The fourth LW Research Day will take place on Wednesday 27 November 2024, in the Ghent University Museum (GUM). Central theme is ‘From Source to Understanding’.
What is the role of interpretation in our journey from studying source material to scientific understanding? Indeed, that journey can never be devoid of interpretation, which, in many cases, serves as the quintessential bridge between source material and understanding, whether it pertains to a historical study based on ego documents, the archaeological perspective on the material culture of the past or the anthropological view of human behaviour. Not infrequently, interpretation itself becomes the object of research. For instance, translation scholars examine translation choices that result from interpretations. Literary and art scholars investigate works that themselves provide an interpretation of the world in which they originate and the world they create. Similarly, language itself reflects a particular understanding of the world in a historical and sociological sense, which linguists further explore. In times of digital humanities, the interpretation of (big) data by AI becomes not only conceivable but even the norm. What do interpretation and hermeneutics signify for our fields today? What constitutes a successful or legitimate interpretation, and what are the pitfalls of interpretation?
The PhD students of the DBBE team will present a poster on their research projects in the framework of the Database of Byzantine Book Epigrams.
- Kyriaki Giannikou – Dealing with Building Blocks of Expression: Formulaic Elements & their Creative Variations in Byzantine Book Epigrams
- Eleonora Lauro – Epigrams in Context: Glimpses into Medieval Southern Italian Book Culture
More information can be found on the LW Research Day website.