Cultures of Travel: Historical Travel Practices and Digital Humanities

The interdisciplinary conference "Cultures of Travel: Historical Travel Practices and Digital Humanities" aims to delve into the historical travel practices and cultures spanning from the Middle Ages to the present day, with a particular focus on the Eastern European region in a global context. Throughout the conference, we will examine the socio-cultural and technical conditions of spatial mobility, including who travelled, why, and how. We will explore how mobility was influenced by various factors, such as economic, political, and social factors, and how it impacted the travellers‘ experiences. 

The conference will also explore the ways in which travels were documented in text and images, and how these self-testimonies of mobile people were composed. We will discuss the various media used to document travel experiences, such as journals, letters, drawings, paintings, and photographs. We will examine the accuracy and reliability of these sources as well as the ways in which they influenced the perception of travel and the world outside of one’s home. 

Furthermore, we will explore how digital methods can be used to research, analyze and visualize travel cultures and their history. We will discuss the various tools and techniques used in digital humanities, such as data visualization, text mining, and GIS mapping, and how they can be applied to the study of travel cultures. 

The conference will mark the conclusion of the research project "Digital Editions of Historical Travel Reports (DEHisRe)", which has been conducted since October 2021 at the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies (IOS) in Regensburg. The project aimed to create digital editions of historical travel reports, making them more accessible and easier to analyze for researchers. The conference is being organized in partnership with the University of Tallinn (Tallinna Ülikool) and funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). 

Project team at the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies: Guido Hausmann (PI), Anna Ananieva, Sandra Balck, Hermann Beyer-Thoma, Ingo Frank, and Jacob Möhrke.

Cooperation partners at Tallinn University, School of Humanities: Karsten Brüggemann, Professor of Estonian and General History, Maris Saagpakk, Associate Professor of German Cultural History and Literature, PRG project „Translation in History, Estonia 1850-2010: Texts, Agents, Institutions and Practices“ (funded by the Estonian Research Council).