CrossAsia DH Lunchtalks Launching in February 2026

Dear colleagues,

We are delighted to announce that the CrossAsia DH Lunchtalks will return in February 2026.

Originally launched between winter 2023 and spring 2024, the first DH Lunchtalk Series was warmly received by our community. Building on this success, the CrossAsia team and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) went on to co-host the international conference “Charting the European D-SEA: Digital Scholarship in East Asian Studies” in Berlin from 8–12 July 2024, bringing together around 120 participants from 19 countries and regions (read more).

In light of this strong engagement and our ongoing commitment to digital scholarship, we are pleased to relaunch the Lunchtalks as an online forum where scholars can share project updates, present new tools and methods, offer methodological insights, and showcase innovative research in Digital Asian Studies.

Between February and June 2026, the DH Lunchtalks will take place monthly. While the 2023–2024 season focused primarily on training in digital tools and platforms, the upcoming series will feature 60-minute lunchtime talks (including Q&A) by distinguished speakers presenting their latest digital research projects. The currently confirmed programme is as follows:

1. February 3
   Prof. Michael Yan Hon CHUNG (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)
   AI for Endangered Documentary Archives: Manchu OCR
2. March 24
   Dr. Franz Xaver Erhard (Leipzig University)
   Getting the Lines Right: Layout Analysis as the Critical First Step for Tibetan Newspaper HTR
3. April 21
   Prof. ZHAN Beibei (Hunan University)
   Digital Analysis for Confucian Academies in East Asia
4. May 21
   Dr. CHEN Shih-Pei (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science) & Prof. Mariana Favila-Vázquez (CIESAS–Unidad Ciudad de México)
   Treating a Genre as a Knowledge System: A Digital Research Methodology for Studying Chinese Local Gazetteers
5. June (TBC)
   Dr. CHOI Donghyeok (Hong Kong Baptist University)
   AI Methods to Construct and Analyze Large-Scale Historical Databases
6. May or June (TBC)
   Dr. Rafał Jan Felbur (Heidelberg University)
   Born-digital Dictionary of Early Chinese Buddhist Translations

 

All DH Lunchtalks will take place from 12:30 to 13:30 (Central European Time) and will be held online via Webex. Further details for each session, including abstracts and access links, will be announced in advance on the CrossAsia blog. The first talk, by Prof. Michael Yan Hon Chung, will be announced shortly on CrossAsia.

If you have any questions about the DH Lunchtalks, or if you are interested in proposing a future talk and sharing your own digital research, please contact Dr. Jing Hu at jing.hu@sbb.spk-berlin.de.

We look forward to welcoming many of you to the CrossAsia DH Lunchtalks 2026!

 

Yours,

CrossAsia Team