As computational linguistics shows, the concept of 'settlement' developed in England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in direct relation to the administration of the poor laws. This paper by Naomi Tadmor (Lancaster) will examine the relationship between the law, civil society, and print culture, exploring how the legislation concerning the settlement of the poor, enacted in England since the seventeenth century, gave rise to an administrative system where settlement certificates and forms were increasingly employed.
Digital History: New Data-Driven Approaches in the Humanities
As the digital humanities continue to boom, historians are discovering the potential of big data, computational techniques and corpus-driven methods for opening up new avenues of research.
The GHIL seminar series in the summer term 2015 will explore the possibilities and limitations of these new approaches at the intersection of historiography and linguistics. Scholars from both disciplines will present their research and ideas. They will discuss not only their methodology, but also its application in empirical case studies, covering a broad range of themes from medieval to contemporary history.
Seminars are held at 5.30 p.m. in the Seminar Room of the German Historical Institute. Guided tours of the Library are available before each seminar at 4.30 p.m.