The 2012 meeting of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies will take place in San Antonio, Texas from March 22 to March 25. Information about hotel reservations is available at this page.

The call for papers has been uploaded to the ASECS website (as a Microsoft Word file).

Below is a selected list of CFPs that have a digital humanities angle. Please contact the individual panel chairs with any questions and with your presentation proposals.

“Digital Approaches to Library History”

This panel will consider how digital tools and digital methodologies are reshaping our understanding of eighteenth-century libraries.

Libraries, book clubs, reading circles and other institutions of collective reading have long been acknowledged as important features of eighteenth-century print culture, but the continuing development of modern database software has opened up new interpretative possibilities, allowing us to understand their significance in unprecedented detail. Libraries promised access to a much wider range of books than most patrons could possibly afford, but they were hugely significant in other ways. They emerged to serve particular communities, reflecting the specialist demands of military garrisons, religious academies and informal networks of medical men and lawyers. They provided a forum for conversation, debate and sociability, and made a key contribution to the social impact of the Enlightenment, the ‘consumer revolution’, the growth of nationalism and the spread of religious evangelicalism. Since they emerged in Britain, North America and continental Europe at around the same time, they also provide endless opportunities for comparative history–with different territories adopting distinctive organisational models, yet consuming a remarkably similar canon of international bestsellers.

Papers might consider these or any other themes relating to the history of particular libraries or types of library, but should aim to reflect on methodological approaches made possible by technological advances associated with the digital humanities.

“Diggable Data, Scalable Reading and New Humanities Scholarship”

Various communities of practice are emerging around new data resources that are available, communities such as Bamboo Corpora Space, sponsored by the Mellon Foundation; ARC, the Applied Research Consortium comprised of MESA, REKn, 18thConnect, and NINES, Connected Histories in the UK, and the Voyeur: Reveal Your Texts group in Canada. These groups are all creating tools that allow for “scalable reading,” that is, combining reading up close with reading at a distance, to produce a new digital philology. Papers given at this seminar would present tools created by these groups as part of seminar papers of the traditional sort—that is, as part of an interesting argument that using the tools made possible. We will invite all ASECS members to submit proposals to present.

“Digital Humanities and the Archives” (Roundtable)

This roundtable seeks three to four ten-minute papers aimed at generating substantive conversation on the broad topic Digital Humanities and the Archives. Possible topics include but are not limited to how digital tools are transforming our theoretical conceptions of “archives,” what effects digital facsimiles are exercising on our understanding of original documents; how our digital environment is shaping the kinds of archival projects being undertaken, the methodologies used, and/or the types of research questions posed; how interactions between the digital and the archival are creating new paradigms or inspiring shifts in existing models; how questions concerning the economics, equity, and accessibility of archival materials are being addressed or perhaps reconfigured by digital tools and platforms.

“Bits and Bytes Lunch”

In this lunch time session, we ask participants to bring a snack and a digital tool. Similar in format to a more traditional poster session, presenters in this session will simultaneously demonstrate their tools to participants, who will be able to experience multiple presentations and interact directly with presenters and their tools during this open workshop. The goal is for participants and presents to have an open dialogue and to play with new and emerging technologies in a relaxed atmosphere.

“A Digital Humanities Experiment, Year One: Aphra Behn Online” (Roundtable)

Aphra Behn Online: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts 1640-1830, launched in March 2011 at ASECS with the intent to create an interactive online community centered on women and the arts in the long eighteenth century.  As an online, free access journal, our aim is to publish excellent and relevant scholarship and other exciting and innovative work.  We hope to support the community of scholars (contributors and readers) with constructive and thoughtful (and signed) submission feedback and by providing a platform for the exploration of the exciting opportunities that online information and researching can offer, such as the blog and discussion forums, creative and meaningful use of the online format, and flexibility and creativity in publication schedules and formats.  This roundtable seeks to explore issues surrounding this new scholarly project and to position these issues–and the journal itself–within a larger trend toward online and interactive scholarship.  We are interested in talking about what has worked, what has been surprising about the process, and what audience feedback and involvement can teach us.  We encourage roundtable submissions that evaluate successes and hiccups both in regards to our journal and to others and engage and participate in a discussion about the perils, pleasures, and possibilities of online scholarship.

“Best Practices in Digital Pedagogy”

Presenters in this session will share their experiments, challenges, and successes in using digital applications to teach eighteenth-century studies at the undergraduate or graduate level. Some questions that presenters might address are:

1. How has the use of digital media promoted student learning inside and outside the classroom?
2. What challenges does the use of digital media pose?
3. How do “best practices” in digital pedagogy differ from more traditional forms of teaching?
4. What does the use of digital media add to the study of the eighteenth-century?