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INKE events at Congress
by Paul Barrett 28 May '25

28 May '25

Sending on behalf of Ray Siemens: HSS Commons Drop-in Session Location: George Brown College Waterfront Campus, Fifth Floor, Room WF 527 Date and Time: Sunday 1 June, 9.30 – 10.15 https://www.federationhss.ca/en/congress/hss-commons-drop-session Curious about the HSS Commons (https://hsscommons.ca/)? Whether you're brand new to it or already a member, drop by our informal session during the 2025 HSS Congress in Toronto! This is a chance to: Learn how the Commons supports open scholarship in the humanities and social sciences; Set up your profile and share your work; Explore tools for collaboration, teaching, and publishing; Chat with members of the team and fellow researchers; Ask questions or just have a coffee and say hello! No registration needed—just stop in when you can. We’d love to meet you and help you get the most out of the HSS Commons. Panel: Generative AI, LLMs, and Knowledge Structures Location: George Brown College Waterfront Campus, Sixth Floor, Room WF 607 Date and Time: Sunday 1 June, 10.30 – Noon https://www.federationhss.ca/en/congress/generative-ai-llms-and-knowledge-s…; community pass registration via ow.ly/onwv50VrMNl<http://ow.ly/onwv50VrMNl> Sponsored by the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences and the Implementing New Knowledge Environments Partnership (inke.ca) This panel explores the evolving relationship between commercial platforms, generative AI, and digital public knowledge infrastructures. As community-led initiatives like Wikimedia operate alongside increasingly closed and opaque commercial systems, the need for greater transparency, data access, and research tools becomes critical. Generative AI introduces new dynamics—shaping how knowledge is accessed, interpreted, and produced—while also raising ethical concerns around automation, transparency, and positionality in research. Additionally, the use of sensitive data, such as biometrics, in AI training prompts important questions about how classification systems are formed and how they impact representation and fairness. The panel addresses these challenges and emphasizes the importance of responsible, ethical approaches to studying and shaping AI-driven knowledge ecosystems. This panel is followed by the Big Thinking panel “Technologies of togetherness: Shaping an equitable future with AI.” Some light refreshments will be available at the session and nearby. Opening Remarks Karine Morin (President, CFHSS) Panel Chair Ray Siemens (U Victoria) “Observations on Wikimedia, LLMs and Information Ecosystem Observability” Amanda Lawrence (RMIT U) Dr. Amanda Lawrence (RMIT U) is the 2024–25 Honorary Resident Wikipedian, a residency co-sponsored by the Electronic Textual Cultures Lab, U Victoria Libraries, the Implementing New Knowledge Environments Partnership, and the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences. Dr. Lawrence is Director of the Australian Internet Observatory and former Director of the Analysis & Policy Observatory, as well as the outgoing President of Wikimedia Australia. An Affiliate of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making & Society, her research focuses on open access, Wikipedia, public knowledge infrastructure, and digital platforms. She has led major research initiatives, developed numerous online platforms, and published widely. Although the internet is dominated by large commercial platforms increasingly operated as walled gardens, community-led initiatives like Wikimedia, open access publishing, open source software, and open source LLMs continue to carve out space in the digital public sphere. Understanding the complex, often symbiotic relationship between these domains is difficult due to limited transparency and data access from commercial platforms. Generative AI systems have been extensively trained on public resources like Wikipedia, but may now be diverting traffic from them and raising concerns about feedback loops that could affect both content quality and future training. To address these challenges, we need new ways to access and observe data from platforms like Google Search and GenAI systems. Such observability is essential for analysing the impact of digital technologies on public knowledge infrastructure. Emerging research infrastructure is beginning to support this work, using LLMs as both tools and subjects of study—an essential step toward sustaining a healthy digital information ecosystem. This paper explores how these tools can offer new insights into the evolving relationship between LLMs and Wikimedia. “Forging Interpretations with Generative AI” Geoffrey Rockwell (U Alberta, Amii) Dr. Geoffrey Rockwell, appointed as a Canada CIFAR AI Chair in 2024, is a professor in the Department of Philosophy and Media and Technology Studies at the U Alberta. His research encompasses video games, textual visualization, text analysis, and the ethics of technology and artificial intelligence. He co-authored Hermeneutica: Computer-Assisted Interpretation in the Humanities (MIT P, 2016) and co-developed Voyant Tools, an award-winning suite of text analysis and visualization tools. Dr. Rockwell is currently working on a book examining dialogues with AI, particularly focusing on interactions with chatbots like ChatGPT. Using large language models we can now generate fairly sophisticated interpretations of documents using natural language prompts. We can ask for classifications, summaries, visualizations, or specific content to be extracted. In short we can automate content analysis of the sort we used to count as research. As we play with the forging of interpretations at scale we need to consider the ethics of using generative AI in our research. We need to ask how we can use these models with respect for sources, care for transparency, and attention to positionality. "Ethical Data Collection for AI: Bridging Knowledge Platforms and Biometric Datasets" Lai-Tze Fan (U Waterloo) Dr. Lai-Tze Fan is an Associate Professor at U Waterloo, holding a Canada Research Chair in Technology and Social Change. She also serves as an Associate Professor at U Bergen, Norway. Her research focuses on media studies, digital culture, and critical approaches to AI, including the development of tools and methods to explore storytelling, media materiality, and technological infrastructures. Dr. Fan directs the U&AI Lab, which examines inequities in AI systems. She is also involved in various academic and artistic communities, serving on advisory boards and as an editor for open-access journals. This talk will examine ethical approaches to data collection within AI knowledge ecosystems, focusing specifically on biometric data that informs AI training datasets. For example, applications could include biometric datasets that train AI facial recognition technologies. While these specialized collections differ from traditional knowledge structures like those found on scholarly platforms or educational systems, they play a crucial role in how we categorize people, which can inform these broader platforms. The presentation will explore this symbiotic relationship, demonstrating how biometric datasets can enhance or mislead knowledge structures' representational accuracy and fairness. Paul Barrett Associate Professor School of English and Theatre Studies University of Guelph MacKinnon 447

