Mediated Meanings in Historical and Contemporary Research

The use of different media sources has increased exponentially during the 2000s due to the digitization of past sources as well as the wide variety of born-digital materials. Simultaneously, all sources in humanistic and social science research can be viewed as medium that allows us to make interpretations of the meanings they contain. Media historians have gone so far as to claim that all history can be viewed as a media history if we acknowledge that “a media historical perspective unlocks the mediality” of our sources that can vary from rune stones to newspaper articles and from A4paper to school textbooks and posts in social media.

The research group “Mediated Meanings in Historical and Contemporary Research” collects scholars and MA students from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences who are interested in reflecting on these questions in their research. The group will serve as a platform for presenting work-in-progress as well as to initiate new research projects. It will also organize quest talks and offer more hands-on seminars on the topic.

The group was established in 2026. The meetings and seminars are open to everyone, including interested students. To join the e-mail list or get more information about the meetings, please, send an email to heidi.kurvinen@uib.no.