Digital History and Theory
An Open Conversation on the Future of Digital Scholarship
PROGRAM
March 3–March 4, 2023
The in-person event was held at the Digital Scholarship Lab (DSL), Rockefeller Library, Brown University (1st floor, 10 Prospect St, Providence, RI 02910). The virtual event was held online via Zoom.
For up-to-date information and to participate in the conversation, check out History and Theory on Twitter, Facebook, and Discord and Brown University Library on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
On March 3–4, 2023, History and Theory, partnering with Brown University Library, brought the contributors to our December 2022 theme issue, “Digital History and Theory: Changing Narratives, Changing Methods, Changing Narrators,” together for an open exchange inspired by their contributions but focused on the ways to make that change happen now. Digital history has provided us with an incredible array of tools for acquiring and processing data, but critical theoretical reflections have been few and widespread imaginative historical innovations are scarce. The tools have changed, and the possibilities have changed, but the discipline of history is in danger of using them to simply replicate its old ways. Of course, in the end, it is not the tools that will lead to a change; it is ideas and imagination.
At this event, our contributors reflected on their past work and offered concrete suggestions as to how the digital can change the way we research, write, and teach about the past—that is, the way we do history.
Presented by History and Theory and Brown University Library, with support from Brown University’s Department of History and Cogut Institute for the Humanities.
Friday, March 3
Location: DSL & online
1:45 pm, Symposium opening welcome
Ethan Kleinberg, Editor-in-Chief, History and Theory
2:15–3:15 pm, Panel 1
Chair: Ethan Kleinberg, Editor-in-Chief, History and Theory
Stefan Tanaka, “History as Communication, Part 2”
Read Stefan Tanaka’s “The Old and New of Digital History” in our December 2022 issue here.
Stephen Robertson, “History Unbound: From Book Discipline to Digital Discipline”
Read Stephen Robertson’s “The Properties of Digital History” in our December 2022 issue here.
3:30–4:30 pm, Panel 2
Chair: Courtney Weiss Smith, Associate Editor, History and Theory
Marnie Hughes-Warrington, “Machine Historians and Selection” (virtual)
Read Marnie Hughes-Warrington’s “Toward the Recognition of Artificial History Makers” in our December 2022 issue here.
David Gary Shaw, “Beyond Digital History”
Saturday, March 4
Location: DSL & online
8:30 am, Breakfast for Participants and Guests
9:15 am, Welcome
Joseph S. Meisel, Joukowsky Family University Librarian
9:30–11:00 am, Panel 3
Chair: Courtney Weiss Smith, Associate Editor, History and Theory
Shahzad Bashir, “Theorizing History beyond the Codex Form”
Read Shahzad Bashir’s “Composing History for the Web: Digital Reformulation of Narrative, Evidence, and Context” in our December 2022 issue here.
Christian Wachter, “Expanding the Horizons of Knowledge: Innovation through Theoretical Integration in Digital History” (virtual)
Read Christian Wachter’s review of Bodies and Structures 2.0: Deep-Mapping Modern East Asian History, edited by David R. Ambaras and Kate McDonald, in our December 2022 issue here.
Laura K. Morreale, “Finding Stories: The Radical Promise of Digital History”
Read Laura K. Morreale’s “History as Antidote: The Argument for Documentation in Digital History” in our December 2022 issue here.
11:15 am–12:15 pm, Panel 4
Chair: Valeria López Fadul, Assistant Editor, History and Theory
Jesse W. Torgerson, “Historical Data: Publish (It) or Perish”
Read Jesse W. Torgerson’s “Historical Practice in the Era of Digital History” in our December 2022 issue here.
Silke Schwandt, “Going Virtual: How Does the Potential of Interactive Scenarios Influence the Way We Do History in the 21st Century?” (virtual)
Read Silke Schwandt’s “Opening the Black Box of Interpretation: Digital History Practices as Models of Knowledge” in our December 2022 theme issue here.
12:15–1:30 pm, Lunch Break
1:30–2:30 pm, Panel 5
Chair: Matthew Specter, Associate Editor, History and Theory
Wulf Kansteiner, “Historical Theory and Artificial Intelligence” (virtual)
Read Wulf Kansteiner’s “Digital Doping for Historians: Can History, Memory, and Historical Theory Be Rendered Artificially Intelligent?” in our December 2022 issue here.
Esther Wright, “Video Games and the Margins of Digital History” (virtual)
Read Esther Wright’s review of Playing with the Past: Digital Games and the Simulation of History, edited by Matthew Wilhelm Kapell and Andrew B. R. Elliott, in our December 2022 issue here.
3:00–4:00 pm, Wrap-Up Session
Chair: Ethan Kleinberg, Editor-in-Chief, History and Theory
4:00–5:00 pm, Reception
6:30 pm, Dinner for Participants
About the cover image: This illustration is by Khyati Trehan, an Indian graphic designer and 3D visual artist based in New York. As part of Trehan’s “Digital Biology” series, the illustration “uses scaffolding as a metaphor for AI’s quest in unearthing the underlying logic and structure of complex organic matter” (via Unsplash). For more about this image and to see Trehan’s other work, visit Trehan’s page on the Visualising AI website and Trehan’s website.
Last modified 28 March 2023