Digitizing the Medieval Archive – Call For Papers

Digitizing the Medieval Archive 2014
Toronto’s Centre for Medieval Studies
March 27-29, 2014

Keynote speakers:

  • David Greetham (The Graduate Center, CUNY)
  • Stephen G. Nichols (Johns Hopkins University)
  • Caroline Macé (KU Leuven)
  • Consuelo Dutschke (Columbia University Library)

Discussion about the digitization of archival fonds and library holdings pertaining to the Middle Ages boasts a wide profusion both in online settings and in real time. As the question of how medievalists may work within this digital environment becomes an increasingly more widely discussed topic, we invite scholars in the Humanities and Social Sciences to convene in Toronto to consider and discuss the possibilities of the digitized medieval archive.

There has been and continues to be considerable variation in the introduction, evaluation and continuation of digital storage. Digital technology has expanded and complicated the idea of the medieval archive. In bringing together the two concepts, digitization and archivization, we aim to address questions about the dissemination of and access to materials and research, but also such long-standing questions relating to the methodological and practical ways we carry out research and think about our material – thinking digitally about the Middle Ages.

This conference sets out to explore ways in which medievalists might harness the vast, digital possibilities for a cross-institutional and interdisciplinary medieval archive. Possible topics may include but are not limited to the following:

  • Implications of digital archives for the editing of medieval texts
  • Methodologies and/or ideologies behind archivization
  • The archivization of already existing digital databases
  • Digitized archives/collections as enabling or limiting research
  • The digital (re)construction of medieval collections
  • Compilation and order of medieval texts
  • Textual forms / reading methods
  • Fluidity of the medieval text and the Internet
  • Digital visualization of medieval documents, art and literature

Please submit a short C.V. and abstracts of 250 words to digitizingmedievalarchive@gmail.com by October 1, 2013 for consideration.