SIG-DLS Charter

Scope and objectives

The Digital Literary Stylistics Special Interest Group (SIG-DLS) is part of the Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations (ADHO). Its regulation is determined by this document, in conjunction with the ADHO SIG protocol (https://adho.org/sigs/sigs-protocol/).

The SIG-DLS brings together researchers from different perspectives to discuss theoretical, methodological and technical issues related to style analysis of digital texts, organising events and initiatives. The SIG-DLS is a platform fostering the study of style in any type of discourse, register, and genre. Although the central focus is on aspects of literary discourse, this research also includes the study of non-literary texts.

The SIG-DLS sees itself providing a core “DH” service – enabling cutting-edge research at the interface of hermeneutic and “computational” communities. The group supports the development of text analysis pipelines, fosters tool and methods critique, encourages use of community hubs such as GitHub, supports building and sharing corpora, as well as the development of a shared conceptual and technical vocabulary to ensure that scholars taking distinct disciplinary approaches to style can grow from and build on one another’s work.

The SIG-DLS aims to be a lightweight organisation with a global outlook. Infrastructural activities are beyond the scope of this SIG.

Creation

The SIG-DLS was initially constituted of the 30 members endorsing the original proposal (July 2017). A steering committee has been instituted to manage the SIG, and voted by majority.

Organisation

The SIG-DLS is run by a steering committee of 5 people, elected by the majority of SIG members. The steering committee will decide on any initiative that should either be carried out by the SIG or have the SIG endorsement. To coordinate activities, a chair and a vice-chair will be appointed from among the members of the steering committee.

Each member will be in charge for a maximum of 3 years. After the end of the mandate, the member can run for re-elections. The elections are organised by the steering committees every time a member’s mandate runs out. They are carried out in a two-step procedure: first, self-nominations are collected via email; second, candidates’ statements are published on the SIG website and votes are collected online. In case the number of candidates equals the number of seats available, candidates are elected directly, without the need for a vote. 

The steering committee is in charge of the main activities of the SIG, but can delegate other SIG-members for specific tasks.

Main activities

  • Liaise with ADHO
    • provide input when required
    • promote relevant ADHO events to its members
    • write annual report
  • Organise a yearly event (in conjunction with the DH conference)
  • Communication and documentation
    • Keep and update the website
    • Maintain a mailing list for members
  • Liaison with other initiatives 
    • Collect info on relevant initiatives and publications and signal them via website and or mailing list
    • Evaluate and (if relevant) endorse/support relevant projects and initiatives by members and non members

In addition to these core tasks, the SIG-DLS supports all relevant initiatives that may come from SIG-DLS members (workshops, projects, publications…). To this purpose, special committees may be appointed. 

Membership

The SIG-DLS aims at maximum inclusivity, and is open to members from any country in the world and within or outside academia.

All interested people can apply for membership by subscribing to the SIG mailing list. Subscription requests will have to be approved by the SIG chair and vice-chair, who will be responsible for moderating activities.

For privacy reasons, the names of the members will not be published on the SIG website.