Concourse: 06/23/17

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Friday, June 23, 2017

International Conference(With Travel Grant) -Harnessing Digital Technologies to Advance the Study of the Non-Western World by Digital Humanities Asia-April 26-29, 2018 Stanford University







Call for Proposals: 
Over the past decade, a powerful new suite of spatial, textual, and social network analysis tools – broadly understood as the Digital Humanities – has begun to reshape the methods that we as Humanists and Social Scientists bring to bear on our questions, and indeed the very questions we ask. Looking out over the terrain of Digital Humanities (DH) initiatives, the vista is a marvelous and dynamically changing one. At Stanford University alone, one can point to award-winning programs such as the Mapping the Republic of Letters project, myriad initiatives based at the Stanford Literary Lab, the Kindred Britain project, and the ORBIS Geospatial Network Model of the Roman World, to cite only a handful of examples. When we extend our view across the United States and worldwide, the roster of DH initiatives becomes ever more compelling and exciting.


At the same time, an impartial view of Digital Humanities scholarship in the present day reveals a stark divide between “the West and the rest.” With notable exceptions, such as the Markus platform, CText, the China Biographical Database Project, the Digital Islamic Humanities Project, and others, far fewer large-scale DH initiatives have focused on Asia and the Non-Western world than on Western Europe and the Americas.


This divide runs very deep, and is not primarily a question of scholarly interest or orientation. The “Asia deficit” within Digital Humanities is in no small part the outcome of more entrenched divides within the platforms and digital tools that form the foundation of DH itself. Digital databases and text corpora – the “raw material” of text mining and computational text analysis – are far more abundant for English and other Latin alphabetic scripts than they are for Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Sanskrit, Hindi, Arabic, and other Non-Latin orthographies. This deficit, in turn, derives in large part from the widespread unavailability of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) platforms, text parsers, and tokenizers capable of handling and processing Non-Latin scripts – not in any way due to the paucity of primary source materials. As a result, when we look at DH in Western Europe and the Americas, we find a vibrant intellectual environment in which even college and university undergraduates – let alone more advanced researchers – can download off-the-shelf analytical platforms and data corpora, and venture into new and cutting-edge research questions; while, in the context of Asian Studies, we find an environment in which many of the most basic elements of DH research remain underdeveloped or non-existent.






Objective: 
The objective of this multi-day conference is to advance a new era in Non-Western Digital Humanities by bringing together leading and emerging scholars of East, South, Southeast, and Inner-Central Asia working in the Humanities, Social Sciences, Computer Science, Applied Mathematics, and Engineering.

With support from the American Council of Learned Societies, the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange, and multiple departments, centers, and divisions at Stanford University, the conference will focus on four (4) areas of research that represent both the core of DH as a whole, as well as areas in which Asian Studies scholars have been underserved and under-resourced:
 (1) the Spatial Analysis of Asian Human Geographies, 
(2) Text Mining and Computational Analysis of Asian & Non-Latin Scripts,
(3) Network Analysis of Non-Western social formations, and 
(4) the development of Digital Humanities tools and platforms designed for the unique challenges of Asian Studies scholarship.
DHAsia is seeking paper proposals for its 2018 Summit Meeting focused on East, South, Southeast, and Inner/Central Asia.






DATES & LOCATION


The DHAsia 2018 conference will take place April 26-28, 2018 on the campus of Stanford University.


ELIGIBILITY
Scholars working on Asia, in all disciplines and time periods, are welcome to apply. We are particularly eager to identify early-career candidates, ranging from the advanced PhD level (post-comprehensive/oral examination) through Assistant Professor rank or equivalent. All ranks are eligible and encouraged to apply, however.


CONFIRMED SPEAKERS
Confirmed Speakers during this 2018 DHAsia Summit Meeting include:

- A. Sean Pue, Michigan State University
- Anatoly Detwyler, Penn State University
- Elias Muhanna, Brown University
- Hilde De Weerdt, Leiden University
- Hoyt Long, University of Chicago
- Javier Cha, Leiden University
- Liu Chao-Lin, National Chengzhi University
- Matthew Thomas Miller, University of Maryland
- Michael Stanley-Baker, Max Planck
- Paul Vierthaler, Leiden University
- Ruth Mostern, University of Pittsburgh
- Tina Lu, Yale University








APPLICATION & DEADLINE

The deadline for applications is July 15, 2017.

 Materials should be submitted via email/attachments to Tom Mullaney (tsmullaney@stanford.edu) with the subject header “DHASIA 2018 APPLICATION.” (This subject header is REQUIRED.)
Applications should include:
I. Cover letter summarizing field of study, research, and Digital Humanities experience
II. Title, 250-word Abstract of Proposed Conference Paper
III. CV (3-page)
IV. Two references including contact information (please do NOT request or provide letters of recommendation – but references may be contacted as part of application review process)

FINANCIAL SUPPORT

A limited number of travel stipends will be offered to help offset cost of travel to Stanford.






The Sahapedia - UNESCO Fellowships 2017




About the Fellowship

To provide enthusiasts, students and scholars an opportunity to engage with cultural heritage and follow their pursuit of the knowledge systems of India, Sahapedia is pleased to announce its Fellowship programme.

