Building bridges between Lausanne and Leeds: Virtual Round Table Discussion on methods, recent solutions and new questions between scholars at the International Mediaeval Congress in Leeds and the Digital Humanities Congress in Lausanne

Motivation
In July 2014 the Digital Humanities Congress in Lausanne and the International Mediaeval Congress in Leeds are going to be celebrated contemporaneously.

Both congresses have a worldwide reputation and are widely recognised platforms for discussing current developments and showcasing new developments as well as recent research approaches in their respective disciplines.

Realizing the increasing impact of contributions from digital humanities in Leeds at this year's conference we felt the importance to foster more intense scientific exchange between the Digital Humanities and Mediaevalists. Thus, the idea was born to introduce a virtual round table discussion between the IMC Leeds and the DHC in Lausanne as a forum that could stimulate an interdisciplinary discussion at two places via live-streaming complemented by additional web-based participatory elements.

Topic
During the last decades Digital Humanities have developed out of their niche as an auxiliary scientific research field to an autonomous and well-founded discipline. The reasons for this development are as manifold as the diverging views on what this new discipline is covering, only about ten years after the alias Digital Humanities was coined.

The advance of information technology and the growing impact of the digital paradigm in everyday live has long reached science and humanities. The vast majority of research in the Humanities is transforming information into digital representations and the web and other applications of the internet are used for the constitutive process of exchanging arguments and collating knowledge. At the same time, perception and acceptance of DH grows in the established Humanities disciplines not only because the passover to the world of the digital demands proper handling of the data but also because Digital Humanities succeed in proving its claim to contribute to generating new insights in a number of humanities-related fields.

However, there is no question that this process continues to gain momentum and that it is therefore necessary that both fields not just escort this change but rather actively shape its future path.

Therefore, we seek to deepen the already existing dialogue between Mediaeval Studies and Digital Humanities (in an innovative event) by initiating a well arranged Round Table Discussion on the impact and perspectives of studying the spatial aspects of Mediaeval written sources. We consider this being a key area of research in which both the Humanities and the Digital Humanities can easily be included and get in a dialogue from different points of views.

Agenda
In order to ensure a focused discussion that discloses the potentials and contributes to the diversification of DH approaches in Mediaeval studies, the format of the Round Table Discussion has to adopt not only the specific setting within two conferences but also its objective to stimulate interdisciplinary dialogue.

Three selected discussants at each panel in Leeds as well as in Lausanne will represent a cross section of approaches to the spatial aspects of mediaeval texts. The organisers will provide them with material on a well studied and prominent written source in advance of the event. The selection of the source takes into account its potential to serve as pars pro toto for a variety of ways approaching the spatial substance of historical sources. We will encourage a preparatory argument with all discussants to avoid misconceptions and to agree on a set of documents to be published in the run up of the conferences, open for public commentary and annotation.Based on the feedback, the discussants will agree on two main aspects to be discussed in the live panel. To introduce the audience, each member will give a brief introductory statement pinpointing to her or his understanding and perspective of the spatial information contained in the document (together ca. 20 min). A first open panel will provide the opportunity for the audience to ask for specific explanation or to clarify misunderstandings (10 min.). In the subsequent two thematic blocks (20 min. each), the discussants will exchange views on the topics agreed upon. Before each group of discussants in Leeds as well as in Lausanne will close the session by summing up ‘lessons learned’ another 10 min. block will provide opportunity for enquiries or comments by the audience.

Two moderators will arrange for the coordination between the geographically separated sessions and the thematic focus of each block.

Technically we plan a livestream not only between the conferences but also in the web via services like e.g. ustream.tv offering a variety of possibilities for the web audience to track the discussion and to initiate follow-up debates in the social media.

Expected outcome
As an outcome of the round table discussion we envisage not only to clarify the different aspects and methods followed by scholars in the Digital Humanities in comparison to those of Medieaval Studies but also to uncover new possibilities and fields of research initiated by an interdisciplinary discussion on a subject.

List of Participants
Lausanne:
Prof. Dr. phil. Kai Christian Bruhn, i3mainz. Institute for Spatial Information and Surveying Technology FH Mainz - University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Dorothy Porter MA., Curator, Digital Research Services at the Special Collections Center, University of Pennsylvania, USA
Dr. Sarah Rees Jones, Department of History, University of York, England
Leeds:
Prof. Dr. Sible de Blaauw, Faculty of Letters, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands (still uncertain)
Dr. Kerstin Sailer, Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, England
Dr. Frithjof Schwartz, Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur Mainz, Germany