[Colloq] Professor Gibbs Talk Announcement

[Nicole Bekerian]

Good Morning, 
Attached and below is a talk announcement for Professor Gibbs.


PERSPECTIVES ON THE DIGITAL HUMANITIES
Professor Frederick Gibbs Department of History, George Mason University

Mining and Mapping History
TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2012 11:45-1:15 PM
325 BEHRAKIS HALL

As technological sophistication permeates humanistic inquiry and analysis, it reshapes both the scale and the kind of historical questions we can now ask. This is especially true as access to unprecedented amounts of data creates new research opportunities and challenges. This talk will explore the results of two ongoing projects in which new technologies and methodologies have facilitated novel approaches to making sense of the historical record.
One project employs the vast digital library of Google Books to reexamine Walter Houghton's characterizations of the Victorians from his seminal The Victorian Frame of Mind (1957). Instead of surveying only the well-known literary canon as Houghton did, browsing the thousands of lesser-known authors adds considerable nuance to his interpretations and sometimes contradicts them. Another project maps botanical expeditions to reveal collecting patterns that would otherwise remain invisible. Spatial analysis provides an important complement to the textual record of these expeditions, and suggests new questions about the commercial and political motives of these collection efforts. More broadly, these projects illustrate how the digital humanities are not only reshaping research practices, but also blurring disciplinary boundaries and transforming the representation of historical knowledge.
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Best, 
Nicole 

______________________________________________________________ 

Nicole Bekerian 
Administrative Assistant 

Northeastern University 
College of Computer and Information Science 
360 Huntington Ave. 
202 West Village H 
Boston, MA 02115 

Phone: 617.373.2462 
Fax: 617.373.5121 

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