Becoming a digital historian

Embarking on yet another new journey - for, yes, there have been a few during my one year as a PhD student and the decision some time before that to re-enter Academia after many years in what is commonly known as Reality. In order to learn more about Digital Humanities, I have been given the assignment to start a research blog. The idea is not strange to me; on the contrary I have been pondering reasons for and against blogging since I started working on my PhD. However, being advised against blogging by some of my colleagues (and for seemingly good reasons: it takes time from my main work, I risk getting my results stolen if I publish them in a blog, etc), and with both good and bad previous experiences of professional blogging, I wanted to be very careful about 'how' and 'why' before committing to regular on-line publishing.

But... Here I am, having started a most thrilling PhD course in Digital History, and being sent out in the world (the physical as well as the digital) with the words: "Go forth and start a blog!". So here we go: "Fiat blog - et blog erat"! After last week's inspiring first days of the Digital History course, and after giving a lecture in Museology about the history of nationalism (a topic that seems to stick to everything connected with heritage, and sometimes also with religion), I now prepare my paper for the ISCH conference in Istanbul starting Wednesday this week. I look very much forward to going, since Istanbul itself is in a way an illustration of my research topic with layers upon layers of re-charged religious identities ending up as heritage and narratives. I will give a report on this when I get back - until then, you are welcome to join me on twitter @helena_w_strom for immediate impressions from the conference.

Apart from this, I am also preparing for a research period of six months in Rome, where I will enjoy the company of my 17th century travelers and follow in their footsteps (and, according to plan, doing some digital visualization of some kind of their meeting with the Eternal City. I'll get back to that). Very much to get in order before leaving, and therefore an even wilder dance of joy at the letterbox when a good old CD arrived today packed with photos of a 17th century diary in manuscript. Each job has its moments of bliss, I suppose, but I feel particularly grateful to be dancing for joy over a digitized manuscript on office hours!