Digital Humanities in Theatre Research

    Digital Humanities in Theatre Research

    The Working Group Digital Humanities in Theatre Research was founded in 2014 and uses computational methods, data, and/or digital tools to analyze, document, and interpret the history, theory, and practice of theatrical phenomena.

    KEYWORDS

    • computational methods
    • data
    • Digital historiography
    • digital tools
    • virtual reality

     

    Get in touch:

    dh4iftr@gmail.com

     

    Names of the convenors

    Nora Probst (University of Cologne), nora.probst@uni-koeln.de
    Alexandra Portmann (University of Bern), alexandra.portmann@unibe.ch
    José Pedro Sousa (University of Lisbon),joselouro@campus.ul.pt

    Call for Papers 2025

    The IFTR Working Group Digital Humanities in Theatre Research will meet in Cologne, Germany (9 – 13 June 2025), and we warmly invite all members as well as new participants to submit their abstracts. Abstracts (up to 250 words, in English) are due on January 15, 2025. Please note the rather early deadline!
    All abstract submissions are made through the Cambridge Core website indicating that you wish your proposal to be considered by the Digital Humanities working group: https://www.cambridge.org/core/membership/iftr/. Please note that in order to make a submission you will need to become a member of IFTR. Working groups are not required to address the theme of the IFTR conference – Performing Carnival: Ekstasis, Subversion, Metamorphosis – but papers which enter into conversation with the 2025 IFTR theme are most welcome.
    We are soliciting papers and project presentations that apply digital and computational methodologies to the study of theatre and performance. We are especially interested in topics that:

    • elaborate on best practices for digital humanities projects in theatre and performance, digital theatre history and historiography
    • describe the creation, the modeling process, the management or preservation of theatre records in the form of databases, archives and repositories
    • examine the theoretical implications of Digital Humanities for our research in theatre and performance as well as theatre historiography
    • apply digital and computational methods to study any aspect of theatrical phenomena (such as sociological, aesthetic, technical, historic, cultural, and political aspects)
    • use data from social media and other online sources to study the creation, promotion and reception of performances
    • critically engage with or apply forms of data analysis, data visualization, Virtual or Augmented Reality (VR/AR) and/or machine learning

    Please make use of our two different formats of participation and indicate your choice in the comments when submitting your abstract:
    a) 20-minutes presentation of a project or research question, which will be followed by 10 minutes of discussion
    OR
    b) circulating papers/materials in advance, with a 10-minutes presentation, followed by 20 minutes of discussion
    In order to enhance the discussions during the WG meetings, we ask all presenters who want to pre-circulate their materials to do so by May 12, 2025. These materials can take the form of an academic paper (max. 3000 words long), a website, tools, videos, datasets, or any other digital objects. At the conference, the scholars will be given 10 minutes to introduce their work, which will be followed by 20 minutes of discussion.
    Please consider forwarding this call for papers to colleagues and PhD-students connected to the field of DH & theatre/performance studies. We very much look forward to receiving your abstracts and hopefully seeing many of you in Cologne in 2025!

    Best wishes,
    The Convenors of the DH Working Group
    Nora, Alexandra, and José
     

    Mission Statement

    The Digital Humanities Working Group meets at least annually at the IFTR conference and occasionally sets up virtual meetings to catch up on the latest projects and activities of the working group’s members. In our meetings, it is important to us that all contributions are constructively discussed in order to provide the presenters with appreciative and helpful feedback that not only critically reflects on the content presented, but also advances the content and possibly opens up new perspectives.

    The focal points of the working group include
    • best practices for digital humanities projects in theatre and performance, digital theatre history and historiography
    • the creation, management or preservation of theatre records in the form of databases, archives and repositories
    • the theoretical implications of Digital Humanities for our research into theatre and performance
    • the application of digital and computational methods to study any aspect of theatrical phenomena (such as sociological, aesthetic, technical, historic, cultural, and political aspects)
    • the data from social media and other online sources to study the creation, promotion and reception of performances
    • different forms of data analysis, data visualization and/or machine learning
    • the impact of the pandemic or other recent events on theatre and performance around the world

    In recent years, more and more voices have been raised in the scientific community pointing to power structures, bias in data and discriminatory selection practices. In addition, social debates on equality, diversity, inclusivity, gender imbalance, colonial heritage as well as other topics of social justice also play an important role for us. The Digital Humanities Working Group would like to contribute to this discourse and provide a discussion forum to explore digital methods and the implications of doing so in a framework of various power structures.

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