【Academic Forum】Academic Forum on Digital Humanities: Opportunities and Challenges Successfully Held

On May 16, Wuhan University hosted an academic forum commemorating the eighth anniversary of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important "5.17" speech, titled "Digital Humanities: Opportunities and Challenges."

Li Gang, Dean of the Wuhan Institute of Data Intelligence, delivered a keynote speech on "Development Strategies for Digital Social Sciences at Wuhan University," emphasizing the need to actively create smart decision-making platforms, shape intelligent innovation spaces, and promote digital talent cultivation. He advocated for the development of interdisciplinary research teams and the cultivation of high-end social science talents with digital literacy and skills aligned with high-quality development needs. Wang Xiaoguang, Director of the Ministry of Education's Philosophy and Social Sciences Laboratory for Intelligent Computing of Cultural Heritage, delivered a keynote speech on "Digital Performance Theater: A Methodology for Digital Humanities Experiments," proposing that the digital humanities experimental paradigm requires novel philosophical and social science methodologies, scientific devices, and digital platforms to support it, continually expanding the breadth and depth of research in the digital era, and promoting the mutual empowerment of digital and humanities fields.

Associate Professor Zhou Wei from the School of Law, Associate Professor Wang Yubo from the School of Chinese Language and Literature, Professor Yu Feng from the Institute of Frontier and Interdisciplinary Studies, Associate Professor Yu Hongwei from the Institute of Quality Development Strategy, Associate Professor Fang Yingfeng from the School of Economics and Management, and Professor Yu Laiming from the Center for Traditional Chinese Culture Studies shared their thoughts on digital humanities development from various disciplinary perspectives.

In his concluding remarks, Shen Zhuanghai highly praised the forum, noting that conducting cross-disciplinary dialogues around important topics at crucial moments can achieve good results in building consensus, boosting morale, and guiding the future. After the forum, participants visited Wuhan University's Laboratory for Intelligent Computing of Cultural Heritage, the Digital Performance Theater, and the Smart Decision-Making and Innovation Space.

(Reporters: Qi Tian, Sun Huadong, and Fang Ruzhen, Photographer: Huang Wenjun)