Call for Participation: The 3rd African Electronic Literature Alliance International Workshop Conference (AELAIWC2023)

Yohanna Joseph Waliya

Call for Participation: The 3rd African Electronic Literature Alliance International Workshop Conference (AELAIWC2023)

The Faculty of Arts, University of Calabar, Calabar Nigeria in conjunction with African Electronic Literature Alliance & African Diasporic Electronic Alliance (AELA&ADELI) organises The 3rd African Electronic Literature Alliance International Workshop Conference (AELAIWC2023)

Theme: Digital Humanities & Interdisciplinary

Date: 22nd-25th November, 2023.

Venue: University of Calabar International Conference Centre

Time: 10:00 AM-6:00PM (WAT) Daily

Conference Languages: English.

Nature: Hybrid (onsite & offline)

 

AELAIWC2023: Call for Participation

AELAIWC2023 is the third annual conference of the African Electronic Literature Alliance and African Diasporic Electronic Literature (AELA & ADELI). It was initiated in 2021 by Mr. Yohanna Joseph Waliya from the University of Calabar, Nigeria in collaboration with Prof. Mourad El Fhali from Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah University, Morocco, Prof. Richard O. Ajah from the University of Uyo, Prof. Tunde Ope-Davies from the Centre for digital Humanities University of Lagos, and Prof. Abdelmoumin El Azouzi, also from Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah University, Fez, Morocco.

This year conference and workshop will digress from the normal African Electronic Literature to sensitise scholars and artists on the Digital Humanities and interdisciplinary scholarship.

Digital Humanities (DH) is the most recognised buzzword today in the multidisciplinary scholarship in the world that assembles disciplines such as arts, humanities, social sciences, computer science, new media studies, artificial intelligence, deep learning and machine learning. It builds on amplifying multisectoral methodologies and collaborations, harnessing digital infrastructures and tools into humanistic as well as artistic studies. In other words, DH employs computer, artificial intelligence (AI), deep leaning (DL), machine learning (ML), and recently Large Language Models (LLMs) as methods and tools for investigation in the arts and humanities.

The budding DH community in Africa has made frantic efforts through collaborations in the area of capacity building and sensitization of African scholars. Summer schools, conferences, sensitization workshops among others have been used to train African scholars in DH scholarship. CEDHUL-Centre for Digital Humanities University of Lagos’ Lagos Summer School in Digital Humanities (LSSDH), South African Center for Digital Language Resource (SADiLAR) and the newly established Institute of Digital Humanities in Francophone Africa (InHuNum-Af) in University of Yaoundé, the Digital Humanities Unit of the Faculty of Arts (DHuFArts),University of Uyo,  and African Electronic Literature Alliance and African Diasporic Electronic Literature (AELA & ADELI) have made great efforts recently in Africa to close the gap in the application of computational turn for research and development in the arts and humanities through provisions of the capacity building opportunities.

Despite impressive moves from these capacity building initiatives, DH scholarship is not receiving institutional supports from many African universities and consequently, many humanities and arts scholars are cut off from exposures to digital humanities scholarship and its enormous benefits to individual scholars and institutions.

To fill this gap, the Faculty of Arts, University of Calabar, in collaboration with the African Electronic Literature Alliance and African Diasporic Electronic Literature (AELA & ADELI), partnering with the Centre for Digital Humanities University of Lagos (CEDHUL), the Digital Humanities Unit of the Faculty of Arts (DHuFArts), University of Uyo, FAHSANU, CTLE, DORD, University of Calabar organizes a four-day training workshop and conference for national and international scholars thematised  “Digital Humanities and Interdisciplinary Scholarship”. This year’s theme is crafted to foster inclusivity, heterogeneity and participation. The workshop/conference will be hybrid and multilingual as usual.

Objectives of the training workshop/Conference:

  1. Introducing the participants to digital humanities scholarship.
  2. Expose all participants to digital research methods and tools.
  3. Present opportunities and potentials of collaborative research with DH experts.
  4. Prepare the Faculty for the mounting of DH-related courses in the new CCMAS.
  5. Networking the participants with global scholars.

How to participate

Fill in the form on our website. Make sure you indicate your area of research interest before proceeding to the payment of N 20, 000 ($50) for Conference attendance.

Click to register and pay for AELAIWC2023: https://bit.ly/aelaiwc2023

Scan this QR code to register:

Materials: You need to bring your laptops and power cable for practical sessions.

This conference is made for workshops, lectures and trainings only not paper presentation by the participants.

