The research project Towns in the Eastern Borderlands of the Swedish Great Power studies five small Swedish towns along the border to Russia in the 17th and early 18th centuries. The project combines a comparative perspective with a microhistorical approach and employs the latest digital methods in historical research, such as automatic text recognition and network analysis tools. The aim is to generate new knowledge on the similarities between the towns, but especially on their different roles in their network.
During the closing seminar on November 27, leading European specialists on urban history and the applications of digital tools to historical sources will comment the experiences and results of the project.
Keynote speakers:
Annemieke Romein works as a researcher at the University of Twente in the Netherlands. She is the chair of a large European READ-COOP-SCE project, which has been a key player in the development of the Transkribus automatic text recognition (ATR/HTR) application. Her current projects include The HAICu (digital Humanities, Artificial Intelligence, Cultural heritage) consortium, which is working at the intersection of AI, the humanities, and cultural-heritage practice. Her contributions in the consortium are the project Continual Machine Learning with Humans in the Loop, and The Innovation Lab Histories of Ordinary People, which aims to improve collaboration between researchers of people’s everyday history and archives by using automatic text recognition.
Heiko Droste works as Professor of Urban History and Director of the Institute of Urban History at Stockholm University. His latest publications include the anthology Urban life in Nordic Countries, ed. Heiko Droste (London: Routledge, 2023), as well as the articles “Three types of welfare cities. The case of Sweden”, in: Nordic Welfare Cities: Negotiating Urban Citizenship since 1850, eds. Magnus Linnarsson & Mats Hallenberg (New York: Routledge, 2024), pp. 187–208 and ”Svenska städer under tidigmodern tid”, in: Knut Dørum (ed.), Hvem styrte byarne? Nordisk byhistorie 1500–1800, Agder, Capellen Damm Akademisk, 2022, pp. 53–84. Open access.
Other speakers:
Professor Kimmo Katajala, University of Eastern Finland (UEF), project leader
Head of Research, docent Kimmo Elo, UEF
Researcher, PhD Antti Härkönen
Researcher, docent Kasper Kepsu, UEF
Researcher, docent Jukka Kokkonen, UEF
MA Jenni Merovuo, UEF
Read more about the project:
Project page
SLS blog: Domstolsprotokoll, gränsstäder och HTR-teknologi – ett projekt där handskriven historia möter digital samtid
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PROGRAMME
10.30 Opening of the seminar
Professor Kimmo Katajala, University of Eastern Finland (UEF) and Head of Research Ruth Illman, Society of Swedish Literature in Finland
Session I. Methodological remarks
10.45 Keynote: Working with Text Recognition: Methodological Experiences and New Avenues for Historical Research
Researcher, Dr. Annemieke Romein, University of Twente, Holland
11.15 Experiences from Using an Algorithm for Handwritten Text Recognition in the Project
Researcher, PhD Antti Härkönen and MA Jenni Merovuo, UEF
11.45 Using Network Analysis Tools with Court Roll Data: Experiences from the Project
Head of Research, docent Kimmo Elo, UEF
12.15 Lunchbreak
Session II. Remarks on the project results
13.30 Commercial Networks in Towns of the Eastern Borderlands
Researcher, docent Kasper Kepsu, UEF
14.00 The Eastern Border and Its Towns
Researcher, docent Jukka Kokkonen, UEF
14.30 Coffee break
14.45 Power Relations in Small Towns on the Eastern Border
Professor Kimmo Katajala, UEF
15.15 Keynote: On the State of Urban History Research in the Nordic Countries, Reflecting the Results of the Project
Professor Heiko Droste, University of Stockholm, Sweden,
15.45 Comments and discussion
16.15 Closing the seminar
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The event is free of charge and open to anyone interested. The seminar venue is the Event hall at Riddaregatan 5 in Helsinki. Accessible front door, lift and toilets.
The seminar language is English. You can participate in the seminar either on-site in Helsinki or join online via Teams.
Contact:
Andrea Aalto-Granberg, Event producer SLS
+358 40 168 4908
andrea.aalto-granberg@sls.fi / info@sls.fi
Illustration: Plan of Nyen, 1644 by Georg von Schwengeln. Photo: Swedish National Archives. Wikimedia Commons.
