Call for Papers

We are delighted to announce that the 5th Spatial Humanities conference will be held in Bamberg on September 25^th to 27^th 2024.

Spatial Humanities 2024 welcomes submissions on all aspects of using geospatial technologies in humanities research, methodological innovations, and applied research that develops our understanding of the geographies of the past. We welcome contributions from anyone working on computational approaches to spatial questions in the humanities and arts. These disciplines include, but are not limited to, history (including fields from social history such as historical demography and environmental history), archaeology, heritage and conservation studies, literary studies, classics, linguistics, art history, anthropology and religious studies, as well as from interdisciplinary and/or technical fields including GIS, digital humanities, computational linguistics and computer science. Abstracts should be between 750–1000 words for full papers and 500–750 words for posters.

This year the conference will take place in Bamberg, Germany, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Accordingly, the conference will feature a special session with a focus on Spatial Humanities and Heritage. Heritage has spatial dimensions and heritage processes are linked to place: architecture and urban conservation, the listing of historic buildings, sites, cultural landscapes or heritage districts. Maps of heritage ‘assets’ and archaeological sites shape the way we perceive and understand places, as well as their cultural identity. How can these be studied to reveal cultural boundaries and exclusivity in heritage discourses? How can innovative multi-layered maps show alternative and diverse aspects of heritage?

We are delighted to announce that this year’s keynote speakers will be Francesca Ammon (University of Pennsylvania) and Ross Purves (University of Zurich).

Themes

Proposals are welcomed on, but not limited to, the following themes:

• Gazetteers, e.g. urban, regional, national and international
• Artificial intelligence, e.g. computer vision, NLP, deep learning, etc.
• Spatial explorations of narratives, literary and imaginary places
• GIS and spatial analysis including 3D modeling and spatial statistics  
• Deep mapping, experiences of places 
• Territorial representations, transgressions, subalternity and boundaries
• Mapping mobility, spatial connections and networks  
• Linking the map and the text: mixed-method approaches
• Geospatial ‘collections as data’, enrichment and annotation 
• Historical maps and georeferencing
• Environmental humanities: landscapes, waterscapes and the blue humanities
• Linked Open (Geo)Data
• IIIF applications for maps and spatial data 
• Labs notebooks, workflows and infrastructure
• Data mining, visualisation and the challenges of geolocation 
• Building, mapping and spatially analysing heritage inventories

Student Bursaries

To help support PhD students attend the conference we will be offering fee waivers to the three abstracts judged by the organisers to be the best. If you would like to be considered for this please mark this in the appropriate place on your submission. Note that we may require proof that when the abstract was submitted that you were registered as a PhD student.