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Digital Humanities Research Hub

On the Margins Conference

On the Margins: Hypertext, Electronic Literature, Digital HumanitiesDecember 15-16, 2022Senate House, University of London

Conference Information

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.

Registration Information

As a result of planned train strikes, we will be holding the conference in a hybrid format on Thursday, 15 December. Attendees will have the option of joining in person at Senate House in London or online for this day. All activities on Friday, 16 December will be fully online.

The fee for attending the conference in-person will be £25. Students can attend at a discounted rate of £15. For those unable to attend in person, online-only tickets are available at a discounted rate of £15.

There will be a workshop, 'What is Hypertext?', on the morning of Thursday, 15 December. It is open to all in-person conference participants and there will be an option to select it when you register for the conference.

Both of the keynote addresses will be free, open to the public and available via live stream. You can register for them separately at the links below.

If you have any questions, please email digitalhumanities@sas.ac.uk

Confirmed Keynote speakers