Historians, Data Scientists Work to Preserve Endangered Middle Eastern Culture with NEH Grant

Apr 19, 2023 · 1 min read
blog digital humanities

Vanderbilt Divinity School and the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries announced a grant of $350,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities that is enabling Vanderbilt to partner with Texas A&M and Marquette universities to continue preserving the history of Syriac culture. Syriac is a medieval dialect of Aramaic once spoken widely by Middle Eastern Christian communities.

“Linking Texts and Data from the Medieval Middle East: Next Generation Discovery and Access Tools for Syriac Cultural Heritage” is a collaborative digital project focused on making English translations of Syriac literature freely available online for students, scholars and the public. The project will supplement the translation database with a linked data research tool designed by the Vanderbilt libraries.

“As librarians, we are excited to support Professor [David] Michelson and colleagues in the preservation of this endangered cultural heritage by drawing on our developing expertise in scalable and sustainable linked data applications,” Heard Libraries Chief Digital Strategist Clifford Anderson said. Read more …

Digital Humanities Linked Data Syriac Studies
Clifford B. Anderson
Authors
Clifford B. Anderson
Director of the Divinity Library
My research interests include the study of algorithms as cultural artifacts, computational thinking in the humanities, large-scale textual analysis of narrative data, and the religious dimensions of intellectual property.
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