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INKE events at CFHSS Congress, Toronto [1 June]: Commons drop-in, Generative AI panel
by Ray Siemens 27 May '25

27 May '25

Hi Everyone, Just a quick note to pass along the details of two INKE sessions at Congress in the days coming up, sponsored by the Federation. HSS Commons Drop-in Session Location: George Brown College Waterfront Campus, Fifth Floor, Room WF 527 Date and Time: Sunday 1 June, 9.30 – 10.15; https://www.federationhss.ca/en/congress/hss-commons-drop-session Panel: Generative AI, LLMs, and Knowledge Structures Location: George Brown College Waterfront Campus, Sixth Floor, Room WF 607 Date and Time: Sunday 1 June, 10.30 – Noon; https://www.federationhss.ca/en/congress/generative-ai-llms-and-knowledge-s… * Amanda Lawrence (RMIT U), “Observations on Wikimedia, LLMs and Information Ecosystem Observability” * Geoffrey Rockwell (U Alberta, Amii), “Forging Interpretations with Generative AI” * Lai-Tze Fan (U Waterloo), "Ethical Data Collection for AI: Bridging Knowledge Platforms and Biometric Datasets" Further details below. Hope you’ll consider joining us! All best wishes, Ray HSS Commons Drop-in Session Location: George Brown College Waterfront Campus, Fifth Floor, Room WF 527 Date and Time: Sunday 1 June, 9.30 – 10.15 https://www.federationhss.ca/en/congress/hss-commons-drop-session Curious about the HSS Commons (https://hsscommons.ca/)? Whether you're brand new to it or already a member, drop by our informal session during the 2025 HSS Congress in Toronto! This is a chance to: Learn how the Commons supports open scholarship in the humanities and social sciences; Set up your profile and share your work; Explore tools for collaboration, teaching, and publishing; Chat with members of the team and fellow researchers; Ask questions or just have a coffee and say hello! No registration needed—just stop in when you can. We’d love to meet you and help you get the most out of the HSS Commons. Panel: Generative AI, LLMs, and Knowledge Structures Location: George Brown College Waterfront Campus, Sixth Floor, Room WF 607 Date and Time: Sunday 1 June, 10.30 – Noon https://www.federationhss.ca/en/congress/generative-ai-llms-and-knowledge-s…; community pass registration via ow.ly/onwv50VrMNl<http://ow.ly/onwv50VrMNl> Sponsored by the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences and the Implementing New Knowledge Environments Partnership (inke.ca) This panel explores the evolving relationship between commercial platforms, generative AI, and digital public knowledge infrastructures. As community-led initiatives like Wikimedia operate alongside increasingly closed and opaque commercial systems, the need for greater transparency, data access, and research tools becomes critical. Generative AI introduces new dynamics—shaping how knowledge is accessed, interpreted, and produced—while also raising ethical concerns around automation, transparency, and positionality in research. Additionally, the use of sensitive data, such as biometrics, in AI training prompts important questions about how classification systems are formed and how they impact representation and fairness. The panel addresses these challenges and emphasizes the importance of responsible, ethical approaches to studying and shaping AI-driven knowledge ecosystems. This panel is followed by the Big Thinking panel “Technologies of togetherness: Shaping an equitable future with AI.” Some light refreshments will be available at the session and nearby. Opening Remarks Karine Morin (President, CFHSS) Panel Chair Ray Siemens (U Victoria) “Observations on Wikimedia, LLMs and Information Ecosystem Observability” Amanda Lawrence (RMIT U) Dr. Amanda Lawrence (RMIT U) is the 2024–25 Honorary Resident Wikipedian, a residency co-sponsored by the Electronic Textual Cultures Lab, U Victoria Libraries, the Implementing New Knowledge Environments Partnership, and the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences. Dr. Lawrence is Director of the Australian Internet Observatory and former Director of the Analysis & Policy Observatory, as well as the outgoing President of Wikimedia Australia. An Affiliate