Research Foundations for Understanding Books and Reading in the Digital Age: E/Merging Reading, Writing, and Research Practices

Hotel Parque Central, Havana, Cuba.

11-14 December 2012

Please click here to download a password-protected PDF of the papers accepted to this gathering.

Digital technologies are fundamentally altering the way we relate to writing, reading, and the human record itself, and the way in which 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.

Our 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 explored. 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.

The gathering is organised and sponsored by the international Implementing New Knowledge Environments (INKE) research group, the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), and the international Alliance of Digital Humanities Organisations (ADHO); it takes place allied with activities of the Society for Digital Humanities / Société pour l’étude des médias interactifs (SDH/SEMI), the THATCamp Caribe group, Red de Humanidades Digitales (RedHD), as well as the Public Knowledge Project (PKP), and is presented in partnership with the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH).   Earlier international INKE gatherings have taken place allied with the activities of 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 U Victoria (October 2009; sponsored by INKE and SSHRC).

The timetable for our meetings, which take place at Havana’s Hotel Parque Central, is as follows:

  • 11 December: unconference, participant-organised activities and meetings
  • 12 December: structured presentation and discussion sessions (Prado Room)
  • 13 December: unconference, participant-organised activities and meetings
  • 14 December: unconference, participant-organised activities and meetings

The core event of the gathering takes place 12 December 2012, with 11, 13, and 14 December reserved for participant-organised, unconference, pre- and post-conference activities and meetings; a discussion forum for organising these activities will be set up after the early registration period ends on 1 September 2012.

Registration for attendees beyond presenters is open at http://www.regonline.ca/inke2012; early registration rates (until 1 September) are Student $75 / Non-Student $150.

Travel Arrangements

Flights to Havana are frequent from a number of major centres, directly or (from a distance) via connection, with United, American Eagle, and Air Canada being the chief carriers from North America.  We highly recommend that those attending the gathering work through a travel agent for flight and hotel bookings.  Recommended agents include:

  • 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 (please mention in your contact my name and the name of the gathering).
  • Mariana Best, Sabri Travels: phone +44 (0) 20 7223 4330, fax +44 (0) 20 7223 4502, email mariana@sabritravels.com, website www.sabritravels.com.
  • 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.

The Hotel Parque Central, the conference hotel, is highly regarded; attendees may find the reviews at http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotels-g147271-Havana_Cuba-Hotels.html helpful when considering accommodation.

Travel Licenses for Those Residing in the US

US Citizens may travel to Cuba for the purpose of professional meetings or conferences. The authorisation module for receiving permission, via license, to travel to Cuba is found at http://cubatravel.ofac.treas.gov/; further information about the licenses is found at http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1097.html, where it is noted:

General licenses for Travel: General licenses are granted to the following categories of travelers, who are permitted to spend money to travel to Cuba and to engage in other transactions directly incident to the purpose of their travel, without the need to obtain a specific license from the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) :

[...] Full-time professionals whose travel transactions are directly related to attendance at professional meetings or conferences in Cuba that are organized by an international professional organization, institution, or association that regularly sponsors such meetings or conferences in other countries.

Programme

Research Foundations for Understanding Books and Reading in the Digital Age:

E/Merging Reading, Writing, and Research Practices
INKE 2012 Birds-of-a-Feather Gathering
Hotel Parque Central, Havana.

  • 11 December: unconference, participant-organised activities and meetings
  • 12 December: structured presentation and discussion sessions (Prado Room)
  • 13 December: unconference, participant-organised activities and meetings
  • 14 December: unconference, participant-organised activities and meetings

(The core event of the gathering takes place 12 December 2012, with 11, 13, and 14 December reserved for participant-organised, unconference, pre- and post-conference activities and meetings; a discussion forum for organising these activities will be set up after the early registration period ends on 1 September 2012.)

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.  Prado Room.

