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On Saturday, January 10, 2026, Keio University co-hosted an international symposium titled "Digital Humanities in Global Context: Critical Approaches to Data, Archives, and Identity" at Mita Campus's North Annex.

This symposium was organized jointly by the Keio University Graduate School of Letters and SOAS University of London as part of an initiative to foster academic cooperation in the digital humanities (DH) field. It followed a previous symposium held at SOAS in London on March 7, 2025, titled "Pathways to the Future: A Digital Humanities Symposium."

In his opening remarks, Professor Noriyuki Harada (Dean of the Graduate School of Letters and Professor at the Faculty of Letters, Keio University) expressed hope that, as the rapid spread of generative AI dramatically reshapes the humanities' place in the world, this symposium would feature presentations and rigorous discourse on a diverse selection of research topics.

First, budding researchers and graduate students with a wide range of specialties explored the potential of the digital humanities in a two-part research presentation moderated by Dr. Marcus Gilroy-Ware (SOAS School of Arts) and Professor Mari Agata (Keio University Faculty of Letters).

Next, Dr. Gilroy-Ware delivered a lecture about the role that the digital humanities should play going forward in a rapidly changing digital society where new technology has brought about significant social progress, but also opened up new geopolitical risks such as cyberattacks, put pressure on the environment, and concentrated power in the hands of a few big tech corporations. In the following segment, Professor Kiyonori Nagasaki (Keio University Faculty of Letters) and the president of the global Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations (ADHO), Professor Lauren Tilton (University of Richmond), shared the latest developments from across the global DH community network in both Japan and abroad, highlighting the contributions of organizations such as the Japanese Association for Digital Humanities (JADH), the ADHO, and the Association for Computers and the Humanities (ACH).

In his closing remarks, Professor Motohiro Tsuchiya (Vice-President for Global Engagement, Keio University) offered his thanks to everyone who participated, in a meaningful conclusion to a day of successful academic cooperation.

*SOAS is one of Keio University's key student exchange partner institutions, and also participates in the Program for Forming Japan's Peak Research Universities (J-PEAKS), a national initiative that Keio was selected to join in 2023.