Agricola seminar: Michael Driedger (Brock University, Canada)

The Canadian historian Michael Driedger (Brock University, Canada) will talk to us about:

Computer-assisted analysis of 18^th-century texts: Using Voyant Tools to read François Adriaan van der Kemp’s revolutionary sermons from 1782

This talk highlights the techniques and benefits of “distant reading”. In the past several months I have been experimenting with the tools of digital research for my project on Doopsgezinden in the Enlightenment (seewww.dutchdissenters.net). Driedger's presentation uses F.A. van der Kemp’s Elftal kerkelyke redevoeringen (1782) to demonstrate my methods. Van der Kemp, a former student of RUG, is significant for his leading role in the Patriottenbeweging of the 1780s and his controversial place in Mennonite history.