  • Opening Plenary Panel – Ray Siemens (U Victoria), Chair
    8.30-10.00 (Includes light breakfast)
  1. Alan Liu (UC Santa Barbara).  Keynote Address: “This is Not a Book: Long Forms of Shared Attention in the Digital Age.”
  2. Roberto Zurbano Torres (Casa de las Americas).  “El Terror al Futuro o el Miedo al Libro Digital y sus Lecturas  Simultaneas: Una Experimencia Desde el Catalogo del Fondo Editorial Casa de las Americas.”   [Terrified of the Future, or The Digital Book and Simultaneous Reading: Perspectives from the Catalog of Casa de las Americas.]
  3. John Scenters-Zapico (U Texas at El Paso).   “Navigating Digital Literacies: A Study of Literacy Sponsors and Gateways in a Digital Age.”
  • Reading, In Context(s) – Jon Bath (U Saskatchewan), Chair
    10.15-11.15
  1.  “(Un)packing the Collaboratory: Next steps for Iter Community.” William R Bowen (U Toronto).
  2.  “Far From the Maddening Crowd: Digital Projects and the Ethics of Popular Knowledge Mobilization.” Daniel O’Donnell (U Lethbridge), Catherine Karkov (Leeds U), and Heather Hobma (U Lethbridge).
  3. “The Future of the Book isn’t Bound: Post-artifact reading and writing.”  Tom Abba (U West England)
  4. “Children of the Screen.”  Sol B. Gaitán (Dalton School, New York).
  5.  “From Broadsides to Blogs: The Evolution and Future of Communications Media in New England.”  Sara Sikes (Mass. Historical Society).
  6. “The Digital Commonplace Book.”  Scott Schofield (U Toronto) and the INKE Textual Studies Research Group.
  • Community, Collaboration – Daniel O’Donnell (U Lethbridge), Chair
    11.30-12.15
  1. “The Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC): Creating a Shared Research Foundation.” Laurie N. Taylor (U Florida), Brooke Wooldridge (Florida International U / dLOC), and Margarita Vargas-Betancourt (U Florida / dLOC).
  2.  “Towards a New Caribbean Philology: Two Steps and a Leap.”  Alex Gil (U Virginia).
  3. “The Afro Latin@™ Project: Afrodescendiente Citizenship in the Digital Age.”  Amilcar Maceo Priestley (Panama).
  4. “Regional History in a Digital Age: The Problems and Prospects of Atlantic Canadian Studies.”  Corey Slumkoski (Mount Saint Vincent U).
  • Perspectives and Practices: Focus Panels, Pre-Organised
    12.30-2.00 (Includes light lunch)
  • 1. Transnational Digital Humanities: Digital Tools for Social Justice, Research and Communication to Broad Audiences – Janet Simons (Hamilton C), Chair
    12.30-1.00
  1. “The Soweto HGIS Project.” Angel David Nieves (Hamilton C).
  2. “The Digital Archive as Intervention in Literary Cosmopolitics.” Patricia O’Neill (Hamilton C).
  3. “Textual Ethics: Visualizing the Interface of Witness, Archivist, and the Digital Reader.” Doran Larson (Hamilton C).
  • 2. Digitizing History and Bringing it to the Classroom: Practical Lessons from a Seven-Year Historical Census Database Project – Tamara Spike (North Georgia C and State U), Chair
    1.00-1.30
  1. “Setting up Shop: Things to Consider Before You Begin.”  Tamara Spike, (North Georgia C and State U).
  2. “Data Coding:  Asking the Right Questions.”  Sarah L. Franklin (U North Alabama).
  3. “Shop-floor Strategy: What Works and What Does Not in Coding and Data Entry Procedures.”  Monica L. Hardin (U Phoenix).
  • 3. JUXTA and the Practice of Online Textual Collation: Three Case Studies by Members of NINES (Networked Infrastructure for Nineteenth-Century Electronic Scholarship) – Andrew M. Stauffer (U Virginia), Chair
