Gale and the Bodleian Libraries Continue to Support Asia-Pacific Research on Digital Humanities with Second Year of Fellowships
To increase access to digital humanities (DH) tools and support emerging research and collaboration amongst scholars, Gale, part of Cengage Group, and Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford, announce the recipients of the second cohort of the Gale Scholar Asia Pacific, Digital Humanities Oxford Fellowships. Gale will fund the research of two scholars for three months. The fellowship seeks to support the scholars’ research into a DH-related topic at the University of Oxford, using the Centre for Digital Scholarship of the Bodleian Libraries. To help foster emerging scholarship in the Asia-Pacific region, the fellows have access to the Bodleian Libraries’ resources including Gale Primary Sources as well as Gale Digital Scholar Lab which provides fellows with invaluable text and data mining tools to advance their work through DH methods.
Gale and the Bodleian Libraries congratulate the following candidates, who were awarded the fellowships in the second year of the program and highlight the projects they are pursuing:
Dr. Xiurong Zhao, Renmin University of China, China
Project: The Use of GIS to Map Infectious Diseases in Victorian England seeks to find new answers about the causes of infectious diseases and their spread, and the social impacts of these diseases. By using tools from Gale Digital Scholar Lab, the project will utilize new research methods to produce disease maps to support new information and resources that are easily accessible to the public.
Dr Zhao said, "I am honoured and grateful to have been awarded the Oxford Fellowship for Digital Humanities. This fellowship will provide me with an invaluable opportunity to study at the University of Oxford. I believe that I will benefit from studying the rare and valuable books in Bodleian library and learning about the most advanced digital humanities technology, all of which will help my research entitled “The Use of GIS to Map Infectious Diseases in Victorian England”. I am looking forward to my visit.”
Dr. Terhi Nurmikko-Fuller, Australian National University, Australia
Project: Transnational Liberalism: A Linked Data
Case Study of Australian Political History will leverage data sets to answer questions about the political landscape in colonial Australia, the wider Asia-Pacific region, and the British world more generally during the mid- to late-1800’s. The project provides comprehensive insight into the origins of the Liberal party, which has dominated the national government of Australia for 62 years (since WWII) and shaped the Asia-Pacific region for decades.
Dr Nurmikko-Fuller said, “I am absolutely delighted to have been awarded the Gale Asia Pacific Digital Humanities Oxford Fellowship. It is a wonderful opportunity and I’m very excited to be able to spend three months in beautiful Oxford. The Gale collections will be a fantastic and multifaceted source of data, and I look forward to the chance to advance knowledge of Australian political history specifically in the context of the Digital Humanities.”
“I am thrilled to welcome our second group of Gale fellows to the Bodleian Libraries,” said Richard Ovenden, Bodley’s librarian at the University of Oxford. “We have chosen the finest researchers and academics with the intention of advancing their respective fields through access to our rich holdings and the various forms of digital scholarship employed at the Bodleian. The first group of Gale fellows were able to use Bodleian approaches and collections to significantly advance understanding of the humanities in their research areas, and we are so excited to see what we can achieve together this year.”
The goal of the Gale Scholar Asia Pacific, Digital Humanities Oxford Fellowships is to encourage emerging DH scholarship in the Asia-Pacific region and progress the contribution of non-Western and regional perspectives in the field of DH research. The program increases opportunities for collaboration with other scholars to share new ideas, while providing access to critical tools to support their work. Fellows will become short-term visiting fellows at the University’s Jesus College to allow them access to a range of facilities and resources during their stay. “We are pleased to continue sponsoring fellowships at the Bodleian Libraries this year. We hope the second-year cohort derives as much value from their stay at Oxford as the first-year cohort,” said Terry Robinson, senior vice president for Gale Global Academic. “Having access to University of Oxford’s world-class facilities, resources and people will undoubtedly enrich their understanding and use of digital scholarship in their projects. We also hope that access to Gale Digital Scholar Lab and Gale Primary Sources at the Bodleian will help them push the boundaries of their research and bring it to the attention of a global audience.”
The fellows will start the program at the University of Oxford in October 2022 and complete it in June 2023.
Gale has been at the forefront of supporting digital scholarship for many years. Gale Digital Scholar Lab was created to address common challenges researchers and scholars face when analyzing large sets of archives. In offering fellowships to scholars in multiple disciplines, Gale is increasing access to text and data mining tools and furthering opportunities in both research and teaching. In June, Gale also announced fellowships to support emerging LGBTQ+ research. For more information on Gale Scholar Asia Pacific, Digital Humanities Oxford Fellowships, visit the webpage.
