Making the Implicit Explicit: Digital editions of ancient text-bearing objects
Speaker: Martina Filosa (Universität Köln), Usama Gad (Ain Shams, Cairo), Gabriel Bodard (University of London)
Date: Friday May 2, 16:00–17:15 BST. Online only.
Digital editions of ancient texts and objects follow the nineteenth/twentieth century tradition of academic editing, but are able to be more explicit and accessible than their print analogues. The use of digital standards such as EpiDoc and Linked Open Data, that emphasise interoperability, linking and sharing, enables—we shall argue, obliges—the scholarly editor to make the digital publication open, accessible, transparent and explicit. Ancient text-bearing objects need to be treated as material artefacts as well as the bearers of (sometimes abstract or immaterial) strings of historical text. All elements of the publication of both object and text are interpretive constructs. It is essential that we not neglect any of the material or immaterial information in all of these components, in our scholarly quest to make them explicit, interoperable and machine actionable.
The Material Digital Humanities seminar is organised by Gabriel Bodard (Digital Humanities Research Hub, University of London, UK) and Chiara Palladino (Department of Classics, Furman University, USA) in 2025. This seminar series will present a range of discussions around materiality and the research possibilities offered by digital methods and approaches. Beyond just the value of digitization and computational research to the study of material culture, we are especially interested in theoretical and digital approaches to the question of materiality itself. We do not restrict ourselves to any period of history or academic discipline, but want to encourage interdisciplinarity and collaborative work, and the valuable exchange of ideas enabled by cross-pollination of languages, areas of history, geography and cultures.
All welcomeThis event is free to attend, but booking is required. It will be held online with details about how to join the virtual event being circulated via email to registered attendees 24 hours in advance.
This page was last updated on 6 March 2025
