New Directions in Film Historiography: Digital Tools and Methods in Film and Media Studies

• Applicant: Dr. Sarah-Mai Dang
• Subject Area: Theatre and Media Studies
• Term: from 2019 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 423266924

The goal of the international network is to collaboratively explore how digital technologies shape our understanding of film and cinema history from a media studies perspective. Analyzing a selection of different research projects, the network seeks to theorize current scholarly media practices in the field of the so-called digital humanities. In order to analyze the epistemic, conceptual, and methodological conditions of digital film historiography, the network brings together theory with practice. It assumes that the challenges and potentials of digital tools can only be understood in its far-reaching dimensions when both applied and critically reflected. The network focuses less on digital cinema or new media but rather on filmhistoriographic data, digital methods, tools, and platforms which are used in the humanities. However, research outcomes and discourses on how we define and even produce historic sources play an important role, particularly when it comes to archiving and presentation practices.The network wishes to contribute to ongoing discussions about the relationship between the digital humanities and film and media studies. It seeks to advance research on the implications of digitalization for the humanities on an interdisciplinary level. Besides film and media studies, it draws on approaches from various disciplines, spanning history, software studies, library and archive studies, and computer science.

• DFG Programme: Scientific Networks