Digital Correspondence research group launches

A new Community Interest Group (CIG), co-convened by a University of Leeds researcher, has been launched as part of the recently-established UK-Ireland Digital Humanities Association. Digital Correspondence: transhistorical perspectives on language, materials and corpora is coordinated by Mel Evans (School of English), Rachel De Felice (Open University) and Helen Newsome (University College Dublin) explores the linguistic and material facets of correspondence, broadly defined, to understand more about communication practices across the centuries.

The group will use digital tools to explore correspondence from across the centuries and in diverse media (handwriting, print, digital) and evaluate what language analysis can tell us about trends, the themes, the shared concerns over time, and how language resources are used to convey identity, construct relationships, and achieve aims and objectives, spanning the personal and the political. With a focus on corpus collections, including letters, print epistles, emails, and text messages, the group will explore how such data and its digitization enables or impedes effective research. Key themes will include the availability of correspondence data and the creation of corpora; the capacity to format and capture linguistic and other semiotic modes efficiently, transparently and accessibly; and how digital investigations can open up collaboration across academia, cultural heritage organisations, archives and education.

Anyone interested in the group's work is welcome to join the online launch event on Wednesday 22 November, 12:30-2pm. The event, an informal roundtable, will discuss the theoretical, methodological and practical considerations of working with correspondence using digital frameworks and techniques. The three speakers (Julia Gillen, Lancaster University; Callum McKean, The British Library; Niall O’Leary, Digital Humanities & IT Consultant) work with a range of correspondence materials – present-day and historical – and will offer perspectives based on their experience of academic, GLAM and professional contexts. To join the event, use this Zoom Link: https://universityofleeds.zoom.us/j/85352699047.

For information about this event and future activities of the Digital Correspondence CIG, you can sign up to their mailing list.