The City of Graz
The capital of Styria with close to 300.000 inhabitants, 4 universities and more than 42.000 students, is a perfect host for any academic conference. Austria’s second largest city boasts more than 900 years of vibrant history. The best-preserved historic city centre in Central Europe is a UNESCO world cultural heritage site. In addition, Graz was declared UNESCO City of Design in 2010, and is one of only 16 cities worldwide to have received this award. Graz is a study in contrast between historic and modern, exemplified by the Zeughaus armoury, housing the largest historical collection of weapons in the world in its original state, and the ‘friendly alien’, the Kunsthaus Graz that features contemporary art from all over the world.
The University of Graz
The University of Graz, which was founded in 1585, is Austria’s second oldest university and one of the largest in the country. Many excellent scientists, amongst them six Nobel laureates, have taught and researched here.
With 31,200 students and 4,325 employees, the University of Graz contributes significantly to the vibrating life of the Styrian capital. Its location in Europe encourages a lively scientific, economic and cultural exchange with South-East Europe, which proves beneficial to the entire region and also its educational institutions.
The Centre for Information Modelling – Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities
The Centre for Information Modelling is the current incarnation of a rich tradition of DH- focused institutions at the University of Graz going back to the establishment of an IT lab at the humanities faculty in 1992. In 2008, the field of digital humanities was strengthened with the foundation of a dedicated research and competence Centre for Information Modelling in the Humanities, focusing methodological skills at the intersection of ICT and Humanities and establishing a sustainable infrastructure for ICT- assisted humanities’ research.
The centre’s academic focus is on applied research in the area of information and data processing in the humanities, with special emphasis on the theory of data-modelling and Digital Scholarly Edition, and the practical implementation of this research topic in teaching and projects.
Another ‘trademark’ of our centre is the Humanities research repository GAMS (Geisteswissenschaftliches Asset Management System).
In October 2017, the ZIM-ACDH commenced a Master Degree for Digital Humanities, the first of its kind in Austria.
The Venue
The University of Graz provides all the facilities for the conference activities at the main campus, in the RESOWI building (see http://campusplan.uni-graz.at/). The main campus is connected by several bus lines or just a short walk from the city centre.
The opening event and reception will be hosted in the historic and festive ‘Aula’ (auditorium) of the main building of the University of Graz.