Lecture: “Environments of Change & Changing Environments: Digitizing the Middle Ages”
Steven Bednarski (University of Waterloo, University of Toronto)
Centre for Medieval Studies
In this talk, Project Director and PI, Prof. Steven Bednarski, presents the goals and objectives of Environments of Change and explores ways of integrating the approaches offered by traditional and digital humanists with those of the natural and pure sciences.
Environments of Change is a new SSHRC-funded research network that unites scholars from over a dozen disciplines including history, literature studies, art history, conservation, archaeology, geomorphology, palaeoclimatology, and dendrochronology with fifteen industry partners. The project explores how best to use emerging digital technologies to shine light on the complex relationship between people and nature at the end of the Middle Ages. To do this, project members have built the Medieval Digital Research in Arts and Graphical Environmental Networks Lab (DRAGEN), Canada’s first and only digital humanities lab dedicated to climate and culture. Through the Lab, Environments of Change will provide 467 training opportunities over seven years to students and junior colleagues in Canada, the US, and the UK. These opportunities will train the next generation of digitally minded medievalists.