Event | ‘Changing Minds Online’ – Tilburg Digital Humanities Symposium
Event | ‘Changing Minds Online’ – Tilburg Digital Humanities Symposium
Dates: 15-16 June 2023
Location: Tilburg University (Dante Builzing, DZ08) & Online
Organizers: Dr. Giovanni Cassani, Dr. Richard Heersmink, Dr. Frédéric Tomas, Dr. Michal Klincewicz and Lucie Chateau (PhD Candidate, Supervisors: Prof. Odile Heynders and Prof. Martine Prange )
Registration: digitalhumanities2023@gmail.com
Registration deadline: 27 April 2023
Credits: 1 ECTS (details below)
Read more here.
This symposium will be the third in the Tilburg Symposium on Digital Humanities series. After two successful symposia in 2021 and 2022, this year the focus will be on online manipulation and changing minds online.
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 encourage (nudge, manipulate?) 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).
Provisional List of Speakers
Keynotes
· Marc Cheong, University of Melbourne
· Don Fallis, Northeastern University
· Sasha Altay, Oxford University
· Danielle Arets, Fontys University of Applied Science
Tilburg University
· Ico Maly (Department of Culture Studies)
· Nathan Wildman (Department of Philosophy)
· Sara Pabian ( Department of Communication and Cognition)
· Giovanni Cassani (Department of Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence)
Provisional Programme
Thursday 16th of June: On-Campus Day
09:45- 10:00 Welcome Drinks
10:00- 11:00 Keynote: Marc Cheong
11:00-11:30 Talk: Ico Maly (TSHD)
11:30- 12:00 Talk Submission TBA
12:00- 13:30 Lunch
13:30- 14:00 Talk: Nathan Wildman (TSHD)
14:00- 14:30 Talk: Submission TBA
14:30-15:00 Talk: Submission TBA
15:00- 15:30 Coffee
15:30- 16:30 Keynote/Workshop: Danielle Arets
Drinks
Conference Dinner at De Spaarbank, Tilburg
Friday 16th of June: Online Day
10:30- 11:30 Keynote: Don Fallis
11:30- 12:00 Talk: Giovanni Cassani (TSHD)
12:00- 13:30 Lunch
13:30- 14:00 Talk: Sara Pabian (TSHD)
14:00- 14:30 Talk: Submission TBA
14:30-15:00 Talk: Submission (TBA)
15:00- 15:30 Coffee
15:30- 16:30 Keynote: Sasha Altay
16:30- 16:45 Closing Remarks: Boudewijn Haverkort (TSHD Dean, Tilburg University)
Credits
Students wanting to obtain ECTs are expected to read up on at least one of the keynote speakers and become familiar with their research. (6-8 hours) After the keynote, they are expected to ask at least one question during the Q&A. They should attend the whole symposium. (16 hours) Then, they should submit to the organisers a reflection of their takeaways from the event. This summary should include a reflection on the chosen speaker’s keynote, and engagement with other talks. This assignment should demonstrate that the student engaged critically in the symposium. (2-4 hours)