@peterwebster
Head of digital scholarship and innovation, Southampton uni library: DH, digitization, web archives, #GLAM. Runs Webster Research & Consulting, making better digital services for research. Historian of 20th c. British Christianity. Own views, naturally.
Nominations for the 2026 Richard Deswarte Prize in Digital History are now open ihrdighist.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2021/12/the-... (closing date 31 May). You can submit your own work or recommend a book or article by someone else that you’ve loved reading.
I had the occasion to revisit that book for a conference paper recently, and saw no need to update the argument
I wrote about this effect in relation to edited collections back in 2020.
It's been a long time in the making, but here's the new Library Data Lab at Southampton, giving dataset and API access to digitised collections.
Currently in beta: all comments welcome.
Intro from my colleague Matt: southampton.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Page...
Service datalab.library.soton.ac.uk
What is a Digital Humanities PhD?
Seminar with DH colleagues from Cambridge, Edinburgh, London and Manchester, open to all students or others considering a DH PhD at some point. Monday 9th March 2026, 16:30 GMT. Online only.
Register at: www.sas.ac.uk/digital-huma...
Everyone needs a librarian.
My chapter is 'Reading the edited collection, distantly: some trends in British theological publishing in the twentieth century', and there's a summary and an Open Access version at: peterwebster.me/2024/11/15/r...
A book entitled New Directions in Digital Textual Studies.
Look what arrived in the post, featuring an essay by yours truly.
Really, this has always been the real skill, long before the current situation arose.
They're all over our office
As I have more time now for interesting things, I got this out and dusted it off a bit.
websterresearchconsulting.com
This morning I find myself, for the first time in 22 years, committed neither to any publications nor any speaking engagements (on my research, that is). Not sure what to make of this.
I notice that Bluesky didn't like this image. If you'd like the details, drop me a line and I'll DM them directly.
If you're free on Monday, I'll be giving an online talk:
"The edited collection as community: explorations in the history of a discipline"
6pm CET, hosted on Zoom by colleagues in Germany. QR code in the image, and/or Meeting ID.
The deadline for submitting a proposal for the UK-Ireland Digital Humanities Association annual conference is 30 Jan digitalhumanities-uk-ie.org/2026-annual-.... The conference is 15-16 June and this year’s theme is Sustainability (broadly defined).
A nice write-up of a very neat idea from my Southampton colleague James Macdonell: a Cabinet of Curiosities made up of 'objets trouvés' turned up during a recent project to review the whole book stock of the library. This pleased me a great deal this year.
library.soton.ac.uk/digital-scho...
New #DigitalScholarship blog post out by @peterwebster.bsky.social on a project I'm involved in, digitising the writings of James Parkes 📖✨
library.soton.ac.uk/digital-scho...
#dhist Join the @ihr.bsky.social Digital History seminar on 9 Dec (midday GMT on Zoom) for Aleksandra Kaye and colleagues on 'Science Across Borders: Text-Mining and Network Analysis Insights into the Polish Diasporic Periodical Press, 1830-1930' ihrdighist.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2025/09/tues...
It's a particular pleasure to talk about this project: to digitise some of the writings of James Parkes, twentieth century Anglican specialist in the history and theology of Christian-Jewish relations.
His library came to Southampton sixty years ago this year.
library.soton.ac.uk/digital-scho...
If I ever had the time the time to finish it, I have a planned article on aspects of this linkage.
Some films I was involved in making about religion and peacebuilding: on the #Corrymeela Community and the St Philip's Centre, #Leicester
www.open.edu/openlearn/hi...
Thanks to Riaz Ravat and Alex Wimberly for their interviews.
#peacebuilding
@openuniversity.bsky.social
If you missed yesterday's wonderful Deswarte Prize seminar - ' (Fe)male Voices on Stage: Finding Patterns in Lottery Rhymes of the Late Medieval and Early Modern Low Countries with and without AI' - it is now on the @ihr.bsky.social Digital History Seminar youtube channel youtu.be/iwT7PRy-eQs?...
Join the @ihr.bsky.social Digital History seminar on 4 November (12:00 GMT on Zoom) to celebrate the winning entry for the 2025 Richard Deswarte Prize in Digital History and to learn about gender and lottery rhymes in the medieval/early-modern low countries ihrdighist.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2025/09/tues...
Come and work with us! We have a two-year, half-time postdoctoral research associate position working on the @storymachine-ht.bsky.social project www.jobs.london.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai.... If you’re interested in #DigitalHumanities and/or folklore, we’d love to hear from you. Closing date 27 October.
We've had a lot of fun with him.
OMG Peter @nickiclarkson.bsky.social you are genius
For the avoidance of doubt: not named after me.
The Peter the Penguin lapel badges are flying off the Welcome Week stall as we speak.
Alas, no, the original pattern was named: Peter the Penguin (with his fish)