The Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIST, successfully hosted a three-day national conference titled Code, Culture and Critique: New Junctures in Digital Humanities from 11–13 June 2025. The event brought together 60 delegates from institutions across India, fostering an interdisciplinary dialogue at the intersection of digital tools and humanistic inquiry. The conference featured six plenary talks by scholars of national and international repute, who addressed themes such as AI and memory, multilingual open science, digital spectatorship, and critical AI studies. The event also included a hands-on workshop on OpenRefine. Parallel sessions across multiple venues, and a panel discussion on eye-tracking in film studies, all of which explored emerging areas like algorithmic aesthetics, digital folklore, posthuman labor, and cultural archiving.

Aligned with the National Education Policy’s vision of interdisciplinarity and digital transformation, the conference emphasized collaborative research, infrastructural challenges, and the need for inclusive digital practices. A roundtable on “Early Career Voices in DH” shed light on the structural and institutional hurdles faced by young scholars in India. The event concluded with a valedictory session graced by Prof. Dipankar Banerjee (Vice Chancellor, IIST), Prof. Kuruvilla Joseph (Registrar and Dean Academics), and Prof. Ravi V. (Head, Department of HSS), along with plenary speakers and participants. Through intellectual engagement and thoughtful hospitality, the conference marked a significant step toward shaping the future of digital humanities in the Indian academic landscape