New Research Enterprise: Stanford TEXT Technologies

Stanford Text Technologies is directed by Elaine Treharne, Roberta Bowman Denning Professor of Humanities and Professor of English.

This research enterprise undertakes ambitious and innovative research into the long history of TEXT from the earliest period of human communication to the present. The major growth areas in Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences are ‘The History of the Book’ and ‘Digital Humanities’. Stanford Text Technologies will combine these two flourishing areas to form the first integrated research enterprise of its kind. It will focus on the technologies of text in manuscript and print forms, including inscription, graffiti, books, documents and ephemera, and research these alongside text technological developments from c.1900 onwards, with a particular focus on today’s digital environment.

Since all Humanities’ disciplines focus on TEXT, albeit in different media and with varying approaches, Stanford Text Technologies will explore the disciplinary diversity of TEXT, developing research projects to facilitate a greater understanding of TEXT’s production, transmission and reception. We shall also develop new tools for the interpretation and digital display of textual objects. This enterprise will quickly become the global leader in this critical scholarly nexus at the most important text technological juncture in the last five hundred years. In addition, a specialist area of Stanford Text Technologies will investigate the long history of the manuscript through its International Manuscript Technologies Forum (ManuTexts).