Playing Heaven: Remapping Early Modern Neo-Confucian Worlds with AI
28 July 2026Mini-Conference, DH2026 Pre-Conference Event
About
This mini-conference invites intellectual historians, specialists in early modern East Asia, and scholars in the digital humanities to present 20-minute papers on the effective application of artificial intelligence to the study of the history of ideas, cultural history, and multilingual historical research.
“Playing Heaven” is an inter-university collaboration based in Hong Kong and Singapore and one of the inaugural recipients of the Schmidt Sciences Humanities and AI Virtual Institute (HAVI) grant. The project seeks to rethink the intellectual and cultural history of early modern East Asia through the development of a domain-specific AI system. Rather than treating philosophical schools, literary traditions, and cultural practices as fixed categories, the project approaches them as historically contingent formations shaped by processes of transmission, adaptation, and reinterpretation.
This DH2026 mini-conference constitutes the second part of the Playing Heaven team’s project launch. The first launch event is scheduled to be held at the University of Hong Kong on 1 June 2026.
Call for Papers
Abstract length: Up to 500 words in English (excluding bibliography)
Format: PDF
Submission deadline: 21 April 2026, 23:59 (anywhere on Earth)
Notification of acceptance: 30 April 2026
Submissions will be evaluated on the basis of originality, rigour, and significance. Selected contributors will be required to register for DH2026.