Pioneering open-access journal of nineteenth-century studies marks 10th birthday
Anniversary edition of Birkbeck journal explores nineteenth-century studies in a digital landscape
The first open-access scholarly web journal of its kind in studies of the long nineteenth-century celebrates its 10th anniversary at Birkbeck this week.
19 grew out of the innovative work of Birkbeck’s Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies, initially as a way to disseminate more widely the exciting work presented at the Centre’s conferences, symposia and other events. It publishes peer-reviewed articles written by academic across the world, showcasing the broadest range of new research in nineteenth-century studies.
An anniversary edition of 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century guest edited by Luisa Calè and Ana Parejo Vadillo has just been published. Issue 21, ‘The Nineteenth-Century Digital Archive’ explores the opportunities and questions posed by twenty-first century technology and sensibilities.
The articles and multimedia material contained within the anniversary edition of 19 are organised into four sub-categories:
- The Craft of the Archive, which includes Morris Eaves and the Blake Archive team on the digital palimpsesting of William Blake’s Four Zoas and Jason Camlot on historicist audio forensics and the early voice archive .
- The Our Mutual Friend Reading Project, Birkbeck’s durational interval reading experiment, discussed by Ben Winyard (Rereading the Dickensian Serial in the Digital Age) and Emma Curry (Reflections on a Dickensian Twitter Experiment).
- Experiments, featuring Bob Nicholson and Ana Vadillo’s Animating Sight and Song: Animating Sight and Song, Nadia Valman’s Zangwill’s Walking Victorian Spitalfields app and Bob Nicholson’s Victorian Meme Machine.
- Visions, which brings together key Digital Humanists reflecting on the nineteenth-century Digital Archives, including Brewster Kale on The Internet Archive; and Dino Felluga on the Eventuality of the Digital.
19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century is produced twice annually under the editorship of Dr Carolyn Burdett. This year, the founders and guest editors of the journal have also been celebrating 19’s new home in the Open Library of Humanities – a Birkbeck-led model for open-access publishing in the humanities disciplines.
Speaking about this important juncture in the journal’s journey this far, Dr Burdett said: ‘Born digital on 1 October 2005, 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century is proud to be a field-leader in terms of electronic, open access publishing. Its reputation for producing exciting themed issues showcasing cutting-edge research has made it one of the most important journals in the field of nineteenth-century studies.
Ten years on, 19 confidently looks ahead to a future it has helped to define, celebrating the anniversary with its largest and most technically ambitious issue to date on “The Nineteenth-Century Digital Archive”.’
About 19
- Notably the first free web journal of its kind in studies of the long nineteenth century when launched in October 2005, 19 has quickly established itself as a popular and valuable resource for nineteenth-century scholars.
- Over its 10 year history, 19 has continually innovated and pursued the highest standards in electronic scholarly publishing. In October 2009, 19 moved to an Open Journal Systems format to enhance our interoperability with other online resources and aid the long-term preservation and searchability of our content.
- The website enhances 19’s supplementary features, allowing the editorial team to present a rich array of audio and visual material alongside more traditional articles.
Find out more
- 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century
- Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies
- School of Arts
- Professor Hilary Fraser
- Dr Carolyn Burdett