of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making & Society, her research focuses on open access, Wikipedia, public knowledge infrastructure, and digital platforms. She has led major research initiatives, developed numerous online platforms, and published widely. Although the internet is dominated by large commercial platforms increasingly operated as walled gardens, community-led initiatives like Wikimedia, open access publishing, open source software, and open source LLMs continue to carve out space in the digital public sphere. Understanding the complex, often symbiotic relationship between these domains is difficult due to limited transparency and data access from commercial platforms. Generative AI systems have been extensively trained on public resources like Wikipedia, but may now be diverting traffic from them and raising concerns about feedback loops that could affect both content quality and future training. To address these challenges, we need new ways to access and observe data from platforms like Google Search and GenAI systems. Such observability is essential for analysing the impact of digital technologies on public knowledge infrastructure. Emerging research infrastructure is beginning to support this work, using LLMs as both tools and subjects of study—an essential step toward sustaining a healthy digital information ecosystem. This paper explores how these tools can offer new insights into the evolving relationship between LLMs and Wikimedia. “Forging Interpretations with Generative AI” Geoffrey Rockwell (U Alberta, Amii) Dr. Geoffrey Rockwell, appointed as a Canada CIFAR AI Chair in 2024, is a professor in the Department of Philosophy and Media and Technology Studies at the U Alberta. His research encompasses video games, textual visualization, text analysis, and the ethics of technology and artificial intelligence. He co-authored Hermeneutica: Computer-Assisted Interpretation in the Humanities (MIT P, 2016) and co-developed Voyant Tools, an award-winning suite of text analysis and visualization tools. Dr. Rockwell is currently working on a book examining dialogues with AI, particularly focusing on interactions with chatbots like ChatGPT. Using large language models we can now generate fairly sophisticated interpretations of documents using natural language prompts. We can ask for classifications, summaries, visualizations, or specific content to be extracted. In short we can automate content analysis of the sort we used to count as research. As we play with the forging of interpretations at scale we need to consider the ethics of using generative AI in our research. We need to ask how we can use these models with respect for sources, care for transparency, and attention to positionality. "Ethical Data Collection for AI: Bridging Knowledge Platforms and Biometric Datasets" Lai-Tze Fan (U Waterloo) Dr. Lai-Tze Fan is an Associate Professor at U Waterloo, holding a Canada Research Chair in Technology and Social Change. She also serves as an Associate Professor at U Bergen, Norway. Her research focuses on media studies, digital culture, and critical approaches to AI, including the development of tools and methods to explore storytelling, media materiality, and technological infrastructures. Dr. Fan directs the U&AI Lab, which examines inequities in AI systems. She is also involved in various academic and artistic communities, serving on advisory boards and as an editor for open-access journals. This talk will examine ethical approaches to data collection within AI knowledge ecosystems, focusing specifically on biometric data that informs AI training datasets. For example, applications could include biometric datasets that train AI facial recognition technologies. While these specialized collections differ from traditional knowledge structures like those found on scholarly platforms or educational systems, they play a crucial role in how we categorize people, which can inform these broader platforms. The presentation will explore this symbiotic relationship, demonstrating how biometric datasets can enhance or mislead knowledge structures' representational accuracy and fairness.