NB: If you want to publish what you’ve learned at the conference later, please consider sending it to Multilingual African digital Semiotics & E-lit Journal (MADSEJ): https://madsej.africanelit.org

For AELA & ADELI membership: https://africanelit.org/membership.php

Register here for Digital Humanities Association of Nigeria Membership: https://dhnigeria.org/registration/

List of Resource Persons and the Lectures/Workshops

  1. The opportunities in Digital Humanities for African Scholars-Prof. Dr. Tunde Ope-Davies, CEDHUL, University of Lagos (Keynote Speaker I)
  2. African Electronic Literature on Immersive Platforms techniques and practices for Africans- Prof. Caitlin Fisher, President of Electronic Literature Organization, York University, Canada (Keynote Speaker II)
  3. Intersectionality of African literature and technology – Prof. Richard O. Ajah, DHuFarts, AELA & ADELI, University of Uyo, Uyo, Nigeria.
  4. Generative Text’s Global History-Prof. Nick Montfort, Institute of Technology & the Center for Digital Media, University of Bergen
  5. Exploring the history of digital poetry from 1950 to Augmented Reality Poetry – Prof. Christopher Funkhouser, New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA.
  6. Digital Characters and objects simulation for storytelling in Digital Humanities. Prof. Erik H. Zepka, DeTao Masters Academy, China
  7. Digital Humanities in the Classroom: Teaching & Learning with Omeka -Prof. Bekeh Ukelina State University of New York, USA.
  8. Text Encoding and Artificial Intelligence for detecting handwriting -Dr. Nagender Aneja, The Founder of RersearchID, University of Darussalam, Brunei.
  9. Programming immersive storytelling and 360° video camera demos for metaverse, Ben Kachi, vr360 Stories, Lagos, Nigeria.
  10. Easy-to-use Digital Humanities tools-Dr. James Akinola, Technological University of Michigan, USA.
  11. Introduction to Digital Humanities- Dr, Utitofon Inyang, Binghamton University, NewYork, USA.
  12. Geospatial analysis and Digital Humanities-Mr. John Henry, Université Franche-Comté, France.
  13. Towards A “Political Turn”: Exploring Creative Digital Narratives for Political Activism- Dr. Rachid Benharrousse, Mohammed V University, Morocco.
  14. Research Methodologies in Digital Humanities- Go::DH Team.
  15. Critical Code Studies and Non-coder approach to creation of African electronic literature – Mr. Yohanna Joseph Waliya, AELA & ADELI, University of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria.

Call for Participation: The 2nd African Electronic Literature Alliance International Workshop Conference (AELAIWC2022)

AELAIWC 2022: Call for Participation

The Centre for Digital Humanities University of Lagos (CEDHUL), Nigeria  in conjunction with African Electronic Literature Alliance & African Diasporic Electronic Alliance (AELA&ADELI)
Organises
The 2nd African Electronic Literature Alliance International Workshop Conference (AELAIWC2022)

Theme: E-Literary Procedural Creativity on Digital platforms and Metaverse/création numérique procédurale de la Littérature métaverselle et littérature dispositive.

Date: 22-25 November, 2022.
Venue: Zoom
Time: 12:00 PM-7:00 PM Friday: 11:00 AM – 7:00 PM (25-11-2022)
Conference Languages: French, Arabic & English.
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Digital media is creating its decentralised universe called Metaverse which is transforming exponentially our worldview and society today by tilting towards e-literary fusion with non-literary, humans and Artificial Intelligence to produce an e-literary utopia. Therefore, there is a need for African litterateurs, scholars, researchers, students and digital artists to create Metaversal literatures which will bring African physical presence and digital culture to singularity. This is the reason Centre for Digital Humanities University of Lagos (CEDHUL) in collaboration with African Electronic Literature Alliance and African Diasporic Electronic Literature (AELA & ADELI) is calling for participation at  the second virtual African Electronic Literature Alliance International Workshop Conference (AELAIWC2022) in order to teach enthusiastic participants the art of XR literary procedural creativity, meta-creative writing, critiquing, reading and analysis employing new theories and methods in Electronic Literature.

African Electronic Literature Alliance International Workshop Conference (AELAI

 

WC 2022) is virtual workshop, and lectures are designed to train  African scholars, electronic literature artists, digital poets and students in the field of African Electronic Literature(AEL), African Diasporic Electronic  literature (ADELI) by providing them with opportunities to learn digital creative writing, connect with peers around the world and established electronic literature experts, and explore computational creativity in literature.  The workshop will be divided into four-day intensive classes. An hour lecture, 30 minutes break, and self-practice for an hour. Then, that will be followed with comments from  lecturers on the works of  2-3 participants for about 30 minutes. It means, 1hr 30 minutes will be spent on each lecture while  public talks will be for an hour.

The African Electronic Literature Festival (AELF) showcases for free the best works of all the participants created during the conference on the Multilingual African Electronic Literature Database and African Diasporic Electronic Literature Database (MAELD & ADELD) website: https://africanelit.org

Registration is free but membership is mandatory. New participants, register here: https://africanelit.org/membership.php

Time Table: https://bit.ly/AELAIWCTimeTable

Resource Persons and the Lectures/Workshops

Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, Vice Chancellor, University of Lagos.
Lecture: welcome address and opening ceremony of the conference

Prof. Mourad El Fahli, Sidi Mohammaed Ben Abdellah University, Morocco.
Keynote Lecture: E-Literary Procedural Creativity on Digital platforms and  Metaverse/création numérique procédurale de la Littérature métaverselle et littérature dispositive.

Prof. Dr. Tunde Ope–Davies, University of Lagos, Nigeria.
Opening ceremony lecture:  Opportunities in Digital Humanities for African Literary scholars.

Prof. Nick Montfort, Professor of digital media, MIT. director, The Trope Tank, USA.
Lecture/workshop: The Computer Generation of Novels — Theory and Practice.

Emeritus Prof. Philippe Bootz, University Paris 8, France.
Lecture: The Praxis of Procedural Model Theory

Prof. Bouchardon, University of Technology of Compiègne, France.
Cours/Lecture: les smartfictions (les fictions pour smartphone)

Prof. Leonardo Flores, Ex–President of ELO,  Appalachian State University, Puerto Rico.
Workshop : Distant writing: Creating literary Twitterbot using Tracery and CBDQ

Prof. Michael Hurtado, University of Applied Sciences, Peru.
Workshop : Generating a Storytelling with text and images using Python programming on Google Colab.

Prof. Davin Heckman, Winona State University, USA.
Lecture: The poetics of Artificial Intelligence Generated poetry

Prof. Patrick Lichty, Winona State University, USA.
Workshop: Creating AR poetry

Prof. Erik H. Zepka, DeTao Masters Academy, China.
Lecture: The Organism, The Data Structure and Electronic Inscription

Associate Prof. Mariusz Pisarski, University of Information Technology and Management: Rzeszów, Poland.
Lecture: praxis of Multilingual electronic literature creation

Associate Prof. Richard Oko Ajah, University of Uyo, Nigeria.
Lecture: Introduction to African Electronic Literature

Dr. Reham Hosny, Minia University, Egypt.
Lecture: Practical methods of reading and analysing Arabic electronic literature

Mr. Alan Bigelow , Independent Artist, USA.
Workshop: Using Hypertext(HTML5 and CSS3) to create Digital Art.

Mr. Yohanna Joseph Waliya, Director of AELA & ADELI,  University of Calabar, Nigeria.
Workshop: Programming African Electronic Literature with simple code and code remix

CALL FOR PAPERS (MADSEJ VOLUME 1 ISSUE 1)

ABOUT THE JOURNAL
Multilingual African Digital Semiotics and E-lit Journal (MADSEJ) is a multilingual scientific journal owned by African Electronic Literature Alliance & African Diasporic Electronic Literature (AELA & ADELI). It is a peer-reviewed, creative, technical and open access journal. MADSEJ is created in 2022 to enable African electronic literary works and digital arts get wider readership and visibility presence in the virtual wold-Internet and Metaverse.

It concerns with the investigation into electronic and metaversal literary works, digital culture, heritage, semiotics created by Africans or/and in collaboration with Africans across the world. In other words, MADSEJ publishes only original researches and e-creative works mediated by social media, Internet and immersive storytelling platforms-Extended Reality (AR+VR+MR=XR).

Therefore, MADSEJ accepts papers or digital arts that deal with the literary singularity intersected by technology such as Twitterature, Facebookature, Youtubature, Instagramature, TikTokature, Mobile and video Games, Blogfanfic, immersive and metaversal literatures.

SUBMISSION
This journal will begin its maiden edition with the papers accepted for the AELAIWC2022 conference.  Papers are welcomed for the second edition which will possibly be published this year.

All articles should have an abstract not more than 150 words. In a situation whereby the article is written in any official African language, the abstract should be either in French, in English or in Arabic vice versa.

All articles should not be more than 16 A4 size pages, including tables, graphs, reference or webography, if need be. The presentation of the article should be double line spacing, Times New Roman, 12 points. All works cited are to comply with the MLA 9th edition format.

Articles should be sent electronically to madsej@africanelit.org. MADSEJ’s board of editors would get to the researchers/artists within 20 working days from the day of submission.

EDITORIAL BOARD

Managing Editor: Prof. Tunde Ope-Davies, University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria.
Editor-in-chief: Prof. Mourad El Fhali, Sidi Mohammaed Ben Abdellah University, Morocco.
Senior Editor:  Dr. Richard Oko Ajah, University of Uyo, Uyo, Nigeria.
Second Editor: Yohanna Joseph Waliya, University of Calabar, Nigeria.
Contact: madsej@africanelit.org
Website: https://madsej.africanelit.org
Mobile: +2348038940016

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