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Who is Responsible for the Archives? An Interdisciplinary Approach to Ethics in a Digital Age [June 26, Birmingham, online/in-person]

Who is Responsible for the Archives? An Interdisciplinary Approach to Ethics in a Digital Age

When: Friday 26 June 2026, 9:00–20:00
Where: Aston University, Susan Cadbury Lecture Theatre, and online

Archives are vital repositories for preserving the past, for documenting the present, and for building memories and legacies for the future. Although they hold relevance to everybody’s history and affect society as a whole, they have long been the purview of a limited group of archivists and historians. In recent years, this has begun to change: archives, both as documents and as repositories, have received increasing attention from scholars across diverse disciplines and also from the broader public.

However, if questions of representation, digital transformation, and long-term preservation have become central to contemporary debates, issues related to ethics remain often limited to legal compliance or confined to a limited group of specialists. Building on previous debates including the US 2018 National Forum on Ethics & Archiving the Web and the ICA’s 2022 Ethics and Archives Online Discussion, and also on the ARA’s ongoing work in this area, this conference seeks to expand this discussion by bringing together experts and practitioners from all fields.

Practical Information and Registration

Draft Programme: https://www.aston.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2026-06/AUAC-2026-conference-programme-ONGOING.pdf

UK-IE DHA – Pilot small grants scheme info session [18 May @ 11am, online]

UK-IE DHA – Pilot small grants scheme briefing session

We will be holding a briefing session for our pilot small grants scheme on the 18 May between 11.00 & 12.00 (GMT). The session will be hosted by Prof. Jane Winters and Dr. Valentina Vavassori, who will highlight the types of projects we’re looking for and the application criteria. Please come with your questions and ideas! 

The scheme is aimed at early career researchers and practitioners based in the UK and/or Ireland, including independent researchers. Applicants may include collaborators or partners based elsewhere, but the lead applicant must be from Ireland or the UK.

We define early career as:

  • Individuals within eight years of receiving their PhD, or equivalent professional training (e.g. an Archives and Records Association or CILIP accredited course or apprenticeship), or
  • Individuals within six years of their first academic or professional appointment.

These timeframes exclude any periods of career break. A career break is defined as an extended period during which you have not been actively engaged in scholarly research, teaching, or a GLAM-sector role. This may be due to caring responsibilities, parental leave, health reasons, or other circumstances not listed.

What the grant can support

The grant can be used flexibly to support activities such as:

  • Research assistance
  • Travel and accommodation
  • Mentoring or guidance
  • Caring costs
  • Other costs clearly justified by the project

To register for the briefing session: https://www.sas.ac.uk/digital-humanities-research-hub/events/briefing-session-small-grants-scheme-uk-ireland-digital-humanities-association.

To see the full funding announcement: https://digitalhumanities-uk-ie.org/2026/05/01/2026-small-grants-scheme/.

DARIAH Annual Event – Draft Programme [Announcement]

DARIAH Annual Event – Draft Programme Announced

DARIAH is pleased to share that the draft programme of the DARIAH Annual Event 2026 is now available. You can view it here: 

https://www.conftool.net/dariah2026/sessions.php

Please note that this is a preliminary version and may still be subject to minor changes as we continue to finalise details. We hope this will help you start planning your participation in Rome, and we look forward to welcoming you soon.

Register here for DARIAH Annual Event

Futures in the Making: Identity, Speculation, and Digital Representation [Feb 10, online and in person, @12:00 GMT]

Futures in the Making: Identity, Speculation, and Digital Representation

Date & Time: 12pm, Tuesday 10th February

Location: Studio 3, O’Donoghue Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance, University of Galway

The Masterclass Series continues with 

Aisling Phelan, an Irish multidisciplinary artist exploring digital doubles, speculative futures and human-machine interactions and entanglements.

In this masterclass, Aisling will present an overview of her artistic practice, tracing the research, processes, and technological explorations that shape her work in relation to identity, corporeality, and digital representation. Drawing on recent research into DeepFakes, doppelgangers, and robotics, the session will also invite participants to engage in speculative thinking around possible futures shaped by emerging technologies, using fiction and open-ended questioning as tools to reflect on contemporary technological anxieties.

Speaker Bio
Aisling Phelan is an Irish multidisciplinary artist exploring digital doubles, speculative futures and human-machine interactions and entanglements. Through 3D animation, AI, video, sculpture, and live interactive technologies, her work explores what it means to be human in an era of rapid technological advancement and pervasive algorithmic influence. 

Drawing from a transhumanist and speculative fiction perspective, Phelan explores how far we are willing to go in the pursuit of self-optimisation and the potential costs of such advances. Fusing the intimate with the artificial, her practice confronts the seductive promise of transcendence and enhancement, creating space for reflection on the role of current digital infrastructures in shaping how we understand ourselves and others.

In person: https://ti.to/creative-tech/masterclass-aisling-phelan

Zoom: https://universityofgalway-ie.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Fb4r-VXCTAOFEkSJdwm8iw

Upcoming Workshops:

Liing Heaney  – Tuesday, 17 February

Róisín Berg – Tuesday, 24 February

Tara Jaye Burke – Tuesday, 3rd March

Claire Healy  – Tuesday 24th March

Jane Cassidy – Tuesday 31th March

Measuring Narrative Space: A Computational Study of German and English Prose Fiction [Jan 13, online, 10-12 CET]

Measuring Narrative Space: A Computational Study of German and English Prose Fiction [Jan 13, online, 10-12 CET]

The lecture is public and can be attended only via zoom. The talk will not be recorded.

Dr. Katrin Rohrbacher (Nürnberg/Erlangen):

Measuring Narrative Space: A Computational Study of German and English Prose Fiction

In this talk, I will present ongoing work on measuring the notion of narrative space using machine learning methods, specifically by fine-tuning BERT-based classification models and applying them to a large collection of German and English historical prose fiction, including both canonical works and non-fiction. Moving from theorization and conceptualization to dataset creation, modeling, analysis, and interpretation, I will outline the steps involved in conducting a computational study of this kind. We will examine results that show how the concepts of “setting” and “lived space” have been used in fiction over time and discuss their implications for “experientiality” and embodiment more broadly, including cross-linguistic perspectives between German and English. The talk also introduces a methodological model for iterative, interpretive “computational reading” that bridges qualitative and quantitative approaches.

When: January 13, 2026, 10-12 hs

Where:  Zoom 

Zoom link:  https://uni-bielefeld.zoom-x.de/j/67280092106?pwd=Zlzqqy980r2N7I1wTktAbbV33tCBaj.1