Call for Papers – DHNB 2026, Aarhus

Lost in Abundance: Encounters with the Non-Canonical

The Digital Humanities in the Nordic and Baltic Countries (DHNB) 2026 invites scholars to explore the richness of digital materials that exist beyond the obvious and the well-explored. Under the theme ‘Lost in Abundance’, we particularly welcome contributions that engage with the extensive yet frequently unnoticed wealth of marginalized texts, visuals, and diverse cultural artefacts – whether hidden within familiar archives, waiting unnoticed within vast datasets, or scattered and barely accessible across fragmented collections. However, submissions on any aspect of digital humanities scholarship will also be considered.

The contemporary scholarly landscape has been fundamentally reshaped by vast digitization efforts undertaken by libraries, museums, archives, and other cultural heritage institutions (GLAM). Combined with rapidly expanding collections of born-digital content and extensive online repositories, these digitized sources offer rich opportunities for historical and cultural inquiry. However, they also present significant methodological and interpretive challenges. How can digital humanities scholars effectively navigate and analyze this abundance, particularly when historical contexts are complex, fragmented, or elusive? And how can digital humanities help reveal biases and gaps inherent in the formation and digitization of GLAM collections?

We encourage fresh and critical approaches to uncovering overlooked literary trends, forgotten visual drifts, unconventional historical records or cultural products etc. How might digital humanities guide us through this abundant yet underexplored landscape? What insights, challenges, and questions emerge when we re-direct our attention from canonical towards underexplored, neglected, or scattered data?

Possible topics include, but are in no way limited to:

• Identifying hidden texts, images, genres, and multimedia within established or emerging archives
• Methodological innovations for engaging with neglected or dispersed digital content
• Critically revisiting and challenging established categories and cultural frameworks
• Ethical reflections on exploring overlooked or fragmented sources
• Interdisciplinary insights into underexplored and diverse cultural materials
• Advanced and inventive use of digital methods and computational approaches

Developmental Track for Works-in-Progress

In addition to our traditional conference formats, DHNB 2026 pilots a developmental track specifically for works-in-progress. This track is designed for scholars who wish to present ongoing projects and receive constructive input to help shape the next stages of their work. Each presentation in this track follows a 30-minute slot, consisting of up to 15 minutes for the presenter’s introduction to the topic and the aspects on which feedback is particularly sought, followed by up to 15 minutes of discussion (during which the presenter may also show additional material as needed). Sessions will be organized in smaller groups to foster in-depth, collegial, and supportive dialogue, while remaining compatible with the broader conference schedule. Submissions to the Works-in-Progress track are accepted as abstracts of 500-1000 words. When submitting to this track, authors should already in their submission clearly outline the aspects on which feedback is particularly sought.

Doctoral Consortium

DHNB 2026 renews the Doctoral Consortium track debuted at DHNB 2025 with the idea that doctoral students could present their ongoing studies and get mentored by more experienced scholars. This consortium will take place during the pre-conference events. To encourage young researchers to participate in the conference, DHNB will provide up to six bursaries to cover reasonable travel and accommodation costs (up to 500€) for participating in this event. You can apply for the bursary at the same time as submitting your proposal. Please spread the word among your colleagues, friends, and students!
 Submissions to the Doctoral Consortium track are accepted as abstracts of 500-1000 words.

Workshops and Tutorials

Workshops can take many forms, from community hacking sessions to thematically focused mini conferences attached to the main one, whose presentations are either pre-selected or sourced through separate calls for proposals solicited by the workshop coordinators. Tutorials on the other hand present tools, technologies, or practical exercises of interest to DH researchers. Workshops and tutorials may be proposed as either half-day (up to four hours) or full-day (up to eight hours) events. Submissions should be 1000-2000 words in length and include an introduction of the topic/idea of the workshop/tutorial and its importance, information on the intended target audience, as well as details about the expected outcome(s). Proposals for workshops and tutorials are evaluated in an expedited fashion by the Programme Committee to ensure their organizers have enough time themselves for e.g. separate workshop calls for papers.

General Track

This traditional conference track accepts proposals for long papers, short papers, posters, and demos, as well as panels. Between the proposal categories, the following conceptual divisions apply:

-Long papers:

• Are expected to present mature research with a clear research question, theoretical framing, methodology, results, and discussion.
• Will be presented for 20 minutes, followed by 10 minutes for Q&A
• Can be submitted as either abstracts of 1000-1500 words excluding references or as full text papers of 8-16 pages excluding references

-Short papers:

• May present preliminary results or innovative methods, but should still outline the research question, materials, and methodology in sufficient detail to allow evaluation.
• Will be presented for 15 minutes, followed by 5 minutes for Q&A
• Can be submitted as either abstracts of 500-1000 words excluding references or as full text papers of 4-8 pages excluding references

-Posters and demos:

• Posters can either present small self-contained works, work-in-progress or be general project descriptions. Demos are interactive demonstrations of tools, services or techniques.
• Will be presented in the conference poster session, prefixed by 1-minute lightning talks
• Can be submitted as either abstracts of 250-500 words excluding references or as full text papers of 2-4 pages excluding references

-Panels are free-form proposals for pre-built, thematically coherent 60–120-minute slots within the general conference programme (typically consisting e.g. of multiple individual contributions and joint discussion).

All submissions to general track should be explicit in their scholarly contribution, regardless of the format and maturity of the research. Submitted proposals will undergo a single-blind peer-review process whereby the reviewers know the names/affiliations of the abstract authors and co-authors. Based on the reviews, authors may be asked to also make revisions before publication.

All submissions – whether full-text proceeding or abstracts – must be formatted according to the DHNB PUB template. Full-text proceedings will be published in a citable conference proceedings collection (https://journals.uio.no/dhnbpub/) before the conference; abstracts will be gathered into a book of abstracts. After the conference, a separate call for post-proceedings will be issued, with its own deadlines for submissions, reviews and revisions, aimed primarily at publishing research that went into the conference as abstracts.

Join us in Aarhus to explore and illuminate the abundance of digital materials awaiting discovery!

Submission Deadline: October 15, 2025
Conference Dates: March 9–13, 2026
Location: Aarhus, Denmark

We look forward to your innovative contributions and lively discussions in Aarhus.