Part of the Hands on (Digital) Humanities Series

This talk explores the boundary between visualization and analysis in contemporary digital scholarship. It argues for a shift in focus from creating visualizations (and related tools) toward a more robust analytical practice based on quantitative measurement. In this sense, visualization is seen as a useful but often insufficient step in the research process. A critical assessment of a series of examples of work from Stanford’s Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis will provide the foundation for the talk.

Zephyr Frank is Professor of History at Stanford and the Director of the Program on Urban Studies. He is also the founding director of the Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis (CESTA). At CESTA, Professor Frank directs the Spatial History Project. His most recent book is Reading Rio de Janeiro: Literature and Society in the Nineteenth Century (Stanford, 2016).