Dacura: A new solution to data harvesting and knowledge extraction for the historical sciences

New advances in computer science address problems historical scientists face in gathering and evaluating the now vast data sources available through the Internet. As an example we introduce Dacura, a dataset curation platform designed to assist historical researchers in harvesting, evaluating, and curating high-quality information sets from the Internet and other sources. Dacura uses semantic knowledge graph technology to represent data as complex, inter-related knowledge allowing rapid search and retrieval of highly specific data without the need of a lookup table. Dacura automates the generation of tools to help non-experts curate high quality knowledge bases over time and to integrate data from multiple sources into its curated knowledge model. Together these features allow rapid harvesting and automated evaluation of Internet resources. We provide an example of Dacura in practice as the software employed to populate and manage the Seshat databank.     

Interactive nationhood: the relation between Croatian and Yugoslav national identity in the interwar period

Croatian and Yugoslav national identity have been closely connected throughout the nineteenth and twentieth century. This article questions the assumption that Croatian national identification inherently opposed the Yugoslav nationalising efforts of the interwar Yugoslav state by means of a study of commemorative activities. In the commemoration of the millennial anniversary of the Croatian Kingdom in 1925, the Yugoslav level of national identity was activated as a complement to Croatian national identity. During the 1930s, commemorations of Matija Gubec and the Illyrian movement conveyed a mutually exclusive relation between Croatian and Yugoslav national identity. I argue that the dismissal of grassroots Croatian historical commemorations that were indifferent but not averse to Yugoslav nationhood in the integral Yugoslav policy of the authoritarian state during the 1930s curtailed the potential of these commemorations as vehicles for Yugoslav national identification and complicated the concurrence of Croatian and Yugoslav nationhood.     

Landscape as a Medium for Integration in Design Practice: The Case of Flanders,Belgium

The twenty-first century has seen a remarkable revival of interest in landscape by disciplines of spatial design, such as landscape architecture, urban design and architecture. Inspired by the principles of the European Landscape Convention (ELC), several authors have suggested extending the concept of landscape into a metaphor for inclusive multiplicity and pluralism in design and planning. However, the implementation of the ELC is rather complex as it deliberately contains no methodological or practical guidelines. In this paper, we explore whether or not the holistic approach towards landscape in the spirit of the ELC actually affects Flemish design in practice. To this end, we study interviewees' perspectives on the use of landscape in design and their experiences with it by means of a qualitative interpretive research design with multiple triangulation of data collection methods. First, we present the perspectives of the study on landscape as a medium to facilitate integration in design projects, by discussing four separate topics where this is the case. Second, we conceptualize the integration of landscape in spatial design as an expertise which can be obtained by spatial designers, regardless of their disciplinary background through awareness-raising, training and education.     

Historical empathy in a museum: uniting contextualisation and emotional engagement

Museums, memorial centres and other heritage institutions use various strategies to evoke an emotional response that serves to elicit empathy with the historical events and actors that are portrayed in exhibitions. To increase historical understanding, however, both emotional engagement with and contextual understanding of these historical figures are needed. Using the concept of historical empathy, this paper examines the continuous interplay between cognitive and affective dimensions of history learning in museums. We conducted a case study at Museon in The Hague, the Netherlands. We studied a learning session on children living through the Second World War, the museum’s strategies employed in the exhibition, the entrance narratives of secondary school students participating in the session and their engagement with the exhibition and with the educational activities. While most of the students did not feel related to WWII prior to their museum visit, the museum managed to engage many of them with personal stories and artefacts and by offering multiple and new perspectives. Our findings underscore the interplay between cognitive and affective dimensions of historical empathy and show that museums can serve as powerful contexts for developing this skill among school students.     

Pomp and Circumstance at the University: The Origin of the Honorary Degree

Opinion on the age and origin of the honorary degree differs according to the region under study and the criteria used to define what precisely constitutes an honorary promotion. By applying a flexible definition of the honorary degree, and combining existing research on the background and origin of early honorary degrees in different regions, this article aims to offer an answer to the question of the origin of the tradition of conferring honorary degrees. The giving and receiving of honorary degrees emerged in a variety of situations. Such degrees were awarded by popes and emperors – or their representatives – who wished to honour their ‘disciples’. They were also granted to meritorious professionals seeking a way around the strict rules for academic promotion via a promotion in absentia. And they were granted by universities wishing to benefit from the prestige of the celebrities they honoured, or which offered these degrees to professors without a doctoral degree, as a practical answer to the need for academic ceremonies and/or by way of thanks to their friends and benefactors. The emergence of the honorary promotion can only be explained through a combination of all these factors.     

The Environmental Status of Hawkesbury River Sediments

The Hawkesbury River of New South Wales, Australia is under increasing environmental stress. Pre-anthropogenic and current levels of heavy metal concentrations have been established for bed sediments between Windsor and Broken Bay. Sediment heavy metal concentrations in the main channel of the Hawkesbury River are close to background, but are substantially elevated in the headwaters of Berowra Creek, Cowan Creek and in southeast Pittwater. The Berowra Waters area and the upper catchment contribute both heavy metals and organochlorines/pesticides to the Berowra estuary. High contaminant levels above and below the Hornsby sewage treatment plant, and above and below the Calna Creek sewage treatment plant, make an assessment of the contribution by these plants difficult. Analyses of oyster tissue from the middle and lower reaches of the estuary indicate that heavy metal contaminants are entering the food chain.