Lancaster University Summer Schools
Lancaster University is pleased to offer free training events that cover the techniques of corpus linguistics, computational analysis of language and geographical information systems (see the description of the individual schools below). The schools include both lectures and practical sessions that introduce the latest developments in the field and practical applications of cutting-edge analytical techniques. The summer schools are taught by leading experts in the field both from Lancaster University and other institutions.
The summer schools are intended primarily for postgraduate research students but applications from Masters-level students, postdoctoral researchers, senior researchers, and others will also be considered.
Digital Humanities: GIS and English Studies
This workshop aimed to provide a basic introduction to Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology and its integration in English studies research.
The use of GIS across the humanities has increased over the past decade. Still, the application of GIS in the disciplines of English studies has been limited by the specialised nature of most forms of GIS software, and the consequent lack of understanding among scholars of both how GIS technology works and how it can be adapted to meet the needs of English studies research. The key aims of this workshop were:
- To provide a basic overview of GIS software and data;
- To demonstrate what the use of GIS can bring to English studies;
- To showcase the key affordances of GIS technology, particularly its capacity to integrate, analyse and visualise data from many different types of sources;
- To demonstrate the limitations of GIS, and thus to encourage a more informed and nuanced understanding of the technology.
The speakers were:
- Ian Gregory, Lancaster University – GIS in/and Humanities Research
- Clare Egan, Lancaster University – Mapping Early Modern Performance Records using GIS
- Joanna Taylor, Lancaster University – GIS and Close Reading
- Patricia Murrieta-Flores, University of Chester – What Can GIS and Other Technologies Tell Us about Place and Space in Medieval Romance?
GIS in the Digital Humanities – Free One-day Workshop: 14 September 2016
This free workshop, sponsored by the European Research Council’s Spatial Humanities: Texts, GIS, Places project and the Leverhulme Trust’s Geospatial Innovation in the Digital Humanities, and hosted by Lancaster University, provided a basic introduction to GIS both as an approach to academic study and as a technology. Please see here for more details about the workshop.
