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Professor Stuart Dunn

Professor of Spatial Humanities

Research interests

  • Digital

Biography

Stuart Dunn is Professor of Spatial Humanities at King's. He started out as an archaeologist, with interests in the history of cartography, digital approaches to landscape studies, and spatial humanities.

He currently works on projects in spatial narrative theory, critical GIS, Cypriot cultural heritage, and the archaeology of mobility. Stuart gained an interdisciplinary PhD on Aegean Bronze Age dating methods and palaeovolcanology from the University of Durham in 2002, conducting fieldwork in Melos, Crete and Santorini.

In 2006 he became a Research Associate at the Arts and Humanities e-Science Support Centre, having previously worked at the AHRC, after which he became a Lecturer in the Department of Digital Humanities. He is also a Visiting Scholar in Stanford University's Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis's Spatial History project.

Stuart welcomes enquiries about the supervision of PhD projects in any of the areas above. You can find his blog at http://www.stuartdunn.wordpress.com/about.

Research Interests and PhD Supervision

  • Digital Geography. The development and application of digital mapping tools, and GIS in the humanities, especially history and archaeology, and geospatial semantics.
  • Data visualisation. Especially the relationship between documented human movement, space and location; including theoretical aspects of Virtual Reality and agency theory.
  • Digital approaches to landscape archaeology. Especially the landscapes of the Aegean and East Mediterranean, and landscape history of sites and monuments in Roman and pre-Roman Britain. I am especially interested in the affordances and limitations of digital mapping in expressing and understanding movement in such landscapes.

I am interested in how people, location and place interact, and how those interactions can be expressed digitally. This can manifest itself in a practical way, i.e. the application of GIS to historical placenames and non-extant hierarchical and administrative systems; but I am also interested in the theory of abstract spatial semantics.

I also research the perception, representation and interpretation of past environments, and how these can be reconstituted digitally, without imposing arbitrary constructs that are not, or cannot, be supported by empirical data. I also have research interests in the development and deployment of social media and web services for scholars in the digital humanities. Stuart welcomes applications for PhD topics related to any of his research interests.

 For more details, please see his full research profile

Teaching

I teach the history, theory and origins of the Internet and World Wide Web. This takes in network theory and the history of digital connectivity; and the theory and practice of spatial humanities, including introducing students to the basis of operational Geographical Information Systems (GIS). This takes in perspectives on gazetteers, neogeography, and the geographies of the Ancient World.

I also teach subjects related to the connection between the physical and digital worlds, and digital museums.

    Research

    DmKn_1mW4AA0cZR
    Ancient Itineraries

    This programme seeks to explore how 'Digital' methods apply to art history through two meetings: one at King's and one in Athens.

    Project status: Completed

    CDC header
    Centre for Digital Culture

    The Centre for Digital Culture at King’s College London is an interdisciplinary research centre promoting research and debate on digital culture

    Screenshot 2022-12-14 at 11.06.05
    Computational Humanities Research Group

    Computational Humanities research group

    News

    Digital Futures Institute to help 'understand what it means to live well with technology'

    A new institute, due to launch publicly in April, will investigate the relationship between humans and the technologies that have helped extend our capacities...

    DFI Story

    King's launch next Career Accelerator in UX Design

    King’s has launched a new Career Accelerator Programme in UX Design, in partnership with digital education company FourthRev, with applications now open.

    KCL UX Design

    King's appoints new Professor of Media Philosophy and Critical Digital Practice in the Faculty of Arts & Humanities

    Joanna Zylinska has been appointed as Professor of Media Philosophy and Critical Digital Practice in the Department of Digital Humanities.

    Joanna-Zylinska

    Eleven new King's Artists projects exploring the theme of 'Intelligence'

    The 2021 King’s Artists cohort will be exploring the theme of ‘Intelligence’ in eleven new collaborative R&D projects across four King’s College London...

    Grey logo sign resembling an eye over a blue map of the Strand

    New King's Institute in Digital Art History awarded grant support from the Getty Foundation

    New King's Institute in Digital Art History awarded grant support from the Getty Foundation and call-to-action for prospective members of the new Institute.

    Bush House

    Call for members: Major new Institute opens at King's College London with Getty Foundation support

    Call for members of King's College London's new Institute in Digital Art History, funded by the Getty Foundation

    Call for Members

    Events

    20JunThe Spatial Humanities

    The Spatial Humanities: a challenge to the all-knowing map

    In this lecture Professor Stuart Dunn will explore the origins of our motivation to “know” the entire world through mapping.

    Please note: this event has passed.

      Research

      DmKn_1mW4AA0cZR
      Ancient Itineraries

      This programme seeks to explore how 'Digital' methods apply to art history through two meetings: one at King's and one in Athens.

      Project status: Completed

      CDC header
      Centre for Digital Culture

      The Centre for Digital Culture at King’s College London is an interdisciplinary research centre promoting research and debate on digital culture

      Screenshot 2022-12-14 at 11.06.05
      Computational Humanities Research Group

      Computational Humanities research group

      News

      Digital Futures Institute to help 'understand what it means to live well with technology'

      A new institute, due to launch publicly in April, will investigate the relationship between humans and the technologies that have helped extend our capacities...

      DFI Story

      King's launch next Career Accelerator in UX Design

      King’s has launched a new Career Accelerator Programme in UX Design, in partnership with digital education company FourthRev, with applications now open.

      KCL UX Design

      King's appoints new Professor of Media Philosophy and Critical Digital Practice in the Faculty of Arts & Humanities

      Joanna Zylinska has been appointed as Professor of Media Philosophy and Critical Digital Practice in the Department of Digital Humanities.

      Joanna-Zylinska

      Eleven new King's Artists projects exploring the theme of 'Intelligence'

      The 2021 King’s Artists cohort will be exploring the theme of ‘Intelligence’ in eleven new collaborative R&D projects across four King’s College London...

      Grey logo sign resembling an eye over a blue map of the Strand

      New King's Institute in Digital Art History awarded grant support from the Getty Foundation

      New King's Institute in Digital Art History awarded grant support from the Getty Foundation and call-to-action for prospective members of the new Institute.

      Bush House

      Call for members: Major new Institute opens at King's College London with Getty Foundation support

      Call for members of King's College London's new Institute in Digital Art History, funded by the Getty Foundation

      Call for Members

      Events

      20JunThe Spatial Humanities

      The Spatial Humanities: a challenge to the all-knowing map

      In this lecture Professor Stuart Dunn will explore the origins of our motivation to “know” the entire world through mapping.

      Please note: this event has passed.