Jo Guldi, "The History Manifesto, Revisited?" - Talk at the University of Manchester, 13 May 2021
Channel: Jo Guldi
Date: 2021-05-18

Revisiting the contentious debates about the role of data science in the humanities and the role of history in the public sphere, Prof. Guldi gives her account of using longue-duree history and digital tools to speak to current issues about the governance of land and water in an age of climate change. She discusses two new projects: The first is "The Long Land War" (YUP 2022), an archival, longue-duree history of the global movement for occupancy rights since 1881. In this project, Dr. Guldi began by using digital methods, which she later abandoned because of a lack of "fit" between methods and the project.  Has she abandoned digital methods altogether? Not at all. In the second half of the talk, Dr. Guldi turns to a second project, "A Distant Reading of Property," where she is successfully applying digital methods to study changing discourse about property in parliament. In analyzing the difference between these projects, Dr. Guldi discusses the "fit" between digital methods, archives, and historical questions.