Second HumTalks Seminar on April 4th by Prof. Ben Alexander
In the second seminar of HumTalks, Prof. Alexander from Harvard University provided information about historical orientation to the rise of Digital Humanities through a fascination with archives and material history in the 1990s and its process through today into 21st century technologies. The diverse fields within Digital Humanities such as Forensics, Historiography and Analytics; as well as particular challenges that the field is facing today were elaborated. Also, Prof. Alexander introduced The American Century Project, a digital humanities project sponsored by Harvard University. As the project's director, he discussed its place among contemporary scholarships of the field, while also arguing its intent as precedent for a global comparatives approach to historiography.
About Ben Alexander:
Prof. Ben Alexander is an expert in English and American literature. He formerly taught at UCLA, University of Sichuan, Queen’s College and Stanford University. He mainly engages in digital humanities and digital memory research. Currently, he is a visiting scholar at Harvard University where he initiated two digital humanities projects: American Century Project and China Century Project. The American Century Project engages a globally comparative approach to American culture from 1880-1990 with an educational focus.
English
