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Digital Medieval Studies Institute (DMSI) 2026 UK Edition Information
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Digital Medieval Studies Institute (DMSI) 2026

UK Edition

Friday, 10 July 2026

International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds

Sponsored by University of Leeds Institute for Medieval Studies,

University of Leeds Libraries, and Digital Medievalist

Organised by Laura K. Morreale and N. Kıvılcım Yavuz

Call for Participation

In partnership with the University of Leeds Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds Libraries, and Digital Medievalist, the Digital Medieval Studies Institute (DMSI) presents a full-day programme featuring workshops on digital scholarly methods specifically tailored for medievalists as part of the International Medieval Congress at the University of Leeds.

The second UK-based DMSI will take place during the International Medieval Congress on Friday, 10 July 2025. The day-long DMSI will introduce participants to a range of digital methodologies currently in use within the field of medieval studies and offer in-depth exploration through one of five workshop offerings. In addition to the workshops, there will be a group meeting at the start, sessions of lightning talks at midday, and an end-of-the-day wrap up session that will provide opportunities for networking with other scholars with shared interests. The primary goal of DMSI is for attendees to gain sufficient training during the one-day event to apply the skills acquired to their ongoing research and teaching in medieval studies.

For the lightning talks, workshop participants can propose a short presentation (lightning talk) on any aspect of digital medieval studies, such as an ongoing project, a methodology, or a specific research finding. The topic of the lightning talk does not need to correspond to the workshop in which the participant enrols. Participants will only be able to present a lightning talk if they are accepted to attend the full-day programme.

Each participant may choose one of the following workshops:

TEI for Beginners: Encoding Text and Extracting Data

Sebastian Dows-Miller, Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow, University College London

This workshop equips participants with the core skills needed to use TEI-XML (Text Encoding Initiative–Extensible Markup Language), the standard for digitally representing historical documents. Participants will learn to encode text and metadata according to the TEI Guidelines, with particular attention to medieval texts and manuscript descriptions. They will explore how TEI data can support digital editions and how to extract metadata from existing catalogues. By the end, participants will be able to apply these methods in their own projects.

 

Using Local LLMs and VLMs: Prompting, Structuring, and Automating with Medieval Data

Delphine Demelas, Southampton Digital Humanities, University of Southampton

This workshop introduces participants to practical methods for using large language models (LLMs) and vision–language models (VLMs) in research. Participants will learn how to install and run models locally, design effective prompts for historical language tasks, and structure prompt–response data for future fine-tuning. They will also work with VLMs to support the description and cataloguing of medieval illuminations by generating draft text and metadata. Ethical issues, documentation, and critical evaluation of generative outputs will be integrated throughout.

 

Nodegoat Curious: Building a Custom Relational Database for Your Research

Pim van Bree, LAB1100; Geert Kessels, LAB1100; Jesse W. Torgerson, Wesleyan University

Nodegoat is a web-based humanities research environment for creating data-rich repositories and analytical frameworks across a wide range of projects. This workshop is led by the platform’s creators together with a scholar who uses Nodegoat in multiple research collaborations. Participants will be introduced to the principles and possibilities of relational databases and why these structures matter across disciplines. Each participant will then receive step-by-step guidance to build a bespoke data model for an existing or in-progress research project.

 

Artificial Intelligence: Image Analysis Applied to Medieval Manuscripts

Dominique Stutzmann, Institut de Recherche et d’Histoire des Textes (IRHT), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris

This workshop explores how artificial intelligence offers fresh perspectives using the case of semi-standardised production of books of hours in medieval western Europe. Participants will gain hands-on experience with computer-based image analysis to detect and identify miniatures and iconographic motives and cycles. Additionally, they will learn to implement handwritten text recognition and text analysis, uncovering repetitive patterns and unexpected anomalies.

 

Manuscript Materiality in a Digital World

Dot Porter, Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies, University of Pennsylvania Libraries

This workshop considers the challenges and opportunities of working with manuscript materiality in a digital world. Participants will examine selected manuscripts from the Cultural Collections of Leeds University Libraries and discuss the technical and philosophical issues that arise when engaging with both physical objects and their digital counterparts. They will then work hands-on with digital images, video, and the VCEditor, a collation-modelling tool, to explore how manuscript structures can be represented and analysed in virtual environments.

The participation fee for DMSI 2026 at the International Medieval Congress at the University of Leeds will be £140. This fee is in addition to the registration fees for the Congress, but attendance to the Congress is not necessary to participate in DMSI. Thanks to the generosity of the University of Leeds Institute for Medieval Studies and the University of Leeds Libraries, ten bursaries (in the form of participation fee waivers) are available to support attendance to DMSI. Five of these bursaries are reserved for current students and alumni of the University of Leeds Institute for Medieval Studies. Please indicate your affiliation in your application.

Indicative programme for the day is as follows:

8.30-9.00 Gather and Tea/Coffee

9.00-9.30 Opening Assembly

9.45-11.45 Workshop Session I

12.00-12.30 Lightning Session I

12.30-2.00 Lunch

2.00-2.30 Lightning Session II

2.30-3.00 Tea/Coffee

3.00-5.00 Workshop Session II

5.15-5.45 Closing Session/ Wrap-up

6.00-7.30 Reception

You can register for DMSI 2026 via the IMC 2026 registration platform which will open at 10am GMT on 10 February 2026.

[BURSARY APPLICATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED]

To apply for a bursary, please fill out the DMSI 2026 UK Bursary Application, which will require the following:

You may be asked to create a Google account in order to fill out the application form. Bursaries will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis.

The deadline for the first round of bursary applications is 20 January 2026. Applicants will be admitted to workshops on a rolling, first-come, first-served basis until all places are filled. All award holders will be notified before the IMC registrations open in February.

Please note that the cost of lodging is not covered in the DMSI fee, and individuals arriving for DMSI should be prepared to make arrangements for accommodation accordingly. A limited number of rooms will be reserved for DMSI participants in on-campus accommodation offered by the International Medieval Congress.

For all questions and/or concerns, please contact the organisers at dmsi.hello@gmail.com.