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Graduate assessors for conference
by Paul Barrett 26 May '25

26 May '25

Hi everyone, I’m looking forward to seeing many of you in a few days. We are still in need of assessors to adjudicate this year’s Ian Lancashire award. This is an easy & enjoyable role that involves signing up for a slot, listening to graduate student work, and filling in a brief form. This is a great way to give back to our community so please sign up here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16UHOamVQjIW_Xf4kD5ZwiJ0tyXUBuRTxlN8… Thanks, Paul

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IDARESU 2025 (9-13 June)
by Jason Boyd 16 May '25

16 May '25

The 2025 Interactive Digital Arts, Research, and Education Summer University (IDARESU), hosted by the Centre for Digital Humanities at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), offers learning opportunities in digital making for artistic, scholarly, and educational purposes. These opportunities are open to the TMU community and to the public. This year we are offering three concurrent courses as well as a keynote address: 1. The Small Web: Making Minimal Websites and Digital Ephemera by Hand 2. Tiny Games: Handmade Playables 3. Micro-Editions: Handmade Digital Editions Keynote Address (Monday, 9 June, 4-5PM): Dr. Tyne Daile Sumner "Small Data is Beautiful: Computation, Art & Narrative" Courses are in-person. The fee for the week is $50. Please see the website for more information and to register: https://idaresu2025.neocities.org/ Jason Boyd, Ph.D. / he, him, his / https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2752-6729 Associate Professor, Department of English / Master of Digital Media / Graduate Program in Communication and Culture Graduate Program Director, MA in Literatures of Modernity Director, Centre for Digital Humanities Treasurer, Canadian Society for Digital Humanities/Société canadienne des humanités numériques Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University) 350 Victoria Street, Toronto, ON M5B 2K3

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Q: Registration Fees and Campus Location
by Brandon Brownlee 13 May '25

13 May '25

Hello, I am a student from Vancouver Island University applying for funding for the upcoming Canadian Society for Digital Humanities conference in Toronto. I have two questions that I've been unable to determine from looking into the conference: How much is the registration fee for this event? I'm mindful of the membership fee of 45 USD. I'm aware this is being held at George Brown College, but which campus is this on? Thank you, Brandon

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2025 Open Scholarship Award Results
by Jon Bath 13 May '25

