DHBenelux2026: DH Benelux 2026 Maastricht University Maastricht, Netherlands, June 2-5, 2026 |
| Conference website | https://2026.dhbenelux.org/ |
| Submission link | https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=dhbene26 |
| Submission deadline | December 1, 2025 |
Digital Humanities Benelux 2026
Storytelling is fundamental to human experience; stories help us make sense of the world, preserve and narrate our heritage, construct identities, and imagine possible futures. Digital technologies have revolutionised how we engage with stories both as creators and audiences. At the same time, technology development for research, teaching and public outreach is increasingly aware of diverse user needs and integrates narrative elements in the different stages of tool creation (e.g., through design thinking) or in their interfaces and functionalities.
From computational analyses of large textual corpora and interactive multimodal narratives to virtual exhibitions, immersive listening and extended reality experiences, digital storytelling encourages new literacies and approaches to narrative forms and functions; it expands our fora, techniques, and audiences for narrative creation and reception.
In addition, the stories we tell about digital technologies themselves – their histories, potential, limitations, blackboxes, and futures – shape how we understand and deploy these tools in digital humanities scholarship. Ultimately, we can reflect on the narratives that inform and reproduce understandings of Digital Humanities scholarship: which stories do we tell about ourselves and each other?
Contribution Topics
DH Benelux 2026 welcomes contributions that critically examine the affordances and limitations of digital tools and methodologies for narrative analysis and creation, explore how digital storytelling can serve as a form of knowledge production and dissemination, and present reflections on ongoing and completed digital storytelling projects.
We especially encourage submissions that highlight how digital storytelling can break down academic silos, foster collaborations across disciplines, and connect the humanities with diverse societal actors and other disciplines.
DH Benelux aims to bring together scholars and cultural professionals from across the spectrum of digital and computational humanities and from diverse methodological traditions, including qualitative, quantitative, or mixed approaches.
Submissions may cover (but are not limited to) one or more of the topics below:
- Narrative analysis through distant reading and visualisation
- Quantitative text analysis for narrative generation and interpretation (e.g., machine learning, NLP, utilization of LLMs and stylometry)
- Digital archives and preservation
- Non-linear and interactive narratives
- Multimodal storytelling
- AI and narrative construction
- Ethics and biases in constructing digital stories
- Digital Storytelling in research dissemination
- Critical approaches to digital narratives
- Digital pedagogies
- Social justice and digital voices
- Data visualisation as narrative
- Turning data into stories
- Immersive digital narratives (e.g., 3D and Extended Reality)
- Creative approaches in Digital Humanities research praxis
- Tool development and coding integrating narrative principles and user interactions
Submission Procedure
Please submit your proposal via EasyChair (DHBenelux2026). Please note that at least one author of each accepted submission must register to the conference and present in person.
Abstracts
We accept proposals (English) for six types of proposals: (1) oral presentations, (2) lightning talks, (3) posters, (4) demonstrations, (5) panels and (6) workshops.
Please indicate for which category of presentation you are submitting with clear research questions, hypotheses and results (if available). However, the program chairs reserve their right to make the ultimate decision about the format of the presentation while making the schedule.
References and/or bibliography are excluded from the word count (see details below). Proposals may contain graphics and illustrations.
Presentation Formats
Oral presentations (proposals between 750-1000 words, presentation of 15 minutes): suitable for presenting empirical work, technical details, theorizing, cross- and multidisciplinary work, research methods and concise theoretical arguments. This format is particularly suited for ongoing and completed research. The research’s stage of completion must be clearly stated in the proposals.
Lightning talks (proposals of 500 words excl. references, presentation of 5 minutes): well suited for reporting early stage and ongoing research, introducing ideas, preliminary results and the results of practical experimentation and proof of concepts. The presentations will be on site.
Posters (proposals of 500 words excl. references): particularly suited for detailed technical explanations and clarifications, and for the showcasing of projects and research alike.
Demonstrations (proposals of 500-750 words excl. references): demonstrations of prototypes, work-in-progress or finished software, hardware technology, tools, datasets, digital publications and so forth. Demonstrations take place simultaneously, in parallel to poster sessions and are meant to be interactive. Conference delegates will have the opportunity to mingle among the demonstration tables in an informal setting.
Panels (proposals of 1000-1500 words excl. references, timeslot of 1.5 hrs): bring together experts on a particular challenge in the field of digital humanities. Panels will only be held on-site and should consist of 4-5 speakers each contributing their own perspective on the topic. Next to a general description of the subject, please provide the names, affiliation, and contribution of each participant. Proposals for panels should also mention how the speakers plan to engage the audience. Panels can include interactive elements, such as live polling, audience Q&A sessions, or other digital tools for interactive discussions. Please note that a limited number of spots will be available for panels during the conference.
Workshops (proposals of 1000-1500 words excl. references): self-organized tracks planned on the day before the conference. Workshop proposals are welcome on relevant topics and/or innovative approaches/tools/techniques. Workshops can be organised either in-person or in fully virtual mode (hybrid format will not be able to be supported). We ask you to indicate the scientific scope, aims, preferred format (in-person or fully virtual), length (half day or full day), number of participants, and a preliminary program in your proposal.
The proposals will be peer-reviewed by the DH Benelux 2026 Program Committee and published on the DH Benelux 2026 website. Authors of accepted proposals will be invited to submit a full research article for the DH Benelux Journal. A separate call for journal submissions will be made after the conference.
Evaluation
Proposals will be evaluated according to: relevance, clarity, novelty, and contribution. We look forward to your contributions and the opportunity to share insights, engage in discussions, and strengthen the Digital Humanities community at the DH Benelux 2026 Conference!
Important Dates
- Proposal submission deadline: 1 December 2025 (17:00 CET)
- Notification of acceptance: February 2026
- DH Benelux 2026: 3-5 June 2026 (main conference), 2 June 2026 (pre-conference workshops)
- Location: Maastricht University (UM) – Maastricht (Netherlands)
Committees
Program Committee
- Monika Barget, Assistant Professor, Maastricht University, NL
- Alie Lassche, Post-Doc. Researcher, Aarhus University, DNK
- Tim van der Heijden, Assistant Professor, Open University, NL
Organizing committee
- Costas Papadopoulos, Associate Professor, Maastricht University
- Claartje Rasterhoff, Assistant Professor, Maastricht University
- Thomas Frissen, Assistant Professor, Maastricht University
- Jaime (Jay) Simons, Creative Lab Techologist, Maastricht University
- Arnoud Wils, Research Software Engineer, Maastricht University
Venue
The conference will be held at Maastricht University, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, 90-92 Grote Gracht, Maastricht, Netherlands, 6211SZ.
Contact
All questions about submissions should be emailed to dhbenelux2026@gmail.com.