Conferences & Workshops

Call for Papers & Participation

• Belvedere Summer School 2026: The Belvedere Research Centre in Vienna is hosting its fourth summer school on the theme of “Sammlungsinstitutionen in einer digitalen Welt: Strategien – Methoden – Tools” . The six-day training programme explores topics relating to digitisation, digital collection management and the online presence of digitised collections, with a focus on highlighting their potential and the challenges they present. The course will look at strategies for digitising collections of cultural and historical significance, the development of user-centred online formats and digital storytelling, potential restrictions arising from copyright and financial considerations, as well as Linked Open Data (LOD) and the use of artificial intelligence in the museum sector. Event date: 7 to 12 September 2026. Registration by 21 June 2026.

• Digital Humanities Day 2026: The focus will be on the challenges, opportunities and potential shifts in roles within the humanities and social sciences arising from digitally driven or even (partially) automated research processes. In the JO 1 lecture building, a varied programme on the theme of “Digital Humanities: Human Autonomy?” will be offered, featuring keynote speaker Prof. Dr. Tobias Hodel, an expert in the field of AI-supported working methods, with his lecture “Denken trotz Prompt? Epistemologische Souveränität als Aufgabe der Digital Humanities”. Event date: 10 July 2026. Registration by 29 June at: https://indico.uni-muenster.de/e/dh-tag2026

• Conference “Zugang gestalten! Mehr Verantwortung für das kulturelle Erbe 2026”: 16th edition of the conference series, this time at the Berlin State Library, focusing on “Geschichtspolitik und Erinnerung”. Event date: 30 September to 2 October 2026

• 6th International Workshop on Semantic Web and Ontology Design for Cultural Heritage: The SWODCH 2026 in Bari, Italy, aims to gather original research on foundational issues arising from the design of conceptual models, ontologies, and Semantic Web (SW) technologies for Cultural Heritage (CH) and the Digital Humanities (DH) and to bring together those who are involved in the development and deployment of concrete SW solutions for Cultural Heritage. Papers can be submitted until 26 June 2026. Event date: 25/26 October 2026

• Events of the Centre for Advanced Study “Access to Cultural Goods in Digital Change”
• Conference series “Zugang gestalten! Mehr Verantwortung für das kulturelle Erbe” with an annual conference.

Recordings

• Digital Turn. Sammlungen – Provenienzen – Märkte (materials for the conference at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, November 2025)

• “The Art Museum in the Digital Age” – international online conference series of the Belvedere, Vienna

• COMMUNIA Salon

• Europeana 2025 (on YouTube)

• Conference series “Zugang gestalten! Mehr Verantwortung für das kulturelle Erbe”

• Online Symposium celebrating the 20-year anniversary of the “One Million Book Project” at Carnegie Mellon University (Internet Archive, August 2021)

Jobs & Scholarships

• Artistic Director of M.1 in Hohenlockstedt: The Arthur Boskamp-Stiftung is inviting applications for the position of Artistic Director of M.1 in Hohenlockstedt, to run from 1 January 2027 to 30 June 2028. The non-profit foundation supports the visual arts and culture, with a focus on contemporary art and community-based cultural work at a local level. It is placed at the intersection of regional context and international contemporary art. The spacious former military building M.1 in Hohenlockstedt provides space for exhibitions, events and residencies, and can be used as a venue for community activities and creative production. Application deadline: 30 June 2026

Resources

• DFG Practical Guidelines on Digitisation (current version from 2022) provide a fundamental basis for DFG-funded digitisation projects in its “Digitisation and Indexing” programme: They formulate standards and contain information on organisational, methodological and technical issues in the context of digitising and indexing objects relevant for research.

• Europeana: Discover Europe’s digital cultural heritage provides cultural heritage enthusiasts, professionals, teachers, and researchers with access to Europe’s digital cultural heritage. Europeana gives access to millions of items from providing institutions across Europe, e. g. to artworks, books, music, and videos.