    1.30-2.00
  1. Andrew M. Stauffer (U Virginia).
  2. Alex Gil (U Virginia).
  3. Sarah Storti (U Virginia).
  • Addressing the Scholarly Edition – Stéfan Sinclair (McGill U), Chair
    2.15-3.15
  1. “Opening the eBooks of the Folger Library Edition of Shakespeare.”  Gord Barentsen (U Western Ontario) and Paul Werstine (U Western Ontario).
  2. “Beyond Browsing and Reading: The Open Work of Digital Scholarly Editions.”  Jon Saklofske (Acadia U), Jake Bruce (Acadia U), and the INKE Modeling/Prototyping Research Group.
  3. “Horse, Camel, or S’cholarly Edition?”  Richard Cunningham (Acadia U) and the INKE Textual Studies Research Group.
  4. “Reading Environments for Genetic Editions.”  Malte Rehbein (U Nebraska-Lincoln).
  5. “Understanding the Social Edition Through Iterative Implementation: The Case of the Devonshire MS (BL Add Ms 17492).”  Constance Crompton (U Victoria) and Ray Siemens (U Victoria).
  • Reading Tools and Pertinent Applications – Jon Saklofske (Acadia U), Chair
    3.30-4.30
  1. “Scalable Reading, Project Bamboo’s TextShop, and New Humanities Scholarship.”  Neil Fraistat (U Maryland).
  2. “Cracking the Agrippa Code: Creativity Without Destruction.” Isaac Quinn Dupont (U Toronto).
  3. “Automatic Analysis of Gender Variation in Language via Conjecture Generation.”  Patrick Juola (Duquesne U).
  4. “Reading the Unreadable.” Natalia Aki Cecire (Yale U).
  5. “Reading Thomas Jefferson with TopicViz: Towards a Thematic Method for Exploring Large Cultural Archives.”  Lauren Klein (Georgia Institute of Technology), Jacob Eisenstein (Georgia Institute of Technology).
  • Next Steps, Looking Forward (Pragmatics and Otherwise)  – Constance Crompton (U Victoria), Chair
    4.45-5.30 (reception to 7.00)
  1. “Minimalist Architectures: Re‐designing the eBook for Small Reading Surfaces.”  Brent Nelson (U Saskatchewan), Jon Bath (U Saskatchewan), Robert Imes (U Saskatchewan), and the INKE Textual Studies Research Group.
  2. “E/Merging Models for the Production of Online Research through Linked Data.”  Susan Brown (U Guelph/Alberta), Harvey Quamen (U Alberta), John Simpson, Jon Bath (U Saskatchewan), Lisa Goddard, Jon Saklofske (Acadia U), Jentery Sayers (U Victoria), Adèle Barclay (U Victoria), Alex Christie (U Victoria), Mandy Elliott, and the INKE Modeling/Prototyping Research Group.
  3. “Toward Tool Integration in a Digital Scholarly Environment.”  Stéfan Sinclair (McGill U), Stan Ruecker (IIT Institute of Design), Andrew Macdonald (McGill U), Geoffrey Rockwell (U Alberta), Milena Radzikowska (Mt Royal U), Teresa Dobson (U British Columbia), Ann Blandford (University College, London), Susan Brown (U Guelph/Alberta), and Brent Nelson (U Saskatchewan) with Daniel Sondheim, Mihaela Ilovan, Jennifer Windsor, Mark Bieber, Sara Faisal, Alejandro Giacometti, Piotr Michura, Luciano Frizzera, Kamal Ranaweera, Carlos Fiorentino, Omar Rodriguez, Brooke Heller, Geoff Roeder, and the INKE Research Group.
  4.  “INKE at the Midterm Review.” Lynne Siemens and the INKE Research Group.
  5. Closing Comments: “Considering Ways to Approach Scholarly Books and Professional Reading in the Digital, Social Age.”  Ray Siemens (U Victoria), and the INKE Research Group.

Image Copyright: 2012 Syd Bauman, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. (See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)

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