Digital History: technology and historiography between theory and practice

"Historiography, as a systematic investigation into the conditions of emergence of different discourses about the past, presupposes, as a first condition, recognizing the historicity of the very act of writing history, recognizing it as inscribed in a time and place. Next, it is necessary to recognize this writing as the result of disputes between memories, in order to understand it as part of the struggles to give meaning to the world."

Manoel Luiz Salgado Guimarães*

 

History is a field of study intrinsically linked to time and space. Understanding the historicity of the act of writing history is fundamental to its critical and reflective approach. By reflecting on the writing of history conditioned by the present time in the Brazilian scholarship real, this special issue aims to explore the relationship between History and Technology, considering the intersection of practical and theoretical issues that today, given the ubiquity of the digital component, encompasses historiographical practice.

The proposal for this special issue stems from the realization that the so-called Digital Age has introduced significant transformations into historical practice, requiring reflection on how new technologies influence the way we understand, produce, teach and share historical knowledge.

The special issue is part of a context of affirmation of open science and collaborative work, which also calls for reflections on the ethics of sharing and the free circulation of knowledge. In addition, we note that after the first few years of technological advances, marked by monumental initiatives to digitize and make entire collections available on the World Wide Web, questions of analysis and the search for appropriate methods and critiques to deal with this moment of abundance have become more pressing.

Thus, Digital History: technology and historiographical practice between theory and practice seeks to explore the implications of the digital age for historical practice, as well as reflecting on the theoretical questions and challenges raised by Digital History. In addition, we hope to analyze the various approaches and methods used in this field, considering dialogues with different communities of practice within the broad Digital Humanities.

Topics of interest may include, but are not limited to:

• Digitization, analysis of historical documents and availability of data;
• The development of cyber-infrastructures with the involvement of multidisciplinary teams to create platforms, portals and interactive databases;
• Digital archives and the preservation of digital cultural heritage;
• Data visualization and graphic representations in historical research;
• Mapping and the use of geotechnologies in the spatial analysis of history (GIS);
• The construction of digital historical narratives in games, documentaries and alternative formats other than the traditional printed monographs;
• Open access, copyright and ethics in Digital History;
• Teaching History and Digital History;
• Digital Public History;
• Theoretical and methodological challenges of Digital History; and
• History of Digital History: development, progress, and future prospects.

 

Dialogue with non-Brazilian literature may be unavoidable in many cases, but we emphasize that the intention of this dossier is also to bring together contributions on Digital History from a Brazilian perspective and, therefore, discussion with the scholarship on the make by Brazilian researchers is of the utmost relevance to the contributions we hope to receive and make public with the publication of this special issue.

 

Organizers:

Anita Lucchesi, University of Luxembourg

Mônica Ribeiro de Oliveira, Federal University of Juiz de Fora

 

Deadline for submitting articles: until December 30, 2023

 

* GUIMARÃES, Manoel Luiz Salgado. Uses of history: reflecting on identity and meaning. História em revista, Pelotas, v. 6, p. 21-36, 2000. p. 27