• The Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek – Kultur und Wissen online (German Digital Library) is a database of cultural objects where books or full texts can be read or downloaded in their entirety, provided they are no longer subject to legal restrictions. In addition to books and texts, there are also archival materials, images and photographs, sculptures, pieces of music and other audio documents, films and sheet music, paintings, manuscripts and much more.

• museum-digital is a joint initiative by museums and museum associations. It helps museums to present their collections online. All published objects can be searched collectively on museum-digital:global.

• BnF Gallica is the digital library of the Bibliothèque nationale de France and its partners. It offers free and open access to several million digitized documents from all periods and all media.

• Art UK offers free digital access to the UK’s public art collections. It brings together over 700,000 artworks from 3,500 institutions – museums, libraries, town halls, hospitals – as well as public artworks in urban spaces such as sculptures and murals.

• Wikimedia Commons is a collection of more than 130 million freely usable media files to which anyone can contribute.

• Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free texts, movies, software, music, websites, and more.

• International Documents on the Protection of Cultural Goods, aggregated by Prof. Dr. Ruben Apressyan, Senior Researcher at the Centre for Advanced Study “Access to Cultural Goods in Digital Change”.

• Digital History of Virtual Museums: A project started by by Associate Professor Nadezhda Povroznik, now hosted at the Technische Universität Darmstadt.

• “Koloniale Kontexte in Bibliotheken” discusses the legal framework as well as ethical and institutional issues that must be taken into account when providing online access to digitised items from collections with colonial origins. In addition to providing a basic overview, the guide offers specific recommendations for library ron topics such as provenance research, acquisitions, collection presentation, digital access, and metadata.

• Guidelines on museum accessibility in China, as published by the UNESCO office in Beijing in cooperation with the Global Disability Fund and the Chines Museums Association in 2025.

• Center for Digital Humanities der Universität Münster: The Center for Digital Humanities (CDH) is an interest group of digital researchers from different faculties and handles the scientific shaping of the thematic field of Digital Humanities at Münster.

• Research project “The Problems of Access to Cultural Heritage in the Digital Age” at Palacký University Olomouc (Czech Republic) (Principal Investigator: doc. Mgr. Pavel Zahrádka, PhD, Senior Fellow of the Centre for Advanced Study “Access to Cultural Goods in Digital Change”)

• Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI): The CDLI represents the efforts of an international group of Assyriologists, museum curators and historians of science to make available through the internet the form and content of cuneiform inscriptions dating from the beginning of writing, ca. 3350 BC. Thereby, the CDLI is opening pathways to the rich historical tradition of the ancient Middle East. In close collaboration with researchers, museums and an engaged public, the project seeks to unharness the extraordinary content of these earliest witnesses to our shared world heritage.

• Virtual exhibition: “Meissener Porzellan im virtuellen Fokus”: This exhibition brings the famous Meissen porcelain, particularly that of the 18th century, to digital life. The 3D models allow visitors to view the objects up close and discover details of the decoration, as well as signs of wear or restoration. The exhibition was developed as part of a university seminar at Dresden University of Technology under the direction of PD Dr Angela Dreßen, Senior Fellow of the Centre for Advanced Study “Access to Cultural Goods in Digital Change”, and was realised in collaboration with the Meissen Porcelain Museum.

• National Theatre at Home offers free streaming of plays from the Royal National Theatre in London.

• Digital Theatre at the Augsburg State Theatre: The Digital Theatre explores performing on digital stages with 360° video in virtual reality, with hybrid productions that combine the physical stage space with the virtual, with streaming services that allow participation, and with meet-up formats that also work online.

• Kunstgeschichte im digitalen Zeitalter: Lehre – Forschung – Dissemination is a commemorative volume marking the 60th birthday of Maria Effinger, featuring contributions from Prof. Dr Ursula Frohne, Co-Director of the Centre for Advanced Study “Access to Cultural Goods in Digital Change”, as well as the Centre’s Senior Fellows, Prof. Dr Henry Keazor and Prof. Dr Hubertus Kohle.