The (VRE)ality of Real-Time Research

The first in a series: On interning in Amsterdam and navigating through a virtual research environment (VRE) under construction.

When I first arrived at the office for Huygens Instituut voor Nederlandse Geschiedenis, I was - first of all - astounded that I had been offered a place to intern. As with many of the international students in my programme, I faced the reality that, with poor Dutch language skills and little work experience in the field of heritage or research assistance, I would be left on the wayside ever searching. Nevertheless, here I am, in Amsterdam, in my third week on the job.

I have to say, since arriving in this country and parrying the 'seedy' prejudices of fellow Dutch classmates in Utrecht, I had unwittingly developed a certain hostility for Amsterdam. This, of course, had to disappear the moment I found I would be traveling there twice a week.

View from the Armbrug, Amsterdam (sourced).

The Huygens ING office is located at the very end of de Wallen and in the morning I walk there somewhat peacefully from Amsterdam Centraal. The power hoses, unloading trucks, street sweepers and busy cyclists hum and buzz around each other, while the (surprisingly numerous) ducks 'clean themselves' in the canal before starting their day. It is a different picture when leaving the office come 5-6pm, but that can wait for another post.

Just this morning I noticed I was walking past the Armbrug and, immediately, I thought "Oh, the arm- (meaning poor in Dutch) bridge, there must be some sordidly interesting history attached to this?" Sitting down at my desk, I did some research and, alas, no. In Dutch, arm can also mean arm as it does in English. Is it the arm-like canal that stretches down Oudezijds Achterburgwal and past several significant sites. Nevertheless, the suspense of there being 'history around every canal' (so to speak) is what I love most about this country, and, what I have come to love about Amsterdam.

The NEWW Women Writers database is a work in progress.

Returning to the subject of this post; the very reason I am in Amsterdam is to assist Dr Suzan van Dijk - Senior Literary Researcher at Huygens ING and expert on the works of Isabelle de Charrière (Belle van Zuylen) and George Sand - with the virtual research environment: NEWW Women Writers. The first version of the database was created in 2001 and heralded a series of research projects on women in literature across Europe. Quite explanatory, the acronym NEWW stands for 'New approaches to European Women Writers' and the new version of the VRE is making strides towards that goal.

One of several previous projects, the HERA-funded, "Travelling TexTs 1790-1914: Transnational Reception of Women's Writing at the Fringes of Europe," which ran from 2013 to 2016, was instrumental in bringing together literary scholars from several different universities and institutes to contribute, comment on and work in the VRE. The 'fringes of Europe' began as the Netherlands, Spain, Finland, Norway and Slovenia, but with the creation of the new database and a corresponding DARIAH-EU working group, a much larger cohort has eventuated.

I have been studying History at tertiary level for five years. I have never used a VRE as a researcher, nor as an editor, and realise now that I am poorer for not having done so. Collaborating, co-operating and sharing knowledge to compile a list of over 8,000 female authors and 50,000 publications from all corners of Europe into the Atlantic and from the Early Modern period until the early twentieth century is mammoth task.

Suzan and I often discuss the 'user-friendly' nature of this VRE, and rightly so. This is not just a database of names, birth and death dates, this is to be a microcosm of information leading to revelations in women's literary studies. Which Russian female authors of the eighteenth century actually penned in Russian and, why so, when it was considered the 'peasant's language'? Who of the female authors writing in Dutch from Flanders discussed the political situation in Wallonia and how was this commentary received? Were female commentators on the unification of Germany dismissed if not read under a male pseudonym? These sorts of questions are the purpose of the VRE and, in order that a researcher may answer them, it must work seamlessly.

That is where I come in for the next few months.

#Amsterdam #HuygensING #History #virtualresearchenvironment #femaleauthors #womensliterarystudies #Literature #research