13 May '25

The Canadian Social Knowledge Institute <http://c-ski.ca/> and its partners, including the Implementing New Knowledge Environments project, are delighted to announce the winners, and honourable mentions, for the 2025 Open Scholarship Awards. Award recipients demonstrated exemplary open scholarship via research, projects, or initiatives. Open scholarship incorporates open access, open data, open education, and other related movements that have the potential to make scholarly work more efficient, more accessible, and more usable by those within and beyond the academy. By engaging with open practices for academic work, open scholarship shares that work more broadly and more publicly. Open Scholarship Award, for open scholarship carried out by scholars, librarians, citizen scholars, research professionals, and administrators. Award Pacific and Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures (PARADISEC), Nick Thieberger, University of Melbourne and the PARADISEC team Honourable Mentions "But I Live" Educators' Resource, Andrea Webb, University of British Columbia Harlem in Disorder: A Spatial History of How Racial Violence Changed in 1935, Stephen Robertson, George Mason University Emerging Researcher Open Scholarship Award, for open scholarship carried out by undergraduate students, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and early-stage professionals Award East Bay Punk Digital Archive, Stefano Morello, CUNY Graduate Centre Honourable Mentions Ni una menos: A collective identity in Rebeca Lane's rap, Silvia Rivera Alfaro, CUNY Graduate Center Collaging the Queer: An Abstract Self-Portraiture Workshop on Gender Abolition and Identity Creation, Jazmyne Olson, Undergraduate, Weber State University We would like to thank all those who nominated a project for the awards, and our selection panel, and will be announcing the call for nominations for the 2026 Open Scholarship Awards later this year. Jon Bath University of Saskatchewan

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CSDH / SCHN 2025 Conference Program
by Paul Barrett 30 Apr '25

30 Apr '25

WARNING: This email message may contain links to potentially dangerous websites. Please exercise caution and verify the link is for legitimate purposes before providing any information. If in doubt, forward suspicious emails to IThelp(a)uoguelph.ca. Dear CSDH / SCHN Members, We are very much looking forward to seeing you all at this year's conference. You can find the conference program here: https://tinyurl.com/yc72uaen We are excited to have talks from two excellent plenaries: Dr. Cheryl Thompson<https://www.drcherylthompson.com> (day 1) and Dr. Margot Mellet<https://www.usherbrooke.ca/dall/departement/personnel/personnel-enseignant/…> (day 2). We will be providing details about their talks, as well as directions to each of the relevant rooms, soon. If you have not already registered for the conference, please do so asap. Registration helps with catering, accessibility requests, and ensuring the conference runs smoothly. As of yet we have not received any accessibility requests. If you would like to make one, you can do so via the Federation portal or, if you feel comfortable, reach out directly to me. You'll also note that we are starting slightly later on our first day and that our first plenary, Dr. Cheryl Thompson, is scheduled to present on Day 1 from 3:00 - 4:00. We will then break for coffee and wrap the day up with our AGM. The final day of the conference begins with a panel co-sponsored by CSDH/SCHN and the Canadian Association of Postcolonial Studies (CAPS) on the topic of AI, machine learning, power, and coloniality. I hope you will all join us for this exciting cross-disciplinary discussion. The panel is being hosted by CAPS at Toronto Metropolitan University with a room to be confirmed shortly. Also, we are seeking Chairs for the panels. Please use the third panel on the spreadsheet to sign up to chair a panel. Graduate Students On the second day, we are hosting a mentorship lunch where we invite graduate students and emerging scholars to chat with more senior colleagues in the field. This is a low stakes, friendly environment where you can chat about your work, learn more about DH, and generally get to know people. Also, it's a free lunch! Please sign up at the following link if you're interested: https://forms.gle/FgbvTeA59rmYqmnRA Finally, we also have some financial assistance that we can offer to graduate students. If you are a graduate student presenting at the conference, please submit a request for financial support via the following link. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSczF5da8d7SLaRdrAtLGGpLmq06hjfmNVV… --- Please let me know if you note any errors in the program or if you have any concerns. We're very much looking forward to seeing you all in Toronto. All best, CSDH / SCHN 2025 Program Committee

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Fwd: Digital Humanities Intersections
by Bordalejo, Barbara 27 Apr '25

