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Call for papers: Forward Linking with Respect and Equity

Submission Deadline: January 15, 2026

The “Forward Linking with Respect and Equity” conference will be held in K’jipuktuk (Halifax), May 28 and 29, 2026, organized by Stacy Allison-Cassin, DalhousieUniversity, with Camille Callison, NIKLA and the Respectful Terminology Platform Project and with Susan Brown, University of Guelph.

The Respectful Terminology Platform Project (RTPP) is a dynamic expression of Indigenous data sovereignty designed to create a more just and equitable society. Guided by Indigenous protocols and governance, it is creating a collaborative online platform featuring a dynamic, multilingual collection of terminologies related to Indigenous Peoples, places, heritage, traditions, knowledge systems, and cultures. The platform will support community-created controlled vocabularies through a suite of tools and a linked data hub supporting a variety of input and output formats, including linked data.

The Forward Linking partnership brings together providers of online cultural heritage with information professionals and digital scholarship experts to create a path towards a vibrant, sustainable cultural data ecosystem based on linked data to make cultural linked data in Canada more amenable to research and scholarly insights.

Materials on the websites of galleries, libraries, archives, museums (GLAM) often suffer from outdated or harmful colonial descriptions, and they remain woefully siloed from each other and from much-needed Indigenous and scholarly contexts. Respectful terminologies are essential to linking these materials ethically and responsibly. “Forward Linking with Respect and Equity” provides opportunities for both communities to share insights and advances to date and to come together based on mutual interests in linked open data, culture, GLAM, publishing, ethics, openness, diversity, inclusion, and infrastructure.

Keywords: Ethics; Indigenous Knowledges; Indigenous Data Sovereignty; Access Protocols; Linked Data; Artificial Intelligence; Indigenous AI; Metadata; Cultural data.

We invite proposals for posters/digital demonstrations, panels, short papers, or full papers, and we welcome suggestions for alternate formats, including workshops, remote panels, and artistic interventions, with a preference for in-person contributions.

Potential topics include the following:

  • Linked data and Traditional/Indigenous Knowledges
  • CARE and OCAP principles in relation to linked data
  • Data custodianship and repatriation in a linked data context
  • Linked data and intersectional identities
  • Linked data for diversity, reconciliation, and social justice
  • Linked open usable data (LOUD)
  • Linked data projects and initiatives from Canada and beyond
  • Considerations of accessibility and sustainability of data and infrastructure
  • Sovereignty of data, software, and infrastructures
  • Humanities research on the Semantic Web (specific projects, ideas, datasets)
  • Linking cultural heritage data
  • Persistent identifiers and data reuse
  • Linked library metadata applications and challenges from the galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAM) sector
  • Storage, versioning, and preservation of linked data
  • Search, browse, and serendipitous discovery
  • Artificial intelligence and linked data
  • Ethics, privacy, and access implications of linked data
  • Evidence, provenance, and context in linked open data
  • Interface design for linked data-enabled research and knowledge creation
  • Practical strategies, tools, and workflows for creating and refining linked data
  • Challenges and opportunities within the linked data ecosystem

Program committee: Stacy Allison-Cassin (Dalhousie University/NIKLA/RTPP), Camille Callison (University of the Fraser Valley/NIKLA/RTPP), Susan Brown (University of Guelph), Constance Crompton (University of Ottawa), and Kim Martin (University of Guelph).

Please submit proposals through this form by January 15th.