In the context of the 2026 edition of the Digital Humanities Conference (DH2026) Conference in Daejeon, South Korea, the Special Interest Group Digital Literary Studies within ADHO (SIG-DLS) and the Digital Comparative Literature (DCL) research committee of ICLA jointly invite submissions for a mini-conference titled “Digital and/or Comparative Literary Studies Today”.
Background and Goals
Digital or Computational Literary Studies and Comparative Literature continue to evolve through the integration of computational methods, multilingual archives, and innovative analytical frameworks. This workshop seeks to explore the intersection of digital and comparative approaches, highlighting both established and emerging methods — from born-digital narratives, distant reading and cultural analytics to machine learning, generative Large Language Models, and beyond. We particularly welcome contributions that address the challenges and opportunities of multilingual, cross-cultural, and interdisciplinary research, as well as critical reflections on the role of technology or such mediated narratives in literary scholarship.
We encourage submissions for work that will be presented both as a (hybrid) lightning talk format as well as in an open-space, interactive poster session.
Topics of Interest
Topics of interest include but are by no means limited to the following areas:
- Digital Methods in Comparative Literature: Applications of computational techniques (e.g., distant reading, network analysis, topic modeling, sentiment analysis) to compare texts across languages, cultures, or historical periods.
- Multilingual and Multicultural Approaches: Case studies on digitized or born-digital literary archives, challenges of multilingual corpora, and cross-cultural literary analysis.
- Generative AI and Literary Studies: Critical or applied uses of large language models (LLMs) and other AI tools, including their ethical, methodological, and theoretical implications.
- Digital and Computational Linguistics for Analysis of Literary Texts: Applying linguistic theory and computational methods to study aspects of literary discourse.
- Tools and Infrastructures: Software, workflows, or platforms that support digital and/or comparative literary research.
- Theoretical and Methodological Innovations: New frameworks for combining digital and comparative approaches, including reflections on the limits and potentials of computational methods.
- Born-Digital and Post-Digital Literature: Studies of electronic literature, hypertext, or other digital-born forms, as well as their analysis through digital tools.
- Responsible Research Practices: Discussions on reproducibility, transparency, and ethical considerations in digital and/or comparative literary studies.
Submission Guidelines
Please submit a 300 to 500-word abstract (excluding references) describing your project, research idea, or theoretical contribution, by sending your abstract as one PDF file to Christof Schöch at [email protected] by the due date mentioned below.
Mini-conference Format
The half-day workshop will have two parts: first, a lightning talks session, then a poster session. All contributors are invited to participate actively in both sessions, that is: first present their work in a quick talk, then be ready to discuss their work supported by a poster.
The main goal of the mini-conference is to foster exchange between researchers, developers, and practitioners, and provide a networking opportunity ahead of the start of the main conference programme.
All submissions will be peer-reviewed by the organizing committee. We expect to be able to offer free on-site printing of posters to most if not all participants (within our budgetary limits).
Key Dates
Submission Deadline: April 30, 2026
Notification of Acceptance: May 21, 2026
Mini-conference Date: July 28, 2026, in the afternoon (KST).
Organizers / Programme Committee
Samya Brata Roy (ICLA DCL)
Youngmin Kim (ICLA DCL)
Federico Pianzola (ICLA DCL)
Christof Schöch (ICLA DCL / SIG DLS)
Shanmugapriya T (SIG DLS)
Joanna Byszuk-Podsadniuk (SIG DLS)
Katherine Elkins (SIG DLS)
Berenike Herrmann (SIG DLS)
Nuette Heyns (SIG-DLS)
Suzanne Mpouli (SIG DLS)
Simone Rebora (ICLA DCL / SIG DLS)
Pablo Ruiz Fabo (SIG DLS)
Contact
For inquiries, please contact Simone Rebora at [email protected].