Digital Humanism InitiativeDigital Humanism – 2nd International Interdisciplinary Research Conference10 – 12 March 2027
About the Conference
Digital technologies are transforming our world at an unprecedented pace, shaping societies, economies, and cultures. Digital Humanism is constituted by a specific view on these technologies and their implications. It rejects widespread interpretations of software systems as genuine agents, endowed with mental states, intentionality, insight and empathy. Only humans are responsible for what they do and believe, not digital machines. Successful simulation of human behavior in generative AI, artificial general intelligence or humanoid robots must not be confused with the realization of personhood.
Digital Humanism is about using digital technologies as means for a better future: better workplaces, better education, higher productivity, less consumption of natural resources, less poverty etc. It strives to strengthen the human capacity to shape the conditions of a humane life on earth.
Addressing the challenges of the digital age requires collaboration across disciplines. The “Digital Humanism – 2nd International Interdisciplinary Research Conference” builds on the Digital Humanism Initiative, an international collaboration dedicated to fostering a community of scholars, policymakers, and industry leaders committed to ensuring that technological development remains centered on human values and interests.
The conference invites contributions from a broad spectrum of disciplines ranging from computer science, social sciences, economics, the humanities to philosophy. Topics include AI ethics, governance and regulation, privacy and digital rights, participatory approaches, the economics of digitization, human-centered AI, environmental impacts, the design and evaluation of AI and other software systems for the social good, and novel technologies for meaningful human-AI collaboration.
We welcome a wide range of research methodologies, from technical and empirical studies to philosophical reflections and theoretical considerations fostering a shared humanistic understanding that bridges technical, societal, political, and cultural perspectives.
Join us in Munich to engage in this crucial conversation and help shape the future of digital technologies based on humanistic values and norms for the benefit of all.
The Bavarian Research Institute for Digital Transformation (bidt) is pleased to welcome you as the host of the “Digital Humanism – 2nd International Interdisciplinary Research Conference” taking place in Munich, Germany, from March 10 to March 12, 2027.
Call for Papers: Digital Humanism
We welcome contributions from all disciplines.
Digitization is one of the most transformative technological developments in human history, comparable to the impact of agriculture, industrialization, and electrification. It is reshaping cultural, economic, and social life in profound ways. Early optimism surrounding the digital age — including hopes for greater freedom, participation, and global democracy through the World Wide Web — has increasingly been accompanied by concerns about the erosion of democratic institutions, the decline of public discourse, social fragmentation, and the growing influence of artificial intelligence. Between utopian enthusiasm and apocalyptic fears, Digital Humanism offers a third perspective: technological progress is neither autonomous nor inevitable, but fundamentally shaped by human decisions and responsibilities.
Digital Humanism rests on two central critiques. First, it rejects “digital animism,” the tendency to attribute personhood, intentionality, or moral capacities to digital systems. While AI systems may convincingly simulate reasoning, emotions, or empathy, simulation must not be confused with genuine consciousness or moral agency. Second, it opposes “digital mechanism,” the reduction of human beings to computational systems. Humans are not machines; they are embodied, vulnerable, empathetic, and capable of cooperation, moral reflection, and self-transcendence in ways that cannot be reduced to software processes.
Rather than interpreting humans as machines or machines as persons, Digital Humanism emphasizes the distinctiveness of human beings and advocates the responsible use of digital technologies to expand human capabilities and social well-being. A humane technological development should strengthen human agency, democratic participation, and social inclusion, while contributing to economic progress, ecological sustainability, and the preservation of human dignity.
For orientation, we recommend consulting central texts on Digital Humanism, including:
Submissions to the call for papers
The “Digital Humanism – 2nd International Interdisciplinary Research Conference” invites submissions of extended abstracts (3–4 pages, excluding references). Authors are asked to indicate whether they intend to submit a short paper (6–11 pages) or a long paper (up to 15 pages).
Submission Deadline for extended Abstracts: July 15, 2026.
Notification of acceptance will be issued by End of October 2026.
Short and full papers are due by March 26, 2027.
Accepted contributions will be published as an Open Access volume in Springer’s Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series, scheduled for publication in July 2027. All submissions must follow the Springer LNCS guidelines
Call for Sub-Session Proposals
We also invite researchers to submit proposals for thematically focused and curated sub-sessions on digital humanism.
These sub-sessions are intended to complement the conference program with thematic deep dives, new perspectives, and experimental spaces for discussion.
The aim of the sub-sessions is to address specific research questions of digital humanism and to discuss them in a clearly focused and interdisciplinary setting. Thematically, the sub-sessions are deliberately open and may address a variety of technical, theoretical, empirical, or methodological approaches, provided there is a clear and coherent connection to digital humanism.
