STEP - Science and Technology in the European Periphery

AHRC RESEARCH NETWORK – CALL FOR PAPERS
Exploring the language of the popular in Anglo-American Newspapers 1833-1988
AH/H038930/1
Principal Investigator Dr Martin Conboy, Department of Journalism Studies,
University of Sheffield

We are calling for expressions of interest for the first two seminars of the
AHRC-funded Research Network, one in Sheffield on 14 January 2011: ‘Exploring
digital newspaper archives’ and one in New York as part of the Joint Journalism
Historians Conference on 12 March 2011: ‘The long popularization process:
Anglo-American perspectives’.

Please send abstracts of 500 words to Administrative Assistant
Clare.Burke@Sheffield.ac.uk by the end of October 2010 if you feel that you can
make a significant contribution to either or both of the seminars. We have a
limited amount of sponsorship available to support travel to both seminars and
in some cases we can also pay for participants’ accommodation.

Outline of the Research Network
There is much work currently being undertaken in the history of newspapers in
the USA and the UK and it is the purpose of this network to bring leading
scholars in the field together to discuss how their research interrelates and
how it can be enhanced by broader disciplinary dialogue drawing on the
traditions and methodologies of history, language studies, literary studies,
and journalism studies. This interdisciplinary project is made more urgent by
the growing number of digital newspaper archives from the 19th and 20th
centuries from the USA and the UK. As we move from a research economy of
archive scarcity to one of plenty, we need to be able to set out a new, more
integrated set of methodologies which enable the wealth and diversity of these
resources to be more appropriately mined.

Each of the seminars will seek to attract high quality, publishable research
which contributes to the themes of the Research Network. The seminars, located
as they are in the UK, the USA and Switzerland will aim to bring together
leading researchers and emerging scholars so as to enhance the international
and interdisciplinary ambitions of the project. The Research Network will also
co-ordinate publication with the Media History Exchange, an archive and social
network sponsored by the National Endowment of the Humanities.

Aims and Objectives
• To bring together scholars, researchers and information professionals to
develop interdisciplinary approaches to the study of digital newspaper archives
in Britain and North America.
• To investigate representations of popular culture in Anglo-American
newspapers
over the period 1833 to 1988.
• To develop with colleagues from a range of cognate disciplines a set of
agreed
principles for a consistent methodology for the investigation of the increasing
number of digital archives of newspapers which would extend computer-assisted
research in the humanities.
• To establish a network of scholars and researchers which can sustain such
dialogues beyond the scope of the project by setting up a clear set of
publishing outcomes and future collaborations.
• To provide a forum for dissemination of best practice in historical and
linguistic research approaches to digital newspaper archives.
• To develop the general area of Historical Pragmatics by a series of sustained
and focused investigations into a particular area of media language and social
representation; representation of popular culture in newspapers.

“Each year the AHRC provides funding from the Government to support research
and
postgraduate study in the arts and humanities, from archaeology
and English literature to design and dance. Only applications of the highest
quality and excellence are funded and the range of research supported by this
investment of public funds not only provides social and cultural benefits but
also
contributes to the economic success of the UK. For further information on the
AHRC, please see our website www.ahrc.ac.uk”

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Administrative Assistant
Department of Journalism Studies
University of Sheffield
18-22 Regent Street
Sheffield
S1 3NJ