A World Made By Travel: The Digital Grand Tour

A World Made By Travel: The Digital Grand Tour

Exploring the Challenges and Opportunities of Digital History and Publishing

About the Event:
Travel back to eighteenth-century Italy as we explore A World Made by Travel, a pioneering digital history publication in open access by esteemed Stanford scholar Giovanna Ceserani. Through this interactive work combining data and humanistic approaches, Ceserani and her team illuminate the journeys of more than 6,000 travelers who embarked on the Grand Tour, a popular rite of passage for young Europeans that helped shape cultural and political perspectives across the continent.

Giovanna Ceserani will be joined by panelists Paula Findlen (world-renowned scholar of early modern Europe and Ubaldo Pierotti Professor of History at Stanford), Mae Velloso-Lyons (Associate Director of the Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry and Digital Publishing in the Humanities at Emory University),  and Rochelle Lundy (Director of the Stanford Libraries Office of Scholarly Communications and expert of Open Access policies). Together they will examine how digital technology using data and dynamic tools in open access brings new insights into historical research, enabling us to rediscover the Grand Tour’s impact on Enlightenment ideas about art, politics, leisure, and education.

Event Highlights

1:30 - 3 PM: Presentation and Panel Discussion

The event will open with Giovanna Ceserani’s introduction of her digital publication A World Made by Travel. Following this, respondents Paula Findlen, Mae Velloso-Lyons, and Rochelle Lundy will speak about the unique challenges and exciting possibilities of digital history and open-access publishing. The discussion will cover how digital formats in open access can reveal hidden histories, democratize access to academic work, and reshape our understanding of complex historical narratives.

3 - 4 PM: Interactive Digital Display

Attendees will have the opportunity to engage directly with A World Made by Travel on interactive screens, exploring data visualizations and stories of diverse Grand Tour travelers. This immersive experience allows users to delve into the digital maps and timelines that trace the lives and paths of travelers from all backgrounds who contributed to this transformative period.

Eighteenth-Century Primary Sources

For a richer historical context, a curated set of original eighteenth-century sources will be on display, providing attendees with a tangible connection to the narratives highlighted in Ceserani’s digital work. This viewing will offer a hands-on experience of the artifacts that document these historical journeys.

Please register in advance to attend. This event is in-person only.