On the Margins: Hypertext, Electronic Literature, Digital Humanities

Senate House, University of London

London, UK, December 15-16, 2022

Since its early days as a series of experimental approaches, the Hypertext paradigm has proven itself vital in dealing with what Ted Nelson called “deep structural changes in the arrangements of ideas and phenomena.” Whether we conceive of Hypertext as non-sequential writing that branches and allows choices to the reader, or as a body of written or pictorial material interconnected in such a complex way that it could not conveniently be represented on paper, thinking in Hypertext has become a ubiquitous part of everyday life.

In our research lives, Hypertext technologies and methodologies are similarly amongst the most prominent and visible outcomes of the “digital age.” Mature products of its investigation by research communities can be found in the work of Electronic Literature scholars and practitioners, Hypertext and Hypermedia specialists, and researchers in the Digital Humanities. However, owing perhaps to their disparate angles of investigation and the sheer scope of activity, these research communities remain fragmented and somehow “on the margins” of wider Humanities and Computer Science scholarship.

We invite members of the Hypertext, Electronic Literature and Digital Humanities communities, including PhD and Early Career Researchers, to come together for a two-day conference reflecting on how Hypertext has shaped our research and creative practices, to build research opportunities between sympathetic communities, and to envision how to push the boundaries of Hypertext beyond its current incarnations. We want to inaugurate a space that will promote debate and connections, building new understanding at the crossroads between disciplines.

We are planning to hold the conference in person, but can make arrangements to show pre-recorded presentations if you are unable to attend.

Call for contributions

Potential topics include but are not limited to:
Studying digital reading experience
Describing “book history” for digital formats
Redefinitions of authorship and collaboration
New literary forms enabled by electronic literature
Multilingual and translingual digital texts and practices
Transmediality
Born-digital archives, genres and emerging formats
Digital scholarly editions
Approaches to digital inclusion
Pedagogy and hypertext applications
Social media
Experimental or early research

Submission formats

The conference will include three tracks:

Full papers (15-20 minutes)
Posters and Lightning talks (5-10 minutes; PGR and ECR contributions particularly welcome)
Tutorials for tools and demos

For full papers, we invite extended abstracts of 2,000-4,000 (4-8 pages in the ACM CHI Extended Abstract format), plus references.
For posters and lightning talks, we invite extended abstracts of 300-1,000 words (2-4 pages in the ACM CHI Extended Abstract format), plus references.
Accepted abstracts will be published in a peer-reviewed, Open Access volume in the Conference Proceedings of ACM series.
See this page for submission templates; both Word and LaTeX formats available.

The choice of the extended abstract format bridges practices between the Humanities and Hypertext communities, promoting the inclusion of scholars at different career stages and leaving a lasting legacy for the conference that can continue to benefit the research community. Please note that not all elements of the template will be relevant to all submissions.

For tutorials, proposals should provide the following information:

title and brief description of the content or topic and its relevance to the conference theme (not more than 1000 words);
full contact information for all tutorial instructors, including a one-paragraph statement summarising their research interests and areas of expertise;
description of target audience and expected number of participants (based, if possible, on past experience);
any special requirements for technical support
a brief outline showing that the core content can be covered in approximately 2 hours, plus breaks

Important dates

CfP opens 6 April 2022
Paper, poster and workshop submission by 4 July 2022
Acceptance by 5 September 2022

Confirmed Keynote speakers

Gustavo Gomez-Mejia (University of Tours)
James O’Sullivan (University College Cork)

Conference programme committee

Alessio Antonini (Open University)
Francesca Benatti (Open University)
Sam Brooker (Richmond)
Christopher Ohge (School of Advanced Study, University of London)
Naomi Wells (School of Advanced Study, University of London)
Jane Winters (School of Advanced Study, University of London)