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Call for Proposals

The upcoming 2nd workshop “Tradition Archives Meet Digital Humanities” calls for proposals! It will be held as part of the DHNB2025 conference in Tartu, Estonia, which takes place from March 5–7, 2025. The workshop itself will be scheduled prior to the main conference, with the exact date to be announced after January 8. As a follow-up to the 2018 workshop held at the DHN2018 conference in Helsinki, this workshop aims to provide a meeting space for researchers, archivists, and technology experts engaged in folklore archives, digital cultural heritage, and digital humanities. The primary goal is to foster an interdisciplinary platform for advancing computational folklore (archival) studies through the exchange of insights, identification of challenges, and promotion of innovative practices.

Workshop Theme

Tradition or folklore archives are invaluable repositories that play a critical role in preserving and studying intangible cultural heritage, particularly folklore and related cultural expressions. These archives house rich collections including folk narratives, songs, rituals, oral histories, and other forms of cultural heritage. Beyond mere preservation, these archives offer structured organization and classification systems that enable researchers to explore and analyze the diversity of cultural expressions they contain.

We encourage submissions from researchers, archivists, and technology specialists interested in sharing their experiences, challenges, and methodologies within this interdisciplinary field. Submissions should focus on innovative approaches, case studies, theoretical frameworks, or practical challenges related to computational folklore (archive) studies.

Aligned with the central themes of DHNB2025, this workshop welcomes contributions that address topics related to tradition archives and DH, including but not limited to:

• community engagement: exploring methods and challenges in involving communities in the development and curation of digital tradition archives;
• best practices for digital archive development: identifying standards, workflows, and frameworks that enhance accessibility, usability, and sustainability of digital archives;
• computational analysis and AI tools: applications of computational methods and AI-driven tools in analyzing folklore corpora;
• multilingual folklore datasets: addressing the complexities of linking and integrating multilingual folklore collections;
• sustainability in digital archives: examining the challenges of sustaining digital archives beyond project-based funding cycles and ensuring long-term access and preservation;
• emerging and unconventional approaches: proposing innovative, exploratory, or unconventional methodologies and perspectives that push the boundaries of traditional digital archiving and folklore studies in relation to digital humanities.

Submission Details

The workshop will consist of presentations followed by discussion roundtables. The duration allocated to each presentation will be announced after the conclusion of the CFP. Please submit abstracts (350–550 words, 3–5 keywords) detailing your proposed presentation by January 8, 2025, via the Conftool system. A submission is expected to outline the focus, objectives, and expected outcomes of your presentation.

Submissions will undergo a review process to ensure relevance to the workshop theme. Notification of acceptance: January 27, 2025.

Participation in this workshop is open to both those already registered for the main DHNB2025 conference program and to external presenters. The reduced participation fee for those attending only the workshop, without joining the main conference, will be announced by the DHNB2025 organizers at a later date.

Organizers

Sanita Reinsone, University of Latvia (Riga, Latvia), Kyrre Kverndokk, University of Bergen (Bergen, Norway), Kati Kallio, Finnish Literature Society (Helsinki, Finland), Fredrik Skott, Institute for Language and Folklore (Gothenburg, Sweden), Mari Väina, Estonian Literary Museum (Tartu, Estonia), Trausti Dagsson, The Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies (Reykjavik, Iceland)

Contact

Workshop chair contact: sanita.reinsone@lu.lv
DHNB2025 organizers: dhnb2025@dhnb.eu