event: International Seminar of Digital Philology: 'The Marriage of Mercury and Philology: Problems and Outcomes in Digital Philology'

'The Marriage of Mercury and Philology: Problems and Outcomes in
Digital Philology'

International Seminar of Digital Philology
Edinburgh, March 25th - 27th, 2008
Venue: e-Science Institute, 15 South College Street, Edinburgh

The conference is organised and hosted by the e-Science Institute,
National e-Science Centre, and supported by the University of
Edinburgh, the Italian Institute in Edinburgh, and the French Institute
in Edinburgh.

ABOUT THE CONFERENCE

In late Antiquity, at the beginning of a new era, Martianus Cappella
wrote his 'De nuptiis Mercurii et Philologiae' in which he proposed a
then revolutionary synthesis of technique (Mercury) and culture
(Philology). Inspired by Cappella, this conference will explore the
interaction between Information and Communication Technology systems
and the philological analysis of both ancient and modern manuscripts
and printed texts: in other words Digital Philology.

The discussions at this conference focus on both the theoretical and
practical issues encountered in the creation of digital texts and both
critical and genetic editions. The implications for research and
teaching will be examined and current projects in the field will be
presented. The aim of the conference is to approach these issues from
an international perspective, in order to establish collaboration in
research and teaching, and to provide new contributions to the field as
a result. Workshops will provide a forum for discussing experiences,
ideas, issues and new tools related to Digital Philology with students.

The conference welcomes both leading scholars and young researchers
working on the problems of textual criticism and editorial scholarship
in the electronic medium, as well as students, teachers, librarians,
archivists, and computing professionals who are interested in
representation, access, exchange, management and conservation of texts.

WEBCAST
The conference will be webcast in order to allow wider participation.
The link to the webcast will appear on the e-Science Institute website
http://www.nesc.ac.uk/esi/events/854/index.cfm. 1 hour before the
workshop / webcast is due to be broadcast.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
The conference aims to encourage international conversations and
networking between participants in different projects and countries,
and to offer an international perspective on the issues of textual
criticism and editorial scholarship in the electronic medium. As the
conference is actively promoting a European perspective, speakers will
come from different European countries. Keynote speakers will be
academic scholars renowned in the field of Digital Philology. The
following have confirmed their participation:

Peter Robinson, University of Birmingham, UK;
Jean-Louis Lebrave, Institut des Textes et Manuscrits, CNRS / ENS, France;
Paolo D'Iorio, Institut des Textes et Manuscrits CNRS / ENS, France;
Domenico Fiormonte, Roma Tre University, Rome, Italy;
Andrea Bozzi, Istituto Linguistica Computazionale, CNR, Pisa, Italy;
Edward Vanhoutte, CTB - Centrum voor Teksteditie en Bronnenstudie,
Koningstraat, Belgium;
Manfred Thaller, University of Cologne, Germany.

SUBMISSIONS

-TOPICS:
We welcome proposals that discuss any aspect of the interaction
between ICT and philology.
In order to provide a good overview of the current state of Digital
Philology, the conference will focus on four main topics:

1. Tools:
Pieces of software; technologies and multimedia tools employed to
create digital critical and genetic editions; multimedia archives and
collaborative publications (representation, cataloguing, collation,
comparison, textual analysis, textual genesis, interchange, management
and preservation of manuscripts and printed editions in
text/image/audio/video format).

2. Products:
Digital critical and genetic editions, multimedia archives, and
collaborative publications available on CD-ROMs and/or on the World
Wide Web (current projects, work in progress, updates on continuing
mature projects).

3. Methodologies:
Impact of ICT on philological studies
Methodological approaches used when preparing a digital edition
Accomplishment of a digital edition that is truly new and innovative
What ICT in textual criticism enables scholars to do that could not be
done before
Digital philology as 'traditional' philology in a new fashion
Digital philology as a new discipline in itself
Relation between digital and traditional philology
Collaborative publication of digital editions / Collaborative
philological research in a virtual environment.

4. Learning/Teaching:
The use of critical and genetic editions and multimedia archives in
learning/teaching languages, linguistics, literature, history,
palaeography, creative writing, textual criticism, digital philology.

-TYPES OF PROPOSAL:

Paper:
Proposals for papers should be no less than 750 words. Papers will be
allocated 50 minutes for presentation, including a 10 minute question-
answer session.
Workshop:
Proposals for workshops should be no less than 500 words. Workshops
will be allocated 50 minutes for presentation, including 30 minutes of
collaborative work.
There should be no difference in quality between papers and workshop
presentations. The same academic standards should apply in both cases,
but workshops may be a more suitable way of presenting projects with
teaching and interactive purposes, since they provide an opportunity
for students to exchange ideas, methods and techniques with
international scholars. The choice between the two modes of
presentation should depend on the most effective and informative way of
communicating the scientific content of the proposal.

Proposals are peer-reviewed.

-FORMAT OF PROPOSAL
All proposals must be uploaded onto the Call for Papers page on the e-
Science website http://www.nesc.ac.uk/esi/events/854/proposal.cfm in
PDF, PPT format. Please pay particular attention to the format given
below. Proposals which do not conform to this format, or which arrive
after the deadline will not be considered.
The information required for all proposals includes:
Type of proposal: paper, workshop
Title: title of paper, workshop
Keywords: three keywords (maximum) describing the main contents of the
paper or workshop
Author: name of first author
Affiliation: of first author
E-Mail: of first author
Author: name of second author (repeat these three headings as
necessary)
Affiliation: of second author
E-Mail: of second author

The deadline for proposals is 7th March 2008

-LANGUAGE:
Proposals and Presentations should be done in English.

REGISTRATION
Registration is through the e-Science Institute website: http://www.
nesc.ac.uk/esi/events/854/index.cfm
Delegates should register before 7th March 2008 (the initial deadline
of 25th February has been extended). Afterwards, higher fees will be
applied.
For information on accommodation, please visit the Information for
Visitors page: http://wiki.esi.ac.uk/Information_for_Visitors

WIKI
We invite you to visit the e-Science Institute wiki that has been set
up for the International Seminar of Digital Philology: http://wiki.esi.
ac.uk/International_Seminar_of_Digital_Philology
This section provides space for community discussion, as well as other
useful information.
If you are new to Wikis there is a very simple introduction to
editing them at Help:Editing on the top page, or you can use the Help
link in the sidebar

CONTACT US
If you require any further information please contact
Cinzia Pusceddu, Conference Organiser, on 0044 (0)131 6503746 or by
email:
cinzia.pusceddu@ed.ac.uk.