The Digital Turn and Global History – HUM:Global at University of Exeter
On 19 April, HUM:Global Director Haakon Andreas Ikonomou and PPG member Gunvor Simonsen together with Stuart Ward (SAXO), Daniel Steinbach (SAXO, Head of the Global Cluster) were part of a delegation of global historians who met with historians of the University of Exeter to discuss the digital turn in global history. The Centre for Imperial and Global History at the University of Exeter hosted the workshop.
Although digital Humanities is relatively recently in focus at universities across the globe, “humanities computing” has been growing over the past 40 years with the creation of digital archives and databases for artworks, texts and such. Here at the University of Copenhagen, Digital Humanities is developing along with the field and, since 2021, offers a range of services to students and researchers (see DigiLabs).
The trip to Exeter was a great opportunity for HUM:Global to connect with colleagues in the UK. As well as a guided tour of the Digital Humanities Lab of the University of Exeter (see the photos below), the historians shared presentations of current and recently concluded digital global history research projects at the two universities and had fruitful discussions on future collaboration and common research interests.
Our key takeaways from the visit were:
- New projects and partnerships should address the challenge of digital equity and accessibility.
- For this, mindfulness of the risk that new global digital projects create or uphold silences and blankspots as much as they create new perspectives and break down barriers.
- Strategic digital partnerships across universities are crucial to develop large-scale projects.
- Creating teams that straddle the humanities – computer science divide require long term strategic investments in infrastructure and projects.
See the Imperial Global Forum blog about the visit