The Digital Humanities seminar series is aimed at providing a forum for relevant Digital Humanities discussion in the region and beyond, inspiring collaboration with wider audiences about the emerging field of Digital Humanities field and University’s Digital Humanities Initiative, thus both strengthening the Digital Humanities Initiative’s established network, as well as creating a space for collaboration between universities and cross-sectoral partners at national and international levels.

Presentation

The DH seminar series is aimed at providing a forum for relevant DH discussion in the region and beyond, inspiring collaboration with wider audiences about the emerging field of DH field and University’s DH Initiative, thus both strengthening the DH Initiative’s established network, as well as creating a space for collaboration between universities and cross-sectoral partners at national and international levels.

About the DH Initiative

The DH Initiative at LNU received funding in March of 2016 as a part of the cross-faculty projects to address societal challenges and innovation. Major developments since its establishing include:

• Becoming the first Swedish university to join the largest pan-European infrastructure in Digital Humanities (DARIAH-EU);
• Organising the first international DH Symposium in Växjö;
• Co-organising the international workshop on Higher Education Programs in Digital Humanities at the 2^nd and 3^rd Nordic conference in Digital Humanities;
• Piloting the international distance course “Programming for Digital Humanities” as part of future plans for establishing the DH Master.

The Initiative is still growing with 128 members members present as of today from 19 different countries and 6 continents.

Please find more information at: https://lnu.se/en/research/searchresearch/digital-humanities/dh-seminars/.

Program

28 February 2018

Time: 13:00-14:30 Location: Dacke (Building F, Växjö)

• Media, history & archives: digitisation of archives and the influence on historical research – Helle Strandgaard Jensen

Helle Strandgaard Jensen, Associate Professor in contemporary cultural history at Aarhus University will give a talk within the emerging field of Digital Humanities (DH) that is a part of the DH seminars series hosted by the University's DH Initiative aimed at providing a forum for relevant DH discussions in the region and beyond. 

About lecturer:

Helle Strandgaard Jensen is Associate Professor in contemporary cultural history at Aarhus University. Her research focuses on contemporary media and childhood history in Scandinavia, Western Europe, and the US after 1945. She combines historical methods with theoretical approaches from cultural studies and media studies. One part of her research investigates how uses of digital media – in particular digital archives, sources, and research tools – influence the iscipline of history. The other is concerned with media productions as historical objects. Jensen received her PhD from the European University Institute in 2013. She has previously been employed as assistant professor in film and media studies at University of Copenhagen and held a number of visiting fellowships in the US and UK. She is the author of Superman to Social Realism: Children’s media and Scandinavian childhood (2017) as well as many articles and book chapters on childhood history, children’s media culture, and digital archives’ impact on historiography. 

Abstract:

Understanding how archives work has always been key to the historical profession. For centuries, historians have worked on refining their knowledge about archives and developed complex guides about their creation, content, and use. Even the most rebellious post-structural deconstructivists, who vigorously criticize the priorities of traditional archives, see knowledge about their structures as central to challenging their power. But what about digital archives? How relevant is knowledge of traditional archives in the digital age? And what use might we make of it in the broader context of digital humanities? In my talk, I explore different ways in which the production and content of digital archives exercise power in contemporary historiography. I argue that the creation, use, and content of digital archives are profoundly different from the analogue, but the critical skills used to decode the power of analogue archives are as valuable as ever. I pose two related questions: Whether the production of digital archives will lead to a re-canonization of historical research, and if specific digital structures suppress particular historiographical traditions. In considering these questions, I demonstrate how the critical skills that historians have obtained in order to understand the power of analogue archives are vital, if we want to unearth the power that their digital counterparts exert in shaping our understanding of the past, present, and future.

Registration and streaming

Seminars are streamed through Adobe Connect at the following link, https://connect.sunet.se/dhseminars/.

The Seminars are open to everyone, but we would appreciate if you would register your attendance via dh@lnu.se.