DHSITE 2025: making with/in the public

making with/in the public will take place from 14-17 October, 2025, at the University of Ottawa. This gathering brings together scholars, students, activists, and community members to explore how digital tools and intersectional feminist practices can support advocacy, public scholarship, and ethical research.

The event’s theme invites participants to reflect on three interconnected approaches to digital work: making as inquiry, as relational, and as a mode of engaging with/in the public. Through hands-on workshops, roundtables, and keynotes, participants will learn not only how to analyze and create digital media, but also how to build collaborative and caring practices that respond to urgent social issues in public-facing ways.

This year, DHSITE partners with the Digital Feminist Network, a SSHRC-funded collective of feminist digital humanities labs, to co-host their annual summit. Together, we examine how scholars create meaningful public-facing work while navigating the risks of online engagement, including technology-facilitated gender-based violence.

The schedule is listed below (all events in eastern standard time zone). Click on the link for each date to redirect to presentation and session descriptions.

Unable to join us in person? Register to attend the workshops and keynote presentations virtually. Virtual options indicated in the session description.

Registration is now closed. Questions? Email dhnarts@uOttawa.ca.

Day 1: Tuesday, October 14

  • 9:30-10:30: Opening Keynote Presentation — « Quand la violence en ligne perturbe l’accès à l’actualité : analyse féministe de résistances quotidiennes » by Lena Hübner (University of Ottawa)
  • 11:00-12:00: Discussion Group — Feminist Organizing with Shana MacDonald and Brianna Wiens (University of Waterloo)
  • 13:30-16:30: Workshop 1 — Pixel Party: Collaging at Scale with Nick Ruest (York University)

Day 2: Wednesday, October 15

  • 9:00-10:30: Micro-lesson — “Unplugging Hitler’s Radio: Lessons from Historical Anti-Polarization Campaigns” with L.K. Bertram (University of Toronto)
  • 11:00-12:00: — Breaking Trust: On Ethics, Archiving and Indigenous Records with Brenda Macdougall (University of Ottawa)
  • 13:30-16:30: Workshop 2 — Les éditathons Wikipédia comme mode de création de communauté with Pascale Dangoisse (University of Ottawa and Wikipedia)

Day 3: Thursday, October 16

  • 9:00-12:00: Workshop 3 — Whisper it Out: Audio-to-Text Decoded with Nick Ruest (York University)
  • 13:30-16:30: Student-led research presentations — presenters announced in early October!
  • 17:00-19:00: Reading Group — discussion about the April 1977 Combahee River Collective Statement

Day 4: Friday, October 17

  • 9:00-10:30: Oral History Presentation — Women in STEM Oral History by Marina Bokovay and Meghan Tibbits-Larimande from the University of Ottawa Library’s Archives and Special Collections
  • 11:00-12:00: Closing Keynote Presentation — “Studying Digital Harm” by Jaigris Hodson (Royal Roads University)
  • 13:30-16:30: Oral History Working Group — Conversation led by University of Ottawa research node of the Digital Feminist Network

All artwork for making with/in the public was designed by Roxanne Lafleur.