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 “Digitizing Early Material Culture: from Antiquity to Modernity” 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 “DIGITIZING EARLY MATERIAL CULTURE: FROM ANTIQUITY
TO MODERNITY”

The organizing committee 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 “Digitizing Early Material
Culture: from Antiquity to Modernity.”  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 “Digitizing Early Material Culture, from Antiquity to 1700,”
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 “NEW DIRECTIONS IN TEXT ANALYSIS”

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, “New
Directions in Text Analysis.”  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•	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