Brave New Worlds: Digital Technologies & the Study of the Past in Anatolia, the Mediterranean, and the Near East, 5th Annual Graduate Student Research Symposium, Koç University, May 5, 2017

Koç University’s Department of Archaeology and History of Art (ARHA) is pleased to announce “Brave New Worlds: Digital Technologies & the Study of the Past in Anatolia, the Mediterranean, and the Near East,” its fifth annual Graduate Student Research Symposium, on May 5, 2017 at Koç University, located in a suburban neighborhood north of Istanbul, Turkey.

The digital turn has created technologies that allow us to research the past in innovative ways, share information, and collaborate with wider audiences. Active integration of new digital technologies into humanities and heritage studies can increase accuracy of research, as well as aid in preservation, dissemination, and management. The digital world provides seemingly endless opportunities for interdisciplinary research and new perspectives of the past, from the creation of digital archives and online crowdsourcing projects to cutting edge applications of augmented reality and immersive virtual environments. However, even though these technologies are constantly tested and adapted, best practices are generally unclear. A large chasm remains between the potential of these technologies and their applications in daily practice for archaeologists, art historians, historians, cultural heritage scholars, and museum practitioners.

This symposium seeks to encourage a diverse range of perspectives and disciplines concerned with a span of subjects, areas and periods of research as they relate to the digital humanities. Paper topics may include, but are not limited to: digital humanities, digital heritage, digital histories, digital technologies in museums, digital applications for archaeological research, archives, preservation methodologies, 3D technologies, Geographic-Information Systems, mobile applications, digitization projects, database systems, remote sensing, high definition imaging (image modelling, 3D laser scanning, RTI, etc...)

Students of archaeology, art history, history, cultural heritage, museum studies, digital humanities and technologies, and related fields are invited to present research related to Anatolia and its neighboring regions, including the Mediterranean, Aegean, Black Sea, Balkans, the Levant, and the Ancient Near East, from earliest prehistoric times through the Bronze and Iron Ages, the Classical, Byzantine, and Ottoman periods, and into contemporary times.

All graduate students are encouraged to apply, including Masters and PhD students at any stage. The language of the conference is English.