27 Apr '25

FYI > Begin forwarded message: > > From: Geoffrey Rockwell <grockwel(a)ualberta.ca> > Subject: Digital Humanities Intersections > Date: April 27, 2025 at 9:49:53 PM MDT > To: CSDH SCHN <csdhschn(a)googlegroups.com> > > The Digital Humanities Lab and <https://www.linkedin.com/in/ACoAAEXITQEBOFYt7v-SRwaBT8kVxsiPCnS_YI0>Jaya Prakash Narayan National Centre of Excellence in the Humanities <https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaya-prakash-narayan-national-centre-of-excelle…> IIT Indore is excited to announce the launch of Digital Humanities Intersections (DHI), the first Digital Humanities journal from India. We invite the Indian and global DH community to please check it out and consider sending your submissions for the inaugural issue tentatively slated for release in October 2025. We are also looking to add reviewers and also look forward to proposals for special issues- while there will be a formal call for the same, we are happy to look at proposals. > > Please Check out the journal here: https://dhi.iiti.ac.in/index.php/dhjournal/index > > The call for papers and the submission portal for manuscript submission is now open. > > Geoffrey Rockwell > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CSDH/SCHN" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to csdhschn+unsubscribe(a)googlegroups.com <mailto:[email protected]>. > To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/csdhschn/CEFE625A-01ED-4230-BB2C-C34F38DE… <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/csdhschn/CEFE625A-01ED-4230-BB2C-C34F38DE…>. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

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Academic freedom on the ballot in this federal election
by Caroline Winter 24 Apr '25

24 Apr '25

Hello, everyone Please forgive my bringing up politics (and for crossposting), but academic freedom is on the ballot in this federal election. Poilievre's platform includes a promise to end federal funding for "woke" research, but of course the term "woke" can be wielded against any research that does not align with a particular ideology. This threat puts Canadian research and the research community at risk. This is from a statement from the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT): "CAUT alarmed by Conservative Party platform on research funding" <https://www.caut.ca/latest/2025/03/caut-alarmed-conservative-party-platform…>: “Our institutions and the federal government need to push back in the strongest possible way against this blatant attempt to interfere in academic research and trample upon academic freedom,” said CAUT executive director David Robinson. “The integrity and independence of research is necessary to protect the public interest. We need to make it clear that there is no room for political interference in research in Canada.” We are seeing the consequences of this type of ideologically motivated policy playing out in the US. No matter what party you support, we as a research community need to stand up to this threat. For more information: CBC: "Conservatives update platform to include omitted 'anti-woke' promise" <https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/conservative-woke-platform-oversight-1.751…> Science: "In Canadian election, top Conservative candidate vows to end 'woke ideology' in science funding" <https://www.science.org/content/article/canadian-election-top-conservative-…> CTV News: "Pierre Poilievre says he'll end 'woke ideology' -- he isn't saying what that means" <https://www.ctvnews.ca/federal-election-2025/article/pierre-poilievre-says-…> Montreal Gazette: "'Woke ideology': Quebec professors denounce Poilievre's pledge to end certain university research funding" <https://www.montrealgazette.com/news/canada/canadian-politics/article850096…> CP: "Pierre Poilievre says he'll end 'woke ideology'--he isn't saying what that means" <https://www.msn.com/en-ca/politics/government/pierre-poilievre-says-he-ll-e…>

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Time to Renew Your CSDH/SCHN Membership Before Congress!
by Bordalejo, Barbara 17 Apr '25

17 Apr '25

Dear members of CSDH/SCHN, As we look forward to seeing many of you at this year’s Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences in late May - early June, we want to remind you to renew your membership with the Canadian Society for Digital Humanities / Société canadienne des humanités numériques (CSDH/SCHN). Membership gives you a registration fee discount for our annual meeting. More importantly, your continued support allows us to sustain and grow our community, support open access publishing, advocate for the digital humanities, and foster inclusive scholarly spaces in Canada and beyond. We deeply value your involvement in our society. If you have any questions about your membership status or the renewal process, feel free to reach out. Warm regards, Barbara Bordalejo President, CSDH/SCHN

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