Networks in galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAM): CfP Networks 2021

I can very much recommend this session at networks2021.net

Via the session organizers:

Session 4. Analysing Networks in galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAM)

Organizers: John R. Hott (University of Virginia), Francesca Odella (University of Trento)

Primary Organizer: John R. Hott

Abstract: This session aims at discussing approaches in analysing networks in galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAM) and to provide a view of current projects and results in promoting a network analysis perspective in cross-disciplinary studies.

As artefacts are becoming increasingly digital and/or digitized, there has been an increase in organizing, describing, and storing them in archival and library contexts, as illustrated by many digitalized historical archives. The increasing availability of information about artefacts opens the possibilities to analyse the connections between them in terms of references, creators and actors, as well as in terms of cross-referenced information such as shared themes, location and visitors.

At first, most of the initiatives to establish networked data by organizations and institutions focused on disciplinary perspectives and implemented specialized information classification, such as in the case of historical archival and libraries. In order to progress research, however, it is important that networks from archives, museums, and library sources interconnect and allow multiple standards and cross-classification of their artefacts. Recent undertakings, such as the Social Networks and Archival Context (SNAC) cooperative, have worked to connect repositories to share descriptions and benefit from the conceptualization of the documents, artefacts, and creators as social-documentary networks. In the European context, similarly, international institutions and organizations (Europeana, Wikidata among them) and historical archives (such as Kalliope), already provide researchers access to common classification sets and relational data sources and are promoting projects to interconnect GLAM contexts.

These initiatives reveal that a shared methodological framework, such as social network perspective in particular, is becoming central for setting guidelines, organizing repertories, and linking data from multiple institutions. Specifically, the possibility to design and perform cross-disciplinary research and to establish new connections across cultures, historical traditions, and forms of knowledge (material and digitized) will be triggered by aligning viewpoints in data organization and data access. Network researchers, in this sense, will have more opportunities to experiment new methodological approaches in their studies, as well as to understand the social contexts of artefacts and their information processing.

Taking inspiration from such reflections and examples we solicit submissions of research works dealing with

– projects aimed at developing a network perspective of galleries, archive, museums and library collections (GLAM)

– results of analysis over networks consisting of GLAM data

– methods and strategies for extracting networked data from GLAM contexts

CfP history/archaeology session at Sunbelt NetSci

Sunbelt is the main Social Network Analysis community, and NetSci is the main complex networks conference. I’ve attended these conferences since 2013 and love them both. Next year they will be held jointly, how great is that 😀 Come present in our session and let’s make it clear archaeology and history are part of network science and here to stay!

Via the HNR newsletter:

The session “Networks and the Study of the Human Past” is part of Networks 2021: a joint Sunbelt and NetSci Conference. The conference takes place in Washington D.C. on July 6-11, 2021. The organisers are planning a hybrid in-person and remote (online) conference.

You can find the session “Networks and the Study of the Human” under number 19 in the list of organized sessions for Networks 2021. Deadline for submissions is January 24, 2021.

Networks and the study of the human past 

A growing number of studies in history and archaeology have shown that network research can constructively enhance our understanding of the human past. Moreover, it is becoming clear that archaeological and historical data sources pose interesting challenges and opportunities to social network analysis and network science. How did human social networks change over huge timescales? How can old texts and material artefacts help in answering this question? The aim of this session is to present new findings and approaches within historical and archaeological network research, and promote contacts between the various disciplines that approach past phenomena using methods derived from network analysis and network science.

This session explores the challenges and potential posed by such network studies of past phenomena, including: network modelling of past phenomena; data collection from archival evidence; incomplete and missing data; computer-assisted network extraction from texts; big data analytics and semantic network analysis based on fragmented sources; material sources as proxy evidence for social phenomena; exploration of long-term changes in past systems vs. mid-term or short-term processes; etc.

The session invites contributions from various disciplines applying the methods of formal network analysis and network science to the study of the human past. We welcome submissions concerning any period, geographical area and topic, which might include but are not limited to: migration; interpersonal relations; economy; past revolutions; covert networks of the past; industrialization; transport systems; diffusion processes; kinship; conflict and conflict solving; religion and science.

Session organizers:

Julie M. Birkholz (Ghent University & Royal Library of Belgium), Tom Brughmans (Aarhus University), Marten Düring (University of Luxembourg), Ingeborg van Vugt (University of Utrecht), Martin Stark (ILS Dortmund), David Zbíral (Masaryk University)