The Data Caucus assembles Victorianist scholars and teachers working with data, which we define as information that has been selected, categorized, and otherwise made tractable for quantitative and/or qualitative analysis. Our conception of data encompasses Victorian practices for gathering and expressing information; cultural attitudes toward data; digital collections; digital pedagogies; quantitative methods; and digital humanities.
We hope to show how integral data is to our pursuits as scholars of Victorian literature, history, and culture. To this end, we create this caucus to collaborate, integrate our methodologies in established and emerging areas of study, share resources and best practices, and draw inspiration from one another’s work.
We also ask questions about the relationship between literature, history, culture, and data. This might include thinking about literature as data; history as data storage; culture as data practice; and scholarship as data preservation. In addition, we welcome modifications to these contemporary uses of data by the Victorians’ understanding of and use of information.
After preliminary discussions at NAVSA 2017 in Banff, the caucus had its first official meeting at NAVSA 2018 in St. Petersburg, FL. For more information on or to join this caucus, please contact Meredith Martin.