“Saha”, Sanskrit for “together with”, is an invitation to explore together the richness of our cultural landscapes. The Sahapedia – UNESCO Fellowship programme is an extension of this invitation to engage with the rich and diverse range of arts, heritages and cultures of India.








UNESCO’s Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage 2003 (referred to as UNESCO 2003 Convention hereafter), refers to “importance of the intangible cultural heritage as a mainspring of cultural diversity and a guarantee of sustainable development.” The Sahapedia - UNESCO Fellowships are a part of the efforts to raise -- at local, national, and international levels -- awareness of the importance of intangible heritage, and accessibility of the same to communities, groups and individuals. The content documented and curated as a part of this fellowship programme is expected to fulfill, in part, the aims and objectives of the UNESCO 2003 Convention.

Through this initiative, Fellows will be encouraged to carry out documentation and critical research in diverse areas of cultural knowledge, while interacting with and enhancing networks that contribute to the creation of the same. This research of the Fellows will be published on the Sahapedia web portal, contributing to the online resource.

The Fellowship programme offers two variants currently – the Sahapedia Project Fellowship and the Sahapedia Research Fellowship. This gives the applicant the option of participating either at the level of primary documentation or of the content curation process.

Deliverables

Sahapedia Project Fellow (SPF):
• The Project Fellow shall coordinate the contribution of different kinds of multimedia content revolving around a particular theme.
• The module to be created on the theme could be in the format of one core article, a couple of allied articles, an image gallery and/or video recording, interviews and quick facts, for instance. *
• The project taken up is expected to be fulfilled in the period of 12 weeks.







Sahapedia Research Fellow (SRF): 
• The Research Fellow position is meant for both academic engagement and primary field-work and documentation. The Research Fellow shall submit a minimum of three or four elements surrounding one or multiple topics.
• The deliverables for scholars and field-workers could involve, for instance, interviews with other scholars or practitioners, review of scholarship, interview discussing key issues of the topic, overview or introductory material or primary multimedia documentation on the topic. *
• Students and young researchers could potentially work on the documentation process (through field photos/videos, plans, sketches, and the like), transcription and translation of interviews, and/or compilation of quick facts (like filmographies, compositions, choreographies, etc.). *
• The tasks taken up are ideally to be completed in the period of 8 weeks.


A 400-word proposal has to be submitted during the time of application with details of the work the applicant aims to carry out and relevance of this work to Sahapedia, and a tentative list of deliverables specific to the assignment in question. Young scholars and researchers may enlist the guidance of teachers, professors or mentors, in this application, if required. The exact deliverables shall be discussed and fixed for each Fellow based on this proposal, on their being shortlisted.

*For pointers, find a list of links to different kinds of content on Sahapedia (Annexure – 1) and a note of ways to use the Representative List and Urgent Safeguarding List of the UNESCO 2003 Convention (Annexure – 2). We hope these will act as starting points for applicants to conceptualise their contribution to Sahapedia.

Eligibility

The Fellowship is available to post-doctoral scholars, doctoral candidates, post-graduates, and graduates (including those students due to graduate in the summer of 2017). It is expected that the area or domain being applied for by an applicant is their area of expertise, or that this area has been the focus of one of their pursuits. Fellows are free to work jobs or engage in professional or academic work, as long as they find sufficient time to finish the projects taken up as a part of the Sahapedia Fellowship.


Duration
The project taken up by the Fellow is expected to be completed in the time-frame of twelve weeks for the SPF and of eight weeks for the SRF.

Funding

The SPF shall be granted an award of Rs. 40,000 and the SRF an award of Rs. 15,000. Once the deliverables have been fixed for individual Fellows, a detailed plan is to be drafted for submission, including an expenditure plan. The first installment (20%) of the award will be paid after the approval of the plan. The subsequent installments shall be paid on completion of specific elements in the assignment plan.







Benefits
Through this programme, Fellows shall receive an opportunity to work and conduct research in their area of interest, while receiving access to networks of scholars and professionals in the heritage sector. Their work will be made visible on the Sahapedia portal, making it accessible to wider audiences.







Application Guidelines
The following materials are to be submitted as a part of the application:
1. Resume or curriculum vitae;
2. A proposal of not more than 400 words; **
3. A writing sample (previously written essay).

Please find attached the terms and conditions, providing details of the contractual agreement (Annexure - 3), and a time-line of the process (Annexure -4) for your benefit.

**If the resources provided by Sahapedia are to be utilized for work already in progress, a note explaining this work with a brief description of how this will be developed into publishable material should be provided.
Contact






Application Closes on 15th July 2017.

The documents listed above should either be emailed to: fellowships@sahapedia.org
Or sent to:
Sahapedia
C-1/3, First Floor,
SDA (Safdarjung Development Area)
New Delhi – 110016.







For queries, write to fellowships@sahapedia.org or contact +918826622261.
OR Visit :
https://www.sahapedia.org/sahapedia-unesco-fellowships-2017?utm_source=sendinblue&utm_campaign=Sahapedia__UNESCO_Fellowships_2017&utm_medium=email