Finding Aids and Networked Biography: Stuart Hall and the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies
Finding aids – tools to help researchers locate and understand archival materials – are rich with biographical information: in archival descriptions, we find personal milestones stated alongside traceable genealogies of ideas and associations between people and institutions. A pilot project at the U...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
University of Groningen Press
2025-05-01
|
| Series: | European Journal of Life Writing |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://ejlw.eu/article/view/42229 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1849728636821700608 |
|---|---|
| author | Katherine Parsons |
| author_facet | Katherine Parsons |
| author_sort | Katherine Parsons |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Finding aids – tools to help researchers locate and understand archival materials – are rich with biographical information: in archival descriptions, we find personal milestones stated alongside traceable genealogies of ideas and associations between people and institutions. A pilot project at the University of Birmingham tested digital methods for distilling this information as a means to life writing; this paper reports on its findings.
The pilot project involved extracting networked data from finding aids associated with Stuart Hall (1932-2014) – a founding figure of cultural studies – and the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS; 1964-2002). A tool was developed to capture data around the movement, meetings, connections, and output of individuals and groups. The project aimed to visualise Hall’s life (people and entities he worked with, events he attended, etcetera) and the institutional ‘life’ of the CCCS (flow of finance, members, and influences).
This paper outlines challenges faced by the project team and steps taken to circumvent them, and considers matching the form of digital representation to the distinctive pedagogical approach advocated by Hall and the CCCS. With the particularity of this dataset in mind, this paper discusses how digital methods can be applied to extract and organise finding aid data as a means of framing Hall’s biography. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-c38a5a19d6964a2883e6b1b7c8cf013b |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2211-243X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-05-01 |
| publisher | University of Groningen Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | European Journal of Life Writing |
| spelling | doaj-art-c38a5a19d6964a2883e6b1b7c8cf013b2025-08-20T03:09:29ZengUniversity of Groningen PressEuropean Journal of Life Writing2211-243X2025-05-0114LD59LD8610.21827/ejlw.14.4222931896Finding Aids and Networked Biography: Stuart Hall and the Centre for Contemporary Cultural StudiesKatherine Parsons0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0469-4946University of BirminghamFinding aids – tools to help researchers locate and understand archival materials – are rich with biographical information: in archival descriptions, we find personal milestones stated alongside traceable genealogies of ideas and associations between people and institutions. A pilot project at the University of Birmingham tested digital methods for distilling this information as a means to life writing; this paper reports on its findings. The pilot project involved extracting networked data from finding aids associated with Stuart Hall (1932-2014) – a founding figure of cultural studies – and the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS; 1964-2002). A tool was developed to capture data around the movement, meetings, connections, and output of individuals and groups. The project aimed to visualise Hall’s life (people and entities he worked with, events he attended, etcetera) and the institutional ‘life’ of the CCCS (flow of finance, members, and influences). This paper outlines challenges faced by the project team and steps taken to circumvent them, and considers matching the form of digital representation to the distinctive pedagogical approach advocated by Hall and the CCCS. With the particularity of this dataset in mind, this paper discusses how digital methods can be applied to extract and organise finding aid data as a means of framing Hall’s biography.https://ejlw.eu/article/view/42229relational network analysisfinding aidsstuart hallarchives |
| spellingShingle | Katherine Parsons Finding Aids and Networked Biography: Stuart Hall and the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies European Journal of Life Writing relational network analysis finding aids stuart hall archives |
| title | Finding Aids and Networked Biography: Stuart Hall and the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies |
| title_full | Finding Aids and Networked Biography: Stuart Hall and the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies |
| title_fullStr | Finding Aids and Networked Biography: Stuart Hall and the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies |
| title_full_unstemmed | Finding Aids and Networked Biography: Stuart Hall and the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies |
| title_short | Finding Aids and Networked Biography: Stuart Hall and the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies |
| title_sort | finding aids and networked biography stuart hall and the centre for contemporary cultural studies |
| topic | relational network analysis finding aids stuart hall archives |
| url | https://ejlw.eu/article/view/42229 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT katherineparsons findingaidsandnetworkedbiographystuarthallandthecentreforcontemporaryculturalstudies |