Professor from the Netherlands will Give Lecture at UA on the Link Between Humanities and Technology

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – On Monday, March 24, Dr. George Welling, professor of humanities computing at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, will give two talks at The University of Alabama. Both lectures are free and open to the public.

The first talk is from noon-1 p.m. in room 227 of Gallalee Hall and is titled “Humanities Computing: A Federation of Disciplines.” The lecture is centered on the philosophy of the department of humanities computing at the University of Groningen. Welling will discuss humanities computing as a discipline and how it affects history, art history, computational linguistics and dialectology.

The second talk will take place from 4-5 p.m., in the Summersell Room (room 251) of ten Hoor Hall. Welling’s lecture “History and Computing, or should we say Computational Linguistics?” says there is a good case to be made for the term “computational history,” meaning that part of the history discipline that cannot be carried out without computational methods.

Welling has taught at the University of Amsterdam, the University of Bergen, Norway, and at the American Studies Center in Salzburg, Austria. He is a former board member of the Association for History and Computing, and was one of the earliest Web developers to link the humanities with technology and computing. One of his many early cutting edge and award winning Web projects, which was developed with his students and mounted initially in 1995, is “The American Revolution and What Followed,” which is available at http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/.

Faculty and students in the humanities, as well as computer science, library and information sciences and education are encouraged to attend. Welling’s expertise and overwhelming enthusiasm for his teaching and research make for an exciting and inspiring experience. UA’s department of history, the College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Office and the University Libraries are sponsoring the lectures.

For more information contact Jessica Lacher-Feldman at jlfeldma@bama.ua.edu or 205/348-0500.