copied from Digital Medievalist list with usual apologies.

-----------------------------

Digitizing Early Material Culture: from Antiquity to Modernity

A seminar to be held in conjunction with CaSTA (the Canadian Symposium 
on Text Analysis) 2008: New Directions in Text Analysis, a Joint 
Humanities Computing, Computer Science Seminar and Conference at 
University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, 16-18 October 2008

A <LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK>Digitizing Early Material Culture: from Antiquity to Modernity<RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK> 
seminar will be held at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon 16 
October 2008 and will feature guest speakers:
* Meg Twycross, Professor Emeritus of English, Lancaster University, and 
Executive Editor of Medieval English Theatre (new speaker, replacing 
Melissa Terras)
* Lisa Snyder, Associate Director of the Experiential Technologies 
Centre, University of California Los Angeles

It will be held in conjunction with CaSTA 2008, 17-18 August, featuring 
guest speakers:
* David Hoover, Professor of English at New York University (keynote)
* Hoyt Duggan, Professor Emeritus in English at University of Virginia
* Geoffrey Rockwell, Associate Professor in Humanities Computing and 
Multimedia at University of Alberta
* Cara Leitch, PhD candidate in English at University of Victoria

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS FOR <LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK>DIGITIZING EARLY MATERIAL CULTURE: FROM 
ANTIQUITY TO MODERNITY<RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK>

The organizing committee also invites proposals (approx. 500-700 words) 
from Canadian and international scholars and practitioners working on 
the application of digital technology to the study of material culture 
up to c.1700 (computer science, archaeology, anthropology, geography, 
history, literature, etc.) for a pre-conference seminar on <LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK>Digitizing 
Early Material Culture: from Antiquity to Modernity.<RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK> Final submissions 
should aim to be 2,500-5,000 words in length and may address digital 
projects, programs of research, digital tools and practices, or theory 
related to the digitization of material culture to the end of the 
seventeenth century. Complete papers will be circulated in advance of 
the conference and participants (presenters and non-presenters) will 
sign up for and participate in two to three sessions on Thursday, 16 
October, having read the complete papers (2-3 per session) in advance. 
Each session will comprise short introductory summaries by presenters 
(5-10 minutes) followed by extensive discussion of the circulated texts. 
Participants can expect to receive concrete and expert advice from other 
participants as they pool expertise (together with our invited speakers) 
to consider how the project, tool, or theory can be further developed 
toward publication or implementation.

All accepted papers will be published in the conference proceedings, 
which will be available subsequently through the conference Web-site. 
Complete papers will be published on the conference Web-site prior to 
the conference. Contributors to the seminar will also be invited to 
submit papers for a collection on <LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK>Digitizing Early Material Culture, 
from Antiquity to 1700,<RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK> to be edited by Brent Nelson (University of 
Saskatchewan) and Melissa Terras (University College London) for the New 
Technologies in Medieval and Renaissance Studies series at MRTS (series 
editors Ray Siemens and William Bowen).

Proposal abstracts should be sent electronically as a MS Word, 
WordPerfect, or pdf file to:
Brent Nelson, conference committee chair, [log in to unmask] In 
consideration of our change in speakers, the deadline for proposal 
submissions is now 15 June 2008, and complete papers will be due 15 
September 2008


CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS FOR <LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK>NEW DIRECTIONS IN TEXT ANALYSIS<RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK>

The organizing committee of CaSTA 2008 also invites proposals from 
Canadian and international scholars and practitioners working in any 
area of technical or textual studies addressing the conference theme, 
<LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK>New Directions in Text Analysis.<RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK> This will be the sixth annual CaSTA 
conference, held in association with TAPoR (the Text Analysis Portal). 
The two days of the conference (17-18 October) will feature keynote and 
plenary addresses, papers, panels, and posters on a wide range of topics 
related to the future of digital text analysis. Presentations might 
address such topics as<BULLET> changing notions of what constitutes a text
- the relationship of the material text (its physical manifestation) to 
the ideal text (the text as an abstraction of words in a particular 
combination)
- editing and publishing digital texts for a changing readership
- new media and digital textual scholarship
- new tools and methodologies for text analysis
- digital texts and analysis in the scholarly mainstream
- working with graduate students and research teams

Abstracts of 500-700 words should propose presentations in one of three 
forms:
- Single papers (max of 3,000 words)
- Panels (three to five papers on a common theme)
- Posters (max of 750 words), either hard copy (approximately two square 
metres of board space) or digital with terminal access provided. Posters 
will remain on display throughout the conference and there will be a 
designated session time for presenters to discuss their work.
Abstract proposals should include the following information: title of 
paper, author's name(s); complete mailing address, including e-mail; 
institutional affiliation and rank, if any, of the author; statement of 
need for audio-visual equipment. Abstracts of papers should clearly 
indicate the paper's thesis, methodology and conclusion.

CaSTA 2008 especially wants to encourage the participation of graduate 
students, whose work is even now incubating many of the new directions 
that this conference will begin to explore. Cara Leitch (PhD candidate, 
University of Victoria) will conduct sessions of particular interest to 
graduate students and to projects that involve significant student 
training and participation. Travel grants will be available to students 
who travel to attend the conference.

All accepted papers and posters will be published in the conference 
proceedings, which will be available subsequently through the conference 
Web-site. Abstracts will also be published on the conference Web-site 
prior to the conference. Selected papers from the conference will be 
included in a special issue of the peer reviewed journal, Text Technology.

Proposal abstracts should be sent electronically as a MS Word, 
WordPerfect, or pdf file to:
Brent Nelson, conference committee chair, [log in to unmask]
In consideration of our change in speakers, the deadline for proposal 
submissions is now 15 June 2008

Please see the conference website for further developments: 
http://ocs.usask.ca/casta08

-- 
Dr. Brent Nelson, Associate Professor
Department of English
9 Campus Dr.
University of Saskatchewan
Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A5
=======================
my office ph.: (306) 966-1820           
main office ph.: (306) 966-5486
fax.: (306) 966-5951
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
=======================

----------------------
Simon Mahony
Research Associate

Centre for Computing in the Humanities
King's College London
26 - 29 Drury Lane,
London
WC2B 5RL
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=WC2B_5RL

Tel: +44 (0)20 7848 2813
Fax: +44 (0)20 7848 2980
[log in to unmask]