Dr Catherine Jones and Dr Lars Wieneke from the CVCE, in collaboration with Prof. Andreas Fickers and Anita Lucchesi from the University of Luxembourg, had the pleasure of hosting the annual Digital Humanities Benelux conference for researchers from the three Benelux countries and beyond.
Digital Humanities operates at the intersection of humanities and technology scholarship. As a truly interdisciplinary field it is collaborative in nature. At its heart is the notion of new technology for creating, selecting, integrating, analysing, organising, visualising and presenting humanities data, turning it into information with the ultimate goal of creating new knowledge across a broad range of topics using a variety of cultural heritage and historical data, both big and small (text, images, video, sound, etc.). Research using new digital tools and methods has the power to transform our understanding of existing research questions and aid the development of new ones, providing a critical cultural lens to explore the emergence of humanity and society.
It is with these thoughts in mind that the DH Benelux conference was hosted at the new facilities of the University on its Belval campus (9–10 June 2016). We welcomed almost 150 participants from the Benelux regions and beyond; participants represented 20 different countries in total, including nations as far afield as the USA and Taiwan.
The conference kicked off with a pre-conference seminar led by Prof. Elisabeth Burr whose thought-provoking keynote discussed the need for and cultural importance of multilingualism in science scholarship. On Thursday morning the President of the University of Luxembourg, Prof. Dr Rainer Klump, officially marked the opening of the conference. This was followed by a stimulating keynote by Prof. Stephen Ramsey (University of Nebraska) on the subject of data and their (human-machine) interpretation. The CNA played host to a wonderful social event in the evening and gave the participants a glimpse into its fascinating archive resources. The conference was closed by Prof. Arianna Betti with an interesting keynote on the topic of computer modelling for the History of Ideas.
Fifty-two papers were presented, exploring a diverse range of research activities including historical research and network analysis, GeoHumanities, digital transformations, digital textual analysis and digital editions (all abstracts are available online at http://www.dhbenelux.org/ ). Unique to the conference this year was the lunchtime “big DH conversation” sponsored by Digital Lëtzebuerg. Participants had lunch with like-minded colleagues in order to discuss relevant topics and challenges that are set to shape the future of the field, with the discussion points being fed back to all during the closing panel session.
The conference was a great success, largely thanks to the welcoming, open and interesting nature of the DH research community in the Benelux region. Special thanks must be extended on behalf of the local organising committee to Sally Chambers from the University of Ghent who as the programme chair of DH Benelux 2016 created a stimulating academic programme for the conference.
The local organising committee of DH Benelux were also especially grateful for the support of all our sponsors, which included the FNR, Digital Luxembourg, Cengage Learning, NWO and DHu.f, together with the many different research units and institutes at the University of Luxembourg, all of which contributed to making the conference a great success. We are proud and excited to be at the forefront of this research field and look forward to tremendous opportunities for the future of Digital Humanities in Luxembourg.
