Spatial Humanities:
Texts, GIS and places

Home The project Staff Events Training Publications Related sites	This five-year project runs from 2012-16, funded by the European Research Council under a Starting Researcher Grant. The project aims to create a step-change in the way that place, space and geography are explored in the humanities. Building on Lancaster's technical expertise in Digital Humanities, Corpus Linguistics and Historical Geographical Information Systems (HGIS) and applied expertise in Lake District literature and social history, the project is developing and applying methodologies to allow unstructured texts - including books, newspapers and official reports - to be analysed in a in a manner that stresses space, place and mapping. Corpus Linguistics uses computerised techniques to summarise and analyse large bodies of text known as corpora. GIS technology allows geographical data to be mapped and analysed. By bringing these two fields together we will develop methodologies that allow us to analyse where texts are talking about, what they are saying about these places, and how this changes over time, and between authors, genres and sources. The project consists of four major parts: 1. Methodologies: GIS and the analysis of text: This will develop techniques for the analysis of texts with a GIS. These will be piloted with a range of sources including literature, guide books, newspapers and government reports. The techniques developed will be applicable to modern sources including 'born-digital' material and e-resources. 2. Analysing qualitative sources: The English Lake District: This will use the techniques that we develop to explore the different ways in which different writers have represented the Lake District and how this has changed though the 18th and 19th centuries. This will provide us with an applied test of our techniques and, more importantly, allow us to illustrate to a wide literary audience how spatial humanities approaches can make a major applied contribution to knowledge in their disciplines. 3. Bridging the quantitative/qualitative divide: Health and society in 19th and 20th century England & Wales: This will build on the lessons learnt in the preceding stages to conduct a study of how English & Welsh society changed through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by using GIS to integrate a wide range of qualitative and quantitative sources. In this way we will develop an exemplar project of using spatial humanities to integrate disparate sources of data to develop new understandings of the way that socio-economic changes affected mortality patterns. 4. Developing the skills-base in the spatial humanities: As stated above, our aim is to create a step-change in the development of the spatial humanities. For this to happen it is essential that others are able to use and enhance the approaches and methods that we are developing. To encourage this we will be sponsoring a PhD studentship, running short courses, and arranging seminars, short courses, expert meetings and hosting a major conference. These will be advertised on our events and training pages.

This five-year project runs from 2012-16, funded by the European Research Council under a Starting Researcher Grant. The project aims to create a step-change in the way that place, space and geography are explored in the humanities. Building on Lancaster's technical expertise in Digital Humanities, Corpus Linguistics and Historical Geographical Information Systems (HGIS) and applied expertise in Lake District literature and social history, the project is developing and applying methodologies to allow unstructured texts - including books, newspapers and official reports - to be analysed in a in a manner that stresses space, place and mapping. Corpus Linguistics uses computerised techniques to summarise and analyse large bodies of text known as corpora. GIS technology allows geographical data to be mapped and analysed. By bringing these two fields together we will develop methodologies that allow us to analyse where texts are talking about, what they are saying about these places, and how this changes over time, and between authors, genres and sources.

The project consists of four major parts:

1. Methodologies: GIS and the analysis of text: This will develop techniques for the analysis of texts with a GIS. These will be piloted with a range of sources including literature, guide books, newspapers and government reports. The techniques developed will be applicable to modern sources including 'born-digital' material and e-resources.

2. Analysing qualitative sources: The English Lake District: This will use the techniques that we develop to explore the different ways in which different writers have represented the Lake District and how this has changed though the 18th and 19th centuries. This will provide us with an applied test of our techniques and, more importantly, allow us to illustrate to a wide literary audience how spatial humanities approaches can make a major applied contribution to knowledge in their disciplines.

3. Bridging the quantitative/qualitative divide: Health and society in 19th and 20th century England & Wales: This will build on the lessons learnt in the preceding stages to conduct a study of how English & Welsh society changed through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by using GIS to integrate a wide range of qualitative and quantitative sources. In this way we will develop an exemplar project of using spatial humanities to integrate disparate sources of data to develop new understandings of the way that socio-economic changes affected mortality patterns.

4. Developing the skills-base in the spatial humanities: As stated above, our aim is to create a step-change in the development of the spatial humanities. For this to happen it is essential that others are able to use and enhance the approaches and methods that we are developing. To encourage this we will be sponsoring a PhD studentship, running short courses, and arranging seminars, short courses, expert meetings and hosting a major conference. These will be advertised on our events and training pages.

Spatial Humanities: Texts, GIS and places

Spatial Humanities:
Texts, GIS and places