Sub-sessions should be conceived as self-contained thematic units. In addition to classic presentation and discussion formats, interactive or dialogical formats are also welcome, such as roundtables, author-meets-critics sessions, paper discussion formats, or other innovative formats. Each sub-session will have a duration of 45 minutes and may be conducted in English.
In the case of acceptance, applicants will serve as sub-session chairs and will be responsible for coordinating the participating contributors.
We look forward to your sub-session proposals!
The sub-session proposal should be approximately 2–3 pages long and include the following elements:
1. Title and thematic description of the sub-session
2. Planned format and schedule of the session
3. Overall concept of the sub-session, including:
- planned contributions
- names of (invited or confirmed) speakers (including institutional affiliations)
- short abstracts of individual contributions (where applicable)
4. Names of the responsible initiators, who will act as sub-session chairs
Sub-sessions will be selected by the chairs. Key criteria include scientific quality and innovativeness, thematic fit with the conference, and the interdisciplinary relevance of the overall concept.
Sub-sessions will be selected by the chairs. Key criteria include scientific quality and innovativeness, thematic fit with the conference, and the interdisciplinary relevance of the overall concept.
Submission Deadline: July 15, 2026
Notification of acceptance will be issued by End of October 2026.
Chairs of accepted sub-sessions are required to submit a summary of the discussion after the conference that is due by March 26, 2027. Contributions will be published as an Open Access volume in Springer’s Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series, scheduled for publication in July 2027. All submissions must follow the Springer LNCS guidelines.
Teams
Chairs
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Julian Nida-Rümelin
Member of bidt's Board of Directors, Professor emeritus of Philosophy and Political Theory | Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich
Prof. Bashar Nuseibeh
Executive Dean of the School of Science & Technology, City St George’s, University of London
Area Chairs
The program committee designs form and content of the conference. Additional area chairs help to cover a wide spectrum of disciplines and support the reviewing process.
Sociology
Communication Science
PD Dr. Angela Graf
Research Staff Unit, Research Coordinator “Economy and Labour” and Research Project Leader, bidt
Prof. Dr. Hannah Schmid-Petri
Member of bidt's Board of Directors | Chair of Science Communication, University of Passau
Strategic Management and Innovation
Law
Prof. Dr. Max Schlereth
Strategic Management and Innovation, University of Applied Sciences St. Pölten
Prof. Dr. Dirk Heckmann
Member of bidt's Board of Directors | Chair of Law and Security in Digital Transformation, Technical University of Munich
Political Science
Cognitive Science
Prof. Dr. Andreas Jungherr
Member of bidt's Board of Directors | Professor of Political Science esp. Digital Transformation, University of Bamberg
Dr. Maria Staudte
Research Coordinator “Generative AI” | Head of Early Career Support Programmes, bidt
Sociology
PD Dr. Angela Graf
Research Staff Unit, Research Coordinator “Economy and Labour” and Research Project Leader, bidt
Communication Science
Prof. Dr. Hannah Schmid-Petri
Member of bidt's Board of Directors | Chair of Science Communication, University of Passau
Strategic Management and Innovation
Prof. Dr. Max Schlereth
Strategic Management and Innovation, University of Applied Sciences St. Pölten
Law
Prof. Dr. Dirk Heckmann
Member of bidt's Board of Directors | Chair of Law and Security in Digital Transformation, Technical University of Munich
Political Science
Prof. Dr. Andreas Jungherr
Member of bidt's Board of Directors | Professor of Political Science esp. Digital Transformation, University of Bamberg
Cognitive Science
Dr. Maria Staudte
Research Coordinator “Generative AI” | Head of Early Career Support Programmes, bidt
Steering Committee
The steering committee of the Digital Humanism Initiative reflects the broad range of disciplines involved and highlights the diversity of perspectives that contribute to shaping the field of Digital Humanism.
- Prof. em. Dr. Hans Akkermans (Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam)
- Prof. Dr. Ricardo Baeza-Yates (Northwestern University, Evanston)
- Dr. Anna Bon (Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam)
- Prof. Dr. Noshir Contractor (Northwestern University, Evanston)
- Prof. em. Dr. Carlo Ghezzi (Politecnico di Milano)
- Dr. Ludger Hagedorn (IWM, Vienna)
- Prof. Dr. Lynda Hardman (CWI, Amsterdam; Utrecht University)
- Prof. Dr. Manfred Hauswirth (Technical University, Berlin; Weizenbaum Institute, Berlin)
- Prof. Dr. Paola Inverardi (Università dell’Aquila)
- Prof. Dr. Peter Knees (TU, Vienna)
- Prof. Dr. Sabine Köszegi (TU, Vienna)
- Prof. em. Dr. Jeff Kramer (Imperial College, London)
- Prof. em. Dr. James Larus (École Polytechnique Fédérale, Lausanne)
- Prof. Dr. Edward A. Lee (UC, Berkeley)
- Prof. Dr. Nadia Magnenat Thalmann (MIRALab, University of Geneva)
- Prof. em. Dr. George Metakides (Digital Enlightenment Forum, Waterford)
- Dr. Carine Mukamakuza (Carnegie Mellon University Africa, Kigali)
- Prof. Dr. Enrico Nardelli (University of Roma ‘Tor Vergata’)-
- Dr. Julia Neidhardt (TU, Vienna)
- Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Nejdl (Leibniz Universität & Forschungszentrum L3S, Hannover)
- Dr. Clara Neppel (IEEE, Vienna)
- Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Julian Nida-Rümelin (LMU, Munich)
- Prof. em. Dr. Helga Nowotny (European Research Council, Brussels)
- Prof. em. Dr. Bashar Nuseibeh (The Open University, Milton Keynes)
- Dr. Erich Prem (eutema & TU, Vienna)
- Prof. Dr. Francesco Ricci (Free University of Bozen-Bolzano)
- Prof. Dr. Marc Rotenberg (Center for AI and Digital Policy, Washington)
- Prof. Dr. Viola Schiaffonati (Politecnico di Milano)
- Prof. Dr. Ute Schmid (University of Bamberg)
- Prof. em. Dr. Joseph Sifakis (Université Grenoble Alpes)
- Prof. Dr. Allison Stanger (Middlebury College)
- Klaus Staudacher (Bavarian Research Institute for Digital Transformation (bidt), Munich)
- Prof. Dr. Paul Timmers (Oxford University; Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven)
- Prof. Dr. Moshe Y. Vardi (Rice University, Texas)
- Prof. Dr. Toby Walsh (University of New South Wales, Sydney)
- Prof. Dr. Christiane Wendehorst (University of Vienna)
- Prof. Dr. Hannes Werthner (TU, Vienna)
- Dr. Susan J. Winter (University of Maryland; College of Information, Maryland)
- Prof. Dr. Stefan Woltran (TU, Vienna)
- Dr. Niina Zuber (Bavarian Research Institute for Digital Transformation (bidt), Munich)
Program
The preliminary program for the “Digital Humanism – 2nd International Interdisciplinary Research Conference” is expected to be available in this section in November 2026.
Contact & Registration
Contact & Registration
Please note that on-site registration will not be possible. If you need to update your existing registration details, you can still do so via eveeno.
Do you have any questions or comments? Feel free to contact us at any time.
You can also find us on social media
Registration Fees & Payment
- Early registration bidt* (until Dec 31, 2026): 70 €
- Early registration (until Dec 31, 2026): 100 €
- Late registration bidt* (from Jan 1, 2027): 100 €
- Late registration (from Jan 1, 2027): 130 €
* The bidt network includes early-career researchers, researchers involved in ongoing bidt-funded projects as well as alumni from bidt-funded projects.
Please note that payment must be made via eeveno.
Cancellations made before January 1, 2027, are eligible for a refund minus a 10% administrative fee.
A cancellation made between January 1, 2027 and February 21, 2027, will incur a cancellation fee of 60 €.
No refunds will be given for cancellations made after February 21, 2027.
Please send an email to dighum2@bidt.digital to cancel your participation.
We can offer a limited number of registration fee waivers, for selected speakers, who have no subsidy from the institution, for participants from the global south and students from Bavarian universities.
If you would like to request a registration fee waiver, please do not register via EasyChair. Instead, send an email to dighum2@bidt.digital.
Each paper needs one of its authors to be registered (and paid).
- Attendance at all invited talks and paper presentations
- Lunches and coffee breaks at the conference venue
- Experience the friendly and informal atmosphere of the conference, designed to foster meaningful connections and long-term collaborations across continents and research
Location & Further Information
Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BAdW)
Alfons-Goppel-Straße 11
80539 Munich
Getting there by public transport
S-Bahn: Marienplatz stop (all S-Bahn lines)
Underground: Odeonsplatz station (U3, U4, U5, U6)
Tram: Nationaltheater stop (trams 19, 21)
Parking
As there are no parking spaces available at the academy, we recommend travelling by public transport.
Exploring Munich – Ambassador’s Program
The Bavarian Research Institute of Digital Transformation (bidt) will guide groups on the evening of March 11. Participants can join a group by signing up on a board, for example for activities such as having burgers or visiting a Bavarian restaurant. Participants cover their own expenses.
Downloads & Links
Here you will find downloads and links relating to the “Digital Humanism – 2nd International Interdisciplinary Research Conference”.