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Call for Proposals: 'Disrupting Digital Monolingualism' Workshop

Call for proposals:

DISRUPTING DIGITAL MONOLINGUALISM

An international workshop on languages in critical digital theory and practice

Hosted by Department of Digital Humanities, King’s College London

A ‘Language Acts & Worldmaking’ project initiative

16th and 17th June 2020

Workshop website:

https://languageacts.org/digital-mediations/event/disrupting-digital-monolingualism/

There has been increasing attention in the past few years to the challenges of multilingualism in digital practice. It has been widely accepted that digital ecosystems have a ‘language and geocultural diversity’ problem – at present they have a strong bias towards firstly English, and then a small group of (mostly European) languages. A series of initiatives has attempted to address this imbalance in a variety of ways, whether driven by practice (language diversity guidelines, multilingual toolkits, open data repositories, and endangered languages archives) or theory (biocultural diversity, digital modern languages and translingual/transcultural critiques).

This two-day workshop brings together leading researchers, educators, digital practitioners,language-focused professionals, policy makers and other interested parties to address the challenges of multilingualism in digital spaces and to collectively propose new models and solutions. The workshop will combine both conceptual (strategy, policy and theory) and practical perspectives (digital ecosystems, methods and tools with a focus on language). It aims to strengthen connections between numerous overlapping digital and languages-driven conversations and initiatives.

The core themes of the workshop are:

Linguistic and geocultural diversity in digital knowledge infrastructures

Working with multilingual data

Transcultural and translingual approaches to digital study Artificial intelligence, machine learning and NLP in language worlds

The programme will feature a variety of formats, including lightning talks, posters, demos, roundtables and (a limited amount of) mini-workshops, and we welcome proposals for experimental formats. Invited speakers will represent a range of education, industry and third sector roles and we are open to new ideas through our call for proposals.

The workshop is aimed at those interested in multilingual and cross-cultural approaches to digital practice, and is likely to be of particular interest to those working in the areas of: modern languages and linguistics; multilingualism research (including endangered or minority languages and community languages); digital cultural heritage; digital humanities; new media and internet research; critical digital infrastructure studies; digital policy; translation studies; AI, machine learning and NLP.

Co-convenors

This workshop is led by the Language Acts and Worldmaking project with the support of the Cross-Language Dynamics: Reshaping Community project, both funded by the AHRC under its Open World Research Initiative.

Workshop aims

The aims of the workshop are:

To map the current state of multilingualism in digital theory and practice through, and across, languages

To identify areas of ‘language indifference’ in digital methodologies and infrastructure

To bring together experts in language-driven digital study and practice to discuss priorities for future action and potential collaboration

To discuss the value and role of languages in digital theory and practice and their implications for language study and professions

To explore emerging models for linguistic diversity and languages-aware digital practice in academia, education and private/third sectors and to document best practice

Workshop structure

The workshop will be structured as follows:

Day 1: Context/aims, lightning talks, demos, meetups

Day 2: Group activities addressing the workshop’s core themes through discussion and practical work

Outcomes will be defined by attendees, but may include the co-design of conceptual frameworks or practical outcomes such as prototypes or toolkits

Call for Proposals

We welcome proposals for:

Lightning talks (7 minute presentations)

Posters

Technical demos (short and interactive, as part of the poster session)

Mini-workshops (max 3 hours duration)

Experimental formats (defined by you)

Proposals should address a theoretical or practical response to one of the workshop’s core themes:

https://languageacts.org/digital-mediations/event/disrupting-digital-monolingualism/aims-and-themes/

Venue

The event will take place at King’s College London in central London on Tuesday 16 June and Wednesday 17 June 2020.

Virtual participation

The event is principally designed for physical face-to-face participation, but we are open to collaboration with individuals or groups who wish to participate remotely.

Key dates

Call for proposals deadline: 12pm (GMT) on 16 March 2020

Response to proposals: 30 March 2020

Workshop: Tuesday 16 and Wednesday 17 June 2020

Languages

Abstracts: the main workshop language will be English, but once reviewed, we welcome translations of accepted abstracts.

At the event: we recommend that presenters consult the GO::DH Translation toolkit (https://go-dh.github.io/translation-toolkit/conferences/) and we welcome creative proposals for those wishing to work multilingually during the event.

Outcomes

Where possible, outcomes (including, for example, reports, posters or prototypes) will be published on the event website after the workshop.

Submissions

Submissions may be made via our online form at

https://languageacts.org/digital-mediations/event/disrupting-digital-monolingualism/call-proposals/

Contact

The workshop is led by Paul Spence and Renata Brandao (Language Acts), in collaboration with Naomi Wells (Cross-Language Dynamics).

If you have any queries, please contact Paul Spence - paul.spence [at] kcl.ac.uk

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