificial intelligence. In a region where the field of Digital Humanities is still relatively underdeveloped, this conference aims to address this gap and foster growth and collaboration in the field. The conference offers an opportunity for researchers interested in showcasing their work in the broad field of Digital Humanities to come together. By doing so, the conference provides a comprehensive overview of the current state-of- the-art in Digital Humanities, particularly within the Southern Africa region. As such, we welcome submissions related to Digital Humanities research conducted by individuals from Southern Africa or research focused on the geographical area of Southern Africa in the broad sense.
Furthermore, the conference serves as a platform for information sharing and networking among researchers passionate about Digital Humanities. By bringing together experts working on Digital Humanities in Southern Africa or with a focus on Southern Africa, we aim to promote collaboration and facilitate further research in this dynamic field. In addition to the main conference, affiliated workshops and tutorials will be organised, providing researchers with valuable insights into novel technologies and tools. These supplementary events are designed for researchers interested in specific aspects of Digital Humanities or seeking practical information to enter or advance their knowledge in the field.
The DHASA conference welcomes interdisciplinary contributions from researchers in various domains of Digital Humanities, including, but not limited to, language, literature, visual art, performance and theatre studies, media studies, music, history, sociology, psychology, language technologies, library studies, philosophy, methodologies, software and computation, AI, and more. Our goal is to cultivate an inclusive scientific community of practice within Digital Humanities.
Suggested topics include the following: * The role of AI in digital humanities, the role of Digital Humanities in shaping AI, and the broader role of the humanities in both AI and DH projects; * Digital archives and the preservation of marginalised voices; * Intersectionality and the digital humanities: exploring the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, culture, and class in digital research and activism; * Activism and social change through digital media: how digital humanities tools and methodologies can be used to promote inclusion; * Engaging marginalised communities in the creation and use of digital tools, resources, and AI; * Exploring the role of digital humanities in decolonising knowledge and promoting indigenous perspectives; * The ethics of data collection and analysis in digital humanities and AI research; * The role of digital humanities and AI in promoting inclusive and equitable pedagogy; * Digital humanities and inclusion in the context of African and global perspectives and international collaborations; * Critical approaches to digital humanities and inclusion: examining the limitations and possibilities of digital tools and methodologies in promoting inclusion; and * Collaborative digital humanities projects with non-profit organisations, community groups, and cultural institutions; * Development of digital and AI tools for supporting digital humanities; * Novel utilisation of digital and AI tools for performing digital humanities research; * The role of digital humanities in the classroom: reimagining literacy and AI fluency * Digital humanities data and project management; * The role of librarians in the digital humanities project; * Any other digital humanities-related topic that serves the Southern African community.
Submission Guidelines
The DHASA conference 2025 asks for three types of submissions: * Long papers: Authors may submit long papers with a maximum of 8 content pages and unlimited pages for references and appendices. The final versions of accepted long papers will be granted an additional page (leading to a total of up to 9 content pages) to incorporate reviewers' comments. Long papers accepted for the conference will be presented in 30-minute time slots (which includes 10 minutes for questions). * Short papers: Authors may submit short papers with a maximum of 5 content pages and unlimited pages for references and appendices. The final versions of accepted short papers will be allowed an extra page (leading to a total of up to 6 content pages) to accommodate reviewers' comments. Short papers accepted for the conference will be presented in 15-minute time slots (which includes 5 minutes for questions). * Executive summaries: Authors can submit an executive summary for work in progress, limited to 1 page. Executive summaries accepted for the conference will be presented as posters during a dedicated poster presentation slot.
All accepted long and short paper submissions that are presented at the conference will be published in the JDHASA journal, see https://upjournals.up.ac.za/index.php/dhasa. In addition, the executive summaries for the poster presentations will be published in a book of executive summaries before the conference.
We particularly encourage student submissions where the first author is a student.
All submissions should adhere to the ACL style guide: https://acl-org.github.io/ACLPUB/formatting.html
Submissions should be submitted in PDF format. Submissions that do not adhere to the prescribed style guide will be rejected.
Follow this link to go to the submission platform: https://dh2025.digitalhumanities.org.za/submission/
Authors are encouraged to upload their datasets to the SADiLaR repository: https://repo.sadilar.org/. In case of difficulties uploading the datasets, please reach out to Benito Trollip (benito.trollip@nwu.ac.za).
Important dates
Submission deadline: 14 July 2025 Date of notification: 16 September 2025 Camera-ready copy deadline: 24 October 2025 Conference: 10 November 2025 – 14 November 2025 Conference venue: CSIR ICC, Pretoria, South Africa
Co-located events
Several co-located events are currently being prepared, including workshops and tutorials. These will be updated on the conference website.
Organising Committee
Aby Louw, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research Andiswa Bukula, South African Centre for Digital Language Resources Avi Moodley, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research Franco Mak, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research Franziska Pannach, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen Ilana Wilken, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research Johannes Sibeko, Nelson Mandela University Juan Steyn, South African Centre for Digital Language Resources Laurette Marais, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research Marissa Griesel, South African Centre for Digital Language Resources Menno van Zaanen, South African Centre for Digital Language Resources Privolin Naidoo, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research Sthembiso Mkhwanazi, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
-- 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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