• About

    Great Lakes THATCamp (The Humanities And Technology Camp) is a user-generated “unconference” on digital humanities originally inspired by the Center for History and New Media (CHNM) at George Mason University.

    At THATcamp 2009, CHNM floated the idea of holding regional camps around the country, an idea that quickly took hold, leading to events in all over the world.

    Great Lakes THATCamp will be held on the lovely campus of Western University in London, Ontario on April 20th 21st and 22nd, 2012.

    What is an “Unconference?”

    The Wikipedia entry for “unconference” will give you a good idea what to expect. An “unconference” is “a facilitated, participant-driven conference centered around a theme or purpose.” These unconferences came up from the hacker world—see BarCamp—as a way to avoid high conference fees, sponsored presentations, and (for lack of a better term) the “fluff” that keeps people from getting down to business. Unconferences are not spectactor events, nor are they places to “be seen.” Participants are involved from the schedule creation to the wrap-up session, and actively present, discuss, and collaborate with fellow participants.

    Who Should Attend?

    Anyone interested in studying, supporting, teaching, researching, creating or otherwise shaping digital humanities, humanistic social sciences, information sciences, new media, and any other allied fields. You can be an academic, a librarian, an archivist, a developer, a hacker, a writer, a student (grad or undergrad), a curator, a designer, an educator, a public historian, an archaeologist, an independent scholar, or any combination thereof (as most of us are). You can be an expert or a newbie; as long as you have something to talk about and things you want to learn regarding the intersection and integration of the humanities and technology, this is the place to be. The list of “who should attend” is as broad as the field of “digital humanities” itself.

    So, No Suits, No Papers … What Do You Do?

    Show, tell, collaborate, share, and walk away inspired. Sessions at Great Lakes THATCamp will range from software demos to training sessions to discussions of research findings to half-baked rants.  The only real thing we don’t want to see is people standing up and reading a full blown paper, this isn’t your typical academic conference – we’re not here to read or be read to.

    Still a little unsure as to what you might want to propose?  Check out the blog for the 2009 edition of the original THATCamp or any of the other regional camps (all of which are listed here) to get an idea of the scope of topics.  You can also check out all of the user submitted goodness from Great Lakes THATCamp in 2010 and 2011.  Don’t feel limited by these topics, however – If it falls under the topic of the humanities (very broadly defined) and technology, and impacts you, your organization, or the field of digital humanities (broadly defined) then it’s fair game.

    How Do I Submit a Proposal?

    Easy!  Just go to the Apply section of this website, fill in the form, and you are good to go.  Unfortunately, we can only accept a max of about 80 people, so we’re going to have to do some vetting.  If you’ve got any questions about applying, contact Bill Turkel at william [dot] j [dot] turkel [at] gmail [dot] com  The deadline for submitting is March 15th, 2012.

    How Much Does Great Lakes THATCamp Cost?

    THATCamp isn’t your average academic conference, so you aren’t going to have to pay your average (and usually outrageous) conference registration fee.  In fact, you won’t have to pay any fees at all. How’s that for awesome?

    What If I’m not From Around The Great Lakes?

    Don’t live and/or work in a state or province that borders the Great Lakes?  No problem!  We are open to anyone who wants to attend – regardless of their location.  In fact, we’d love to see people submit applications who aren’t in the Great Lakes area.  That means that the discussions that take place at Great Lakes THATCamp will have a broader and more diverse perspective – which is awesome!

    What If I’m not a Humanist?

    The word “digital humanities” has become an umbrella for a large number of scholars in a wide variety of disciplines.  Just because you don’t consider your self a “humanist,” doesn’t mean that you aren’t working in the digital humanities.  There are also lots of domains – the sciences for example – that intersect with the humanities and humanistic social sciences in some very interesting areas.  So, the bottom line is that even if you aren’t a “humanist,” you are still welcome at Great Lakes THATCamp.  In fact, having “non-humanists” in on the conversations makes Great Lakes THATCamp even more diverse (and therefore super awesome).

    Who is Organizing Great Lakes THATCamp?

    Well, mostly the attendees.  However, there are a few people who are making sure everything goes smoothly:  Ethan Watrall (Michigan State University) and Anabel Quan-Haase, Juan Luis Suarez, Kim Martin and Bill Turkel (Western University).