Examining the digital humanities as a site and ‘peoplescape’ of collecting.

Описание: Julianne Nyhan is Professor of Humanities Data Science and Methodology at the Institut für Geschichte, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany. She remains a part-time Professor of Digital Humanities at UCL, where she leads the Towards a National Collection AHRC-funded project ‚The Sloane Lab: Looking back to build future shared collections‘. A Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, she was formerly the Deputy- and Director of the UCL Centre for Digital Humanities (2018-2021) and Director of UCL’s MA/MSc in Digital Humanities (2017-2021). Her primary research interest is in the history of digital humanities, an area in which she has published widely. Her most recent book Hidden and Devalued Feminized Labour in the Digital Humanities: On the Index Thomisticus Project 1954-67 is published by Routledge.

Abstract

Examining the digital humanities as a site and ‘peoplescape’ of collecting and collections

The act of collecting and the making of collections are surely among the most fundamental and most enduring of human actions. Collections, whether of analogue things or of digital data, offer us a rich and complex landscape to explore all aspects of what it has meant, what it now means and what it might in time mean to be human. Through collections, individually and at scale, we encounter all manner of human agency, wonder, curiosity, taxonomic impulse and even cruelty. And even if it seems paradoxical, through collections we also encounter absence, loss and bias. The absences that haunt collections and the documentation that describes them grant important insights into the subjectivities that have shaped collections and their documentation over the longer term, raising questions about whose agency was and was not acknowledged in the creation of a given collection, and the grounds on which such decisions were made. Examining the digital humanities as a site and ‘peoplescape’ of collecting and collections, this lecture will draw on the research Nyhan has conducted on this over the past years, reflecting also on the 'grand challenges' of collections and absence for digital humanities.

Inaugural Lecture Series 2022-23

This lecture is part of the 2022/23 series for UCL's Faculty of Arts & Humanities and Faculty of Social & Historical Sciences. The series provides an opportunity to recognise and celebrate the achievements of our professors who are undertaking research and scholarship of international significance, and offers an insight into the strength and vitality of the arts, humanities and social sciences at UCL. All our lectures are free to attend and open to all. You don't have to be a UCL staff member or student to come along. Lectures begin at 18:30 and are typically one hour long. A drinks reception will follow, to which everyone is welcome to join. We look forward to meeting you at one of our events. For information on other upcoming lectures please visit: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/social-historic...