Beyond Boundaries. Futures of Digitised Historical Media Collections for Research and Teaching
Scheduled: (upcoming 2027)
Historians of media have long aspired to study more than single institutions or media types, and recent scholarship emphasises the dense relations between media — rivalry as much as mutual learning and appropriation — and the broader ecosystems in which actors, institutions, infrastructures, and politics together shaped how media developed and functioned. Yet for decades, the practical boundaries of research — between languages, source types, collections, and disciplines — kept such ambitions largely out of reach for empirical, source-driven work at scale. These boundaries are now eroding: text recognition, audio transcription, annotation, and classification no longer pose the barriers they once did, while experimental techniques such as cross-lingual and cross-media alignment are rapidly gaining traction — even if quality, coverage, and access remain uneven, the obstacles have shifted, and with them the questions we can ask. Beyond Boundaries invites researchers, cultural heritage professionals, and collection holders to present original work, share experimental methods and resources, and reflect critically on what it now means to do research on and teach with historical media collections.
Radio and Newspapers: What Intersections for Media History?
Scheduled: 30 June - 1 July 2026
Building on our ongoing reflections on a historical “transmedia” approach, this international conference aims to move beyond the traditional understanding of press-radio relations. The conference seeks to investigate the complexity of their relations. It aims to throw light on mutual influences over content and format, staff and practices circulation between the two media, as well as cross-representations and cross-uses. A central objective is to explore the novel research perspectives offered by the development of digital tools in the context of the digitization of press and radio archives.