Changing minds online

Changing minds online – 3rd Tilburg Symposium on Digital Humanities 

When: 15th (Tilburg University) and 16th (online) June 2023 

When we go online, our minds are subject to a variety of mechanisms, influencing our browsing behaviours, emotions, and beliefs. Search engine optimization, misinformation, echo chambers, filter bubbles, recommendation systems, and other algorithmically generated choice architectures nudge us to down specific epistemic paths. Some of these mechanisms are perhaps unintended, whereas others are intended and exist because of financial, political, or ideological reasons. Our interactions with the online world shape who we are, what we feel, and what we think. This symposium aims to better understand the effects of the online world on our minds and to evaluate these effects. We focus on the following questions: 

·        What is the nature of online belief-forming mechanisms? 

·        What is the nature of online decision-making processes? 

·        How do online mechanisms influence our autonomy and freedom? 

·        What are the epistemic, affective, moral, and political harms caused by online mechanisms?  

With this event, we aim to answer the above questions from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. We invite speakers to present on a broad range of topics including, but not limited to, the cognitive (e.g., studies of processes of beliefs and affects), arts and media (e.g., the aesthetics or cultural practices of manipulation, AI-generated art, deepfakes), philosophical (e.g., analyses of the epistemic nature of online beliefs and moral undesirability of online manipulation), artificial Intelligence (e.g., the nature and properties of algorithms, possible role of artificial intelligence tools in facilitating/preventing manipulation online) and communication and information studies (e.g., online misinformation and social media). Submitted papers should feature digital humanities methods or include reflections on digital media and technologies.    

This two-day (June 15th and 16th), hybrid symposium—part on-site at the campus of Tilburg University, part online—brings together scholars from a range of disciplines, including Philosophy, Culture Studies, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, Cultural, Literary and Media Studies, Communication and Information Sciences, and Cognitive Science, to engage in a cross-disciplinary dialogue on these matters. The event includes keynotes, a range of talks, and poster presentations on Digital Humanities research.

Send your abstract to [email protected] no later than Friday, April 7th at 23:59. Submissions should include a title, the list of authors, a contact e-mail, an abstract of no more than 500 words. References can of course be included and are excluded from the word count. A notification of acceptance will be communicated on Friday, April 28th, 2023. 

Organisers: Giovanni Cassani, Lucie Chateau, Richard Heersmink, Michal Klincewicz & Frédéric Tomas