Skip to main content

Posts

LUSTRE (Unlocking our Digital Past with Artificial Intelligence)

I am delighted to be the Principal Investigator of the AHRC-funded project LUSTRE (Unlocking our Digital Past with Artificial Intelligence). LUSTRE seeks to better understand how AI can help improve the preservation, access to and usability of government archives produced in digital form.  Much public good could be derived from the analysis of government records, particularly records in digital form. Yet, accessing these data is a complex challenge that requires collaboration across multiple fields and professional sectors to overcome issues including confidentiality, privacy, national security, copyright, technological constraints, and the existence of a multiplicity of different structures, systems and applications.  The input of computer scientists who specialise in Artificial Intelligence (AI) is essential to tackling this challenge. Indeed, AI can be used to identify sensitive materials in a mass of born-digital records to make non-sensitive materials accessible. AI can also serve
Read more
Recent posts

MLA 2023 in San Francisco

  The next MLA (Modern Language Association) Annual Convention will be held from 5 to 8 January 2023 in San Francisco. The presidential theme is Working Conditions. As always, SHARP (the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing) will organise a guaranteed session. We are inviting papers on the theme "Women and Book History." Nearly a quarter of a century ago, Leslie Howsam encouraged scholars to "make use of the powerful theory and flexible methodology of feminist analysis when we think about and investigate the history of books" (SHARP News, Vol. 7, number 4, Autumn 1998). This short article on "women and book history" still resonates today. We invite papers on (but not limited to): the theory and methodology of feminist book history; the study of women in the book trade and women book collectors; the analysis of women readers. All periods and geographical areas. Please send your abstract (250 words) and CV (2 pages) by Wedn
Read more

EyCon (Early Conflict Photography and Visual AI)

I am thrilled to be the Principal Investigator (UK) for the Early Conflict Photography 1890-1918 and Visual AI ( EyCon ) project. EyCon aims at harnessing Artificial Intelligence (AI) reliant tools to analyse a large corpus of photographs, and the project’s database will include thousands of historical photographs documenting armed violence. EyCon is co-funded by AHRC/Labex Passés dans le Présent joint grant (more about the programme here ) and a Université de Paris Idex “chaire environnée”. Recent digitisation efforts of historical photographs by archival institutions have often been done in silo. This is an issue for researchers and archivists, but it also raises the question of public uses of history when it comes to contemporary perspectives on colonial/imperial warfare. Disconnected visual repositories reinforce deeply entrenched notions of national exceptionalism in France, Britain and in other states with a history of international interventionism and expansionism. Drawing on ad
Read more

AEOLIAN (Artificial Intelligence for Cultural Organisations)

I am excited to be leading the AEOLIAN network (Artificial Intelligence for Cultural Organisations), funded by the New Developments for Digital Scholarship grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). More about the programme here . The AEOLIAN network project aims to develop artificial intelligence to help improve access to born-digital and digitised cultural records through a collaboration of UK and US partners. I will be working with Claire Warwick , Paul Gooding , Annalina Caputo , Glen Worthey , J. Stephen Downie and Ryan Dubnicek – as well as our Network Participants. Our Project Partners include the National Library of Scotland; the National Library of Wales; the Wellcome Collection; the History of Parliament Trust; Harvard’s Houghton Library; Yale’s Digital Preservation team and Music Library; Indiana University Libraries; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries; Educopia; Frick Collection (N
Read more

MLA 2022 in Washington, DC

The 2022 MLA Annual Convention will be held in Washington, DC, from 6 to 9 January.  SHARP is sponsoring two sessions: (1)  New methods to explore digital archives Description & Requirements : Born-digital and digitized archives are changing the way we do research in literary studies, book history and other fields. Qualitative and quantitative methods to explore digital archives. Humanities and data science. 300-word abstract + CV. Submission Deadline : Saturday, 20 March 2021 E-mail: l.jaillant [at] lboro.ac.uk (2) The Pre-Raphaelites and Print Culture Description & Requirements : 300-word proposals are invited for a co-sponsored session on the Pre-Raphaelites and late nineteenth century print culture, including book design, the Kelmscott Press, book and periodical illustration, and transatlantic influences. Submission Deadline : Saturday, 20 March 2021 E-mail: l.jaillant [at] lboro.ac.uk and florence-boos [at] uiowa.edu
Read more

AURA (Archives in the UK/ Republic of Ireland & AI)

I am very pleased to have been awarded a grant to develop the AURA network (Archives in the UK/ Republic of Ireland & AI): "Bringing together Digital Humanists, Computer Scientists & stakeholders to unlock cultural assets."  AURA is funded by a joint programme between the Irish Research Council and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) in the UK (more information about this programme HERE ). I will work with Annalina Caputo , Eirini Goudarouli , Mathieu d'Aquin and Larry Stapleton - as well as our Network Participants. Our Project Partners include the British Library; the National Library of Scotland; the National Library of Ireland; and the Irish Traditional Music Archive. The AURA network is designed to unlock cultural assets that are preserved in digital archives closed to the public or difficult to access. The digital revolution has had a huge impact on archival collections: emails have largely replaced letters, government reports are now written
Read more

MLA 2021 in Toronto

As Liaison Officer for SHARP (the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing), it is my role to organise our annual sessions at the Modern Language Association convention. The next MLA convention will take place in Toronto (7 to 10 January 2021). This time,  SHARP  is sponsoring three sessions: 1) A guaranteed session: "Towards sustainability for digital archives and projects" Book historians and other scholars rely on digitised and born-digital archives. How can we make digital archives and digital projects more sustainable? Environmental sustainability; longevity, permanence, availability, Open Access. 300-word abstracts + CV to Lise Jaillant. E-mail Address: l.jaillant [at] lboro.ac.uk Submission Deadline: March 1, 2020 2) A joint session with the Modernist Studies Association "Modernism, Copyright and Public Domains" Impact of early 20th-century works coming out of copyright; Archives now publicly open, includi
Read more