Dr Francesca Benatti Introduces Hypertext’s “Humanity Within” – ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media

Dr Francesca Benatti is Research fellow in Digital Humanities at The Open University, co-leader of DH_OU, the Digital Humanities at The Open University Research Collaboration and Program Chair for Hypertext 2023. We asked Dr Benatti to tell us more about the topic of this year’s Hypertext, the “Humanity Within”.

Dr Benatti explains that the theme is “an invitation to the historical Hypertext community to reflect on the human-side of hypertext systems, as new forms of cultural artefacts and infrastructures.” It is, furthermore, “a call to arms for the communities of Digital Humanities, Book History, and E-Literature to apply their Humanities-based lenses, sensibilities, and methods to the study of hypertext systems and social media.”

Dr Benatti suggests how the organisers of the conference want to “bring together different communities of practice [to] expand the perception of hypertext.” The aim is to:

“to keep the focus on its current and future technical implementations, such as workflows and infrastructures and social and intelligent media, which have formed the backbone of the long and distinguished ACM Hypertext conference series. But we also invite scholars in Humanities fields such as Digital Humanities, Book History and Electronic Literature to bring their perspectives and analyses, such as reflections on the history of hypertext and social media, its methodological applications to the study of authorship, reading and publishing, and the creative expressions it enables.”

The tracks for this year’s Hypertext are:

Interactive Media: Art and Design
Authoring, Reading, Publishing
Workflows and Infrastructures
Social and Intelligent Media
Reflections and Approaches

Information on the Tracks, Track Chairs and deadlines for submission can be found on the Hypertext website.

Dr Bennatti hopes that “whatever the discipline you are coming from, you will find a space for your reflections on hypertext at the ACM Hypertext 2023 conference